Homeschool Calendar & Morning Board

Updated ~ A few of you have emailed asking where I store the things that go on our board, so there is a picture at the end of the post along with an explanation. :) I’ve also added an extra ‘Days in School’ that goes along with the Math U See colors. 

I gave you all a little peek at our calendar and morning routine time, but still have a little more to share!!  Our calendar time has changed over the year, especially after Carisa and I got together last fall and I saw her calendar in person.

For some reason, it never crossed my mind to put all of our learning things onto a piece of foam board. {duh} I picked some foam board at Target the next week and started piecing our ‘morning board’ together. I recently re-organized it after putting together a few extra pieces for the board, and will try to explain everything as it is numbered below.

We start out our morning using a pocket chart calendar. Zachary and Kaleb work together with me on this calendar where we talk about the days of the week, months of the year, and patterns. The boys help me pick a pattern for the month and each morning have to tell me what the next sequence in the pattern is.

The month titles are great for working with Kaleb on identifying letters and each day we count up to the number/day of the month {i.e. on the 17th of the month we would count up to 17}. We also sing our days of the week song and the months of the year. You can find me actually singing those learning songs here ‘live and in person’ ~ you know, should you need a good giggle for your day. If we’re lower on the numbers {i.e. less then 10} we practice counting in Spanish.

After we’ve finished our calendar routine, we move onto our board.

 

1. Today is… This is a printable that I downloaded from Carisa at 1+1+1=1. One of our girls will fill out the day and date information after Zachary and Kaleb have finished our daily calendar. Part of this is hanging using jump rings and underneath there is another part of the same printable {Carisa shows more on her site}.

2. Days in School ~ This is a sheet that the girls use to fill in how many days we’ve been in school. Underneath the number that they fill in, we break the number down by ones, tens and hundreds. We then use number words to create the number, again by ones, tens, and hundreds. The numbers and words are all color coded {i.e. any number to go in the ones spot is green, tens are red and hundreds are blue}. Pieces all attach with velcro dots.  Added 7/25/2010 ~ If you use Math U See, you can use the Math U See version of the Days in School printable that has red for the 100’s, blue for the 10’s and green for the one’s places.

3. Make the Date ~ This is another great printable from Carisa that you can find on her Calendar page. We use coins to count up to the date number {i.e. the 7th would be a nickel and two pennies}. We use some play money with velcro dots attached to the back, so that the kids learn to identify the coins.

 

4. Obedience prayer/reminder. This area of the board is actually layered {see the picture above}. There are some small adhesive hooks on the board and I hung pages inside page protectors from them. Right now the top layer is a page that I printed off from a fantastic From Tots to Teens post at about Love. Underneath that layer are…

5. Skip Counting Charts ~ I have a plastic page protector taped to the board and can slide our skip counting charts into this slot {or another 8 1/2” x 11” sheet}.

6. Today’s Temperature ~  This printable has two thermometers on it where we mark the indoor and the outdoor temperature. I printed it off on cardstock and laminated it, so we use a dry erase marker to draw the ‘mercury’ in each thermometer. :)

7. Bible Verses ~ There are two pockets (I cut up a 4x6 photo book page for the ‘pockets’) that we slide our weekly Bible verses into ~ one for the girls and one for Zachary. When the kids are done learning their verse, we move the card to their small verse book with the collection of verses that they have learned throughout the year.

8. What’s the Weather Song ~ This song printout is from Carisa’s calendar page on her website. I just printed it off, mounted it on a piece of construction paper and laminated it.

9. Weekly Weather Graph ~ Our weekly weather graph that Kaleb and Zachary both do. The pieces all have velcro dots on them and after they look out the window to see the weather, they pick the correct weather card to put in that day of the week slot. 

Here’s a look at the wall where our morning board is hanging {on 3M removable wall hooks ~ love those things!}.

Above our calendar we have other printables  that we are using ~ currently they are a poem we are working on, a sheet called ‘God’s Standards’ from Jill’s Tots to Teen post,  and also some music theory information {and before you ask, the pocket page holders are from Ikea}.

Storage for Extra Stuff ~ All those extra weather tags, numbers, words and coins needed to be stored in a central place. I have them inside some plastic envelopes that are about 6” x 6” in size {they are actually envelopes from some of my Close to My Heart scrapbooking supplies}. I also had a box from the company that was intended to store the supplies in and it is now designated to hold our calendar stuff. There are some dry erase markers and paper towels also in the box {to wipe off and write on}. The box just slides onto one of our nearby shelves. :)

That’s pretty much it! The links to all the printables are above in the descriptions. If you are interested in using some of the things that we did to put our together, you can start off with an inexpensive foam board from Target or Walmart {under $3}, some double-sided tape and some of the supplies I have listed below. I LOVE velcro dots….and my laminator. It’s a sickness….

If you have any questions, leave a comment and I’ll try to help you out!