Daily Calendar - With a Technology Twist

One of the first duties my mentor teacher, Mrs. R, asked me to take over was the calendar each morning. I love doing calendar time because it is the perfect activity to integrate all subject areas as well as reinforce important skills.

Mrs. R has the super cute pocket chart type calendar. Although hers is cool, I decided to see how I could make calendar time with Mrs. Beck different. After a simple search on the Smart Exchange site, I found an AWESOME daily calendar to use on the SmartBoard.

Check out Smart Exchange {here}. Smart Exchange has teacher-created lesson plans and resources for every subject and grade level to be used on your SmartBoard.

Side Note: I am a SmartBoard freak! I {LOVE} to use the SmartBoard as much as I can because it keeps students engaged and enhances their learning. I'm also an advocate for allowing students to use as much technology as possible while they learn. It's a win-win for all of us!

This morning after the kids were at their special, I snapped a few pics of my calendar. The quality isn't the greatest, but you can at least see the important aspects of it.

When the kids first arrive in the morning, they move their name from "At home" to "At School." This helps me get attendance done in a snap!

Here is the calendar slide. Each morning my calendar helper comes up, slides the date into the right spot, then uses the pointer to say "Today is [day of week], [month], [date] [year]." I then draw names to have three students come up and fill in the "Yesterday was, Today is, and Tomorrow will be" spots.


When we get to this slide, I sing the "What's The Weather Like Today?" song (to the tune of London Bridge is Falling Down). My weather helper moves the proper graphic up into the day box, then marks the chart below.


We use this slide to mark the days of school. Students slide a marker up to the ones place, and when we get to a 10's marker, I simply clone one of the others. We're getting close to 100's day!


How do you use the Smartboard in your classroom? Send me a comment!