Calendar Math Lesson Plan Numberline Strip How many days have we been in school?

(72) Skills: Numeral recognition, counting by 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s, counting on, counting backwards, duration (How long is a week? How long is a month? How long is a school year?) Questions/procedures: We have been in school 72 days. How do I write 72? Lets count up to 72 starting at 40. Lets start at the beginning and count to 72 by 10s and 1s. (clap for 71 and 71 so students notice they are changing counting patterns from 10s to 1s) Numberline stick boxes A straw is placed in the appropriate box for each day of school recorded on the Numberline. Each time the tenth straw is placed in the ones box, the ten straws are rubber banded together and moved to the tens box. Questions/procedures: Lets find out how many sticks are in our stick box from yesterday. How will we need to start counting? (by 10s) 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 (7 tens), 71, 72 (2 ones). Whisper to your friend how many we will have when we add todays stick. How many more days until we have 100 sticks? Numberline as a timeline Mark special events on the Numberline. Its a way to set foundations for understanding historical timelines. For our purposes: First day of fall (19), fieldtrip to the lighthouse (34), book report due (49), SC/Clemson football game (63). (students can make their own symbols for birthdays).

Questions: What day did we go on our field trip?(34) Which number is a square number? What did we do on the 19th day of school? How many days after that was your book report due? How many days between the first day of fall and the Sc/Clemson football game?

Birthday Train Skills: Counting, comparing, Month names, number of days in each month Build a birthday train car for each month and add students names and dates on birthday bears for each car. For counting, have students count how many birthdays are in the current month. For comparing, ask them to find a month that has fewer birthdays than October or the months with one more birthday. You may also compare boys and girls birthdays in any given month. Its a good way to help children learn the names and order of the months. Weather Graph Skills: Weather observation, Counting, comparing, gathering information over a long period of time, graphing. Have a weatherperson mark the weather each day by placing a square (Unifix cube) on the chart. At the end of the month, remove all the cubes and snap them together. Compare the stacks of cubes. Questions: Which kind of weather was most prevalent? Which least? How do you know? Were there more rainy days or more sunny days? Can you predict what the weather might look like tomorrow? Next month? How many days are shown on our graph? Why do you think there are fewer cold/snowy days? Pattern Grid Skills: Counting, numeral recognition, names of the days, visual patterns, number patterns, prediction. The pattern grid provides an elegant transition from visual patterns to number patterns, but you have to guide the discussion in that direction consistently. When the pattern sequence is clear (about midway through the month). You can look at multiples by taking off all the ghosts and pumpkins except those that are multiples of 4 (or 3, etc.). Discuss the pattern. The students will have lots of observations. Questions: Will tomorrow be a pumpkin or a ghost? What is the vertical pattern for Tuesday? What other days of the week have the same vertical pattern? Halloween comes on October 31. Any ideas on whether it will be a pumpkin or a ghost? How can we check? Did someone have a different way of determining the pattern?

If someone has an October birthday ask: How many days until ___s birthday? Will ___s birthday be a pumpkin or a ghost? Chalkboard date. Write Oct. 16 Mon. so students can see the date written in abbreviated form. Also include 10/16/02. Tally Pad Skills: Counting by 1s, 5s and 10s, tallying, exploring addition combinations (12 is 5 + 5 + 2 or 10 + 2, 04 4 + 1 + 4 + 1 + 2) Questions: How many days have gone by so far in October? (16) How can I fix our tally so it has 16 marks? (add one mark) Will it be a straight or diagonal mark? (straight) Why? How many ways can we make the total 16? Lets pretend today is the 25th. How many marks do I need to add on the tally sheet? How many groups or sets of 5 do we have now? (5) (Write the multiplication problem 5 x 5. 5 sets of 5 is 25) Count by 5s to be sure. The Date in Tens and Ones Skills: Count by 1s, 5s and 10s, numeral recognition, understanding 10s and 1s, teaching even and odd numbers, teaching addition strategies of tens and ones, doubles and neighbors. Questions/procedures: Today is the 16th. How many squares (cubes) should I add under the place value board? (one more) What number should I write on the blue side? (1) Why? (because there is one 10) What number needs to go on the white side? (6) Why? (There are 6 cubes/squares or 6 ones in the number 16) Can you help me count on from 10? (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16) Even/Odd Is today an even number or an odd number? Skills: Numeral recognition, counting by 2s, even and odd numbers.

Examine the odd and even chart and determine if the cubes are in pairs or singles. Help students see the partnered cubes are counting by 2s patterns (even numbers) and the cubes with no partners and are hanging alone are odd numbers. Money Pockets These are valuable activities to focus children on changing counting patterns for different coins. Skills: Coin names, coin worth, counting small sums of money. Questions/procedures: Today is the 16th day of October. Predict what the fewest number of coins would be. The most? Does anyone have an idea for a way to make 16? (count the total together) Continue until there are no other ways. Be sure to try out wrong suggestions. Incredible Equations Skills: Problem solving, equations, inventing and reading story problems. Ask students to tell you anything they know about the number that represents todays date. (expect a combination of words and numbers) Students may contribute word problems or facts about the number. Trust the struggles in the beginning. The creativity will show. Other Guess the day. Write a short mathematics story about a day of the week. Give hints in the story about which days you choose, but dont give the answer until the end. My sister-in-laws birthday is this month. Its a day with a pumpkin. Its in the middle of the week. Its a square number. It has 5 factors. What day is it? How many days until? Read the book Only six more days by Marisabina Russo. Use the calendar to pose additional problems. How many more days until Friday? Until the end of the month? Until ___s birthday?