Calendar Questions – August/September
First Week:
1. What is today?
2. What day came before today?
3. How many days are in a week?
Second Week:
1. What color piece will appear the next day?
2. What shape will appear the next day?
3. How did you come up with your prediction?
4. What patterns do you notice on the calendar?
5. What will the calendar piece that we put up in 4 days look like? How do you know?
6. What will the calendar piece that we put up in 7 days look like? How do you know?
7. What do you notice about the numbers on the yellow pieces?
8. What do you notice about the numbers on the red pieces?
9. How do you know if 5 is odd or even?
10. Who would like to say the pattern using the names of the shapes instead of colors?
11. (Holding a paper square and rectangle) What can you tell me about the corners of these shapes?
12. Do the rectangle and the square both have four square corners or right angles?
13. What can you tell me about eh sides of the shapes?
14. The rectangle has two sides that are the same and two sides that are different. The square has all the same sides. Do you think they are the same kind of shape?
To sum up:
1. What are some of the things you have noticed about the calendar this month?
Calendar Questions – October
First Day:
How did you come up with your prediction about where to place the birthday markers?
First Week:
1. Using the circles and upright and horizontal rectangles that form the pattern, talk about the special characteristics of each figure.
2. Can you list some examples of circles you see in the classroom?
3. Can you list some examples of rectangles you see in the classroom?
Throughout the Month:
1. What month is it?
2. What month came before this one?
3. What month comes next?
4. Can you say the months of the year?
5. What day is today?
6. What day was yesterday?
7. What day will tomorrow be?
8. What is today’s calendar piece?
9. What color or shape do you think tomorrow’s piece will be? How do you know?
10. What color calendar piece will appear one week from today? How did you decide?
11. Could someone share a different way to predict the color or shape?
12. What calendar piece will appear on October 31, the last day of the month? How did you come up with your prediction?
13. What have you noticed about the pattern?
14. Could you tell me what pattern this is with letters?
15. Do you think that a rectangle standing up is the same rectangle that is lying down?
To Sum Up:
1. What did you observe about the calendar this month?
Calendar Questions – November
Beginning of the month:
(After introducing the geometric figures: rectangular solid, cube, cylinder)
1. What do you notice so far about the pattern?
2. How are the rectangular solid (shoe box), cube (number cube), and cylinder (soup can) alike?
3. How are they different?
4. Which of the shapes will slide if put on an incline?
5. Why don’t they roll?
6. Which shapes will stack on top of each other? Why is this true?
7. Which shape can roll? Why is this true?
For after the Second Week:
1. Today is November_____, so what will tomorrow be?
2. Observe the pattern. What do you notice about the pattern?
3. What color calendar piece will appear one week from today? How did you decide?
4. What color calendar piece will appear two weeks from today? How did you decide?
5. Could someone share a different way that you got the color?
6. What calendar piece will appear on Thanksgiving?
To Sum Up:
1. Tell me some of the things that you noticed about the calendar this month.
Calendar Questions – December
Throughout the month:
After introducing two-dimensional shapes ask the following:
1. What is the name for a four-sided closed figure?
2. How are the rectangle, square and rhombus alike?
3. How are the rectangle, square and rhombus different?
4. Since rectangles include all four-sided shapes with four square corners, do rectangles include squares?
5. What makes a square different from other rectangles? Since rhombuses include all four-sided figures with all sides the same, do rhombuses include squares?
6. Determine where December 31 will fall and what color and shape will appear on this last day of the year. Explain how you came up with your prediction.
7. What kind of pattern do you notice?
Calendar Questions – January
Beginning of the month:
1. Showing a paper triangle shape, fold this triangle down the center? What do you see?
2. What are two sides that are exactly the same called?
3. When two shapes are exactly the same size what is the term for this?
4. What is a line of symmetry?
During the month:
1. What do you notice about the number on the stars?
2. How many lines of symmetry does the star have?
3. How many lines of symmetry does the star have?
4. Could we ever have more than one star in one row? Why or why not?
5. Could we ever have more than two stars in a row? Why or why not?
To Sum Up:
1. What patterns do you notice on the calendar?
2. Can you arrange the calendar pieces to highlight multiples of five?
Calendar Questions – February
Beginning of the month:
Questions to ask while student are folding shapes to look at symmetry and congruence.
1. Can you fold your shape so both halves are the same shape and size?
2. How do we say that two shapes are the same shape and size?
3. What do we call the line where we folded the shape?
4. Is there more than one fold you can make on your shape?
5. Does your shape have more than one line of symmetry?
During the Month:
(Use these questions to foster thinking about fractions on days 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28)
1. How many calendar pieces do we have all together?
2. How many hearts do we have?
3. How many stars do we have?
4. Do we have the same number of hearts as stars?
5. If we gave the hearts to Tanya and the stars to Angie would they each get the same amount? Would each child get half of the calendar pieces?
Calendar Questions – March
Throughout the Month:
After introducing the geometric figures using a sample sphere like a globe or ball, a sample cylinder such as a cup, and a sample cone like the gym equipment cone, traffic one, or ice cream sugar cone.
1. How are the sphere, cylinder, and cone alike?
2. How are the sphere, cylinder, and cone different?
3. Which of the shapes will slide if put on an incline?
4. Which shapes will stack on top of each other?
5. Which shapes will roll? Why is this true?
6. Can you share an observation that you notice about the calendar pieces this month?
Calendar Questions – April
Throughout the month:
1. Can you find a line of symmetry on this triangle?
2. How many days until we get another orange circle?
3. What piece will show up on the last day of the month?
4. How would you describe symmetry?
5. How would you explain congruence?
6. What is an isosceles triangle?
7. What is an equilateral triangle?
8. What is an asymmetrical triangle?
9. What is another name for an asymmetrical triangle?
10. What are some things that come in threes?
11. What are some things that come in sixes?
12. What patterns do you see in this month?
Calendar Questions – May
Throughout the month:
1. Do you think tomorrow’s calendar piece will show a bicycle or a triangle?
2. How many more bicycles will we get before the next tricycle shows up?
3. What keeps happening over and over that makes this a pattern?
4. Can you describe your predictions for the next pattern piece?
5. What pattern piece do you think will be displayed one week from today? Why?
6. What pattern piece do you think will be displace two days from today? Why?
7. What do you see happening with this month’s pattern?
8. We have been saying that a pattern is something that happens over and over again. Is there anything that you see happening over and over again?
9. What do you notice about the blue bicycles?
10. What do you notice about the red bicycles?
11. What is a growing pattern?