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It never seems to fail that after about two months my group gets bored with calendar time and starts acting up rather then paying attention. We do a new letter every week, have a new poem, say our day of the week poem, count days, talk about or theme. Do you all change things around with calendar time, or do you keep the same general concept all year long? It makes me want to stop doing calendar. They did the same thing last year with our weather puppet that we used, the first month or so things were fine, then they started acting up-not listening-grabbing the puppet and we stopped using it.
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My recommendation? Stop doing calendar. Honestly, "learning" the calendar is not a developmentally appropriate activity for preschoolers. They have plenty of time to learn that in kindy. Here, we learn about days (morning, afternoon, evening) through routines and rituals....following a fairly consistent daily routine and talking about it as you go (good morning at arrival, breakfast time happens in the morning, nap time....it's the middle of the day, time to rest our bodies, "have a good evening" at departure, as it begins to get dark) The children learn best by recognizing the cues that indicate time/day/night/weekend (when they don't have school!)
So, again I say, Stop the Calendar and make circle time more about group discussion and interactions that are meaninful in the context of the children's lives at this moment in time
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I do and don't agree with Crystal about the calendar, only because I have mixed age group and I have kids that are pre-kinder.
What I do with the calendar is making it as active as I can. I also keep it short.
We first discuss what month it is. Then we decide what day it is..Sing the days of the week. Then I tell them let's look at what day was yesterday and then move the marker up to today. So today is Oct 29. we then get up
we jump as a class 29 times, we clap our hands 29 times, we stop our foot 29 times....pick one... I lead the counting and away we go....Today, the kids wanted to jump like frogs so we leaped 29 times.
This is a time when the kids should be doing most of the talking. Ask tons of open ended questions. Read a book and ak an open ended question. When you do ask, always ask the youngest person in the group first so that you don't get copy cat answers.....
Maybe when you do your poems, you can use props and have the kids operate the props.
I start out with the calendar, after all that active jumping or whatever we decide to do with the number of the days, I then turn it down and have the kids sit to read one short story....Then back to active with some dancing and singing. Back to sitting and story. I do this 3 times and then we are done.
I always change it up. Like this morning, we passed a pumpkin in a circle like hot potato. THe kids loved it. We did it in a way that no one was ever out.
Get creativeComment
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Here is a great article regarding calendar time with preschoolers:
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and a blog that refers to the above article and additional info:
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I would keep plugging along and get them involved like daycare does.
We sing the days of the week, then figure out what day it is. We then say the months of the year and learn them in Spanish. Next we figure out what number day it is and count up to it then count backwards. Then we sing the today,yesterday, tomorrow song.
There are so many things the kids are learning just with calendar time!
Our kindy teachers love having kids that know this as they are having less and less time for teaching this sort of thing. The whole 2.5 hours they have them is a dead run-
. Anything I can help prepare the kids for these teachers I will do it!
I figure with calendar time they are getting language, math, time perception, learning time placement, etc.Each day is a fresh start
Never look back on regrets
Live life to the fullest
We only get one shot at this!!
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The concern with calendar time is they are:
1. concepts that preschoolers are not developmentally ready to "understand"
2. they are not learning the concepts, they are learning rote memorization
3. when an activity is not developmentally appropriate, as the OP is experiencine, it results in disinterest, lack of participation, frustration and the end result of misbehavior.
There are SO many more developmentally appropriate ways to teach these concepts without drilling children with rote memorization.
However, I will digress and allow the calendar advocates to further respond
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crystal, you make a lot of valid points. However, I think that there is nothing wrong with memorizing anything. It will help desensitize them of this routine at an early age and will be on the top of it by the time they actually are of age to understand it.The concern with calendar time is they are:
1. concepts that preschoolers are not developmentally ready to "understand"
2. they are not learning the concepts, they are learning rote memorization
3. when an activity is not developmentally appropriate, as the OP is experiencine, it results in disinterest, lack of participation, frustration and the end result of misbehavior.
There are SO many more developmentally appropriate ways to teach these concepts without drilling children with rote memorization.
However, I will digress and allow the calendar advocates to further respond
People think that I am crazy for trying to teach my 20 months old DCK zoo Phonics.....by the time they are 2.5, some of them can already spell basic words and some can even read. Do they understand at 20 months what they are doing, probably not.....but when they are old enough or should I say when their developmental level peaks to understand, they are off and running with it.....
I have a friend who does preschool in her daycare and well and she is like you, she will NOT teach circle time calendar time. I just say to each their ownComment
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Well I know personally it works for me. Just last week I had parents say how they appreciate what their child learns here-better then sitting in front of the tv.Each day is a fresh start
Never look back on regrets
Live life to the fullest
We only get one shot at this!!
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I agree, to each their own. We all have different values in regards to what we feel is best for children....I don't think there is any harm in calendar time, I just find it is not neccessary for children to learn those concepts and it is less frustrating when it is done in a more casual way.
I used to be a big fan of the calendar. It wasn't until I listened to a professor and decided to try a couple of weeks without it that I realized just how disruptive it actually was for our circle time. For me, the hope that they would memorize those concepts wasn't worth the daily effort and frustration that a few minutes of calendar time could cause.
However, if your group enjoys it, and you as a teacher enjoy it, then I say go for it! It's just when, as in OP's case, it isn't working, perhaps it's time to let it go
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We do calendar time for a variety of reasons here. Ages 2.5-5 love Calendar Time. It takes less than 2 minutes to say the name of the month, spell it, add a new day on to the calendar, count the days, and talk about yesterday, today, and tomorrow. My 3.5 to 5-year-olds and I will discuss what we did yesterday. For example, today is Monday so we talked about how yesterday was Sunday and we went to Church.
We do a lot during our two 15 minute Circle Times (morning and afternoon) and the kids never get bored though the routine stays the same. The songs, books, and topics may change but the normal songs and routine stays exactly the same.
The children are GREATLY disturbed if we don't have time to do Circle Time (like on a field day).Comment
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I agree with you 100% let go...this stands for everything...if the kids are not responding in a positive way, let it go, move on and try something else......I agree, to each their own. We all have different values in regards to what we feel is best for children....I don't think there is any harm in calendar time, I just find it is not neccessary for children to learn those concepts and it is less frustrating when it is done in a more casual way.
I used to be a big fan of the calendar. It wasn't until I listened to a professor and decided to try a couple of weeks without it that I realized just how disruptive it actually was for our circle time. For me, the hope that they would memorize those concepts wasn't worth the daily effort and frustration that a few minutes of calendar time could cause.
However, if your group enjoys it, and you as a teacher enjoy it, then I say go for it! It's just when, as in OP's case, it isn't working, perhaps it's time to let it goComment
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My kids also freak. I had to do calendar/weather/circle time at parent's night out last week! :
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Last month I added in how are you feeling poster with pictures of kids feeling (sad, mad, tired, etc) and the kids point to which picture they are feeling, we all make a sympathetic face and then we talk about why they feel that way, how they can feel better (or talk about what makes others happy, too) and that is the new favorite around here.
Plus, parents stinking love the kids singing the days of the week, months of the year, numbers, etc in english AND spanish.Comment
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Thanks for the responses. As with anything, we all have our personal philosophies and ideas on how to do things. I plan to continue calendar time as they do enjoy it, they just don't behave so well, but maybe I need to adjust my expectations. Even though they seem bored at times, they still ask if we are going to do calendar time, so I think it is something I don't want to discontinue. I think I will try to mix some of the active time as daycare suggested and possibly change the time that we do calendar. Thanks again.Comment
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