Morning Math Meeting......a.k.a. Calendar Math

My students favorite time of day (other than recess, of course) is Calendar Math....I MEAN Morning Math Meeting.   Our district has taken "Calendar Math" out of our daily schedule.  Since my team thinks that the 20 minutes we spend on Calendar Math is extremely valuable, we decided to start each day with a Morning Math Meeting.  I just can't get used to calling it that!  I actually did call it Morning Math Meeting ONCE last week and my students responded with, "What?.....Huh?.....Are we going to a meeting?"

My team incorporates so many number sense activities into those 20 minutes that we have found when we get the number sense unit we barely have to teach it!  Which is great since I ALWAYS seem to be a bit behind schedule according to the curriculum map. Oops!

Here is a brief run down of our Morning Math Meeting.  It is NOT just days of the week.  (But we do talk about that!)  We do activities with the date (happens to be 7 in the pictures) and the day in school (14).

My Morning Math Meeting area takes up half of my white board in the front of the room.  There is also a hundreds board pocket chart in a movable chart stand just to the right of this.  All supplies are on the little table so they are easily accessible.

The date:  Friday, September 7.  I write the date (including the short way) and the number and the word.  I say, "Yesterday was Thursday, what is today?"  Same thing for the month and date.
The students do the rest!  They can make 7 by using money, tally marks, tens and ones blocks, marbles, or addition and subtraction facts.
I make them tell me their way before they pick up the marker!
The 7 green marbles should not have circles around them.  They should just be marbles.  There was a discussion later in the day about even and odd and one of my students happened to use the marbles to make their point before I took the picture!  They do make bags of 10 if it is the 10th or after.
All of this gets erased daily!

Day of School:  14
We use sticks for tens and ones.  (Two other members of my team use straws.) Make a bundle and move it over when it is a 10.
Tens Frames:  Add another dot.  Slide it over to the tens column when it is a 10 day.
Tally Marks:  These stay up and we add one each day.
Even or Odd:  This is erased daily.  We draw how ever many dots are in the ones place and circle groups of 2 to decide if it is even or odd.
Hundred Board:  Write the next number.  At this point I ask what is one more, one less, ten more, ten less, etc.
Paper Clip Chain:  Add another paper clip.  It is a green one on each 10 day.   On day 10 we made a prediction how long the chain will be if we hook them together on Day 100.  Most predict it will go out the door, down the hall, all the way to the office.  Then on Day 100 we test it out!  It won't go all the way to the office but it does go from our ceiling to our floor.

I hope this gives you some ideas to use at your Calendar Math....or Morning Math Meeting....or whatever you call it!  I would love for you to comment and share other things that you incorporate.

Every 10th day Zero the Hero visits to help us with the ever so important number TEN!  Stay tuned for tomorrow's post about that!
Meredith