My favorite way of doing "Calendar Time":
At the beginning of the year, I always tell the children that the calendar helper job is like being a teacher and he/she gets to direct the others.  Before children arrive in the morning, I like placing 4-5 calendar numbers on the wall next to the calendar.  Later during group time, when that helper comes forward, I help them point to the name of our month while saying it aloud.  We might talk about particular letters if they fit our monthly focus.  We then point to and name the days of the week, taking special notice of what day of the week it is "today."  I then help the child point to each number on the calendar as we all count aloud together.  When we get to "today," we see the calendar is blank, so the child gets to choose the number from the wall that he/she thinks comes next.  Again, I feel that this segment of our day is so important.  Children learn to recognize letters, numbers, and the proper way to count.

My favorite way of doing "Today's Weather":
My weather chart is quite simple.  I began with a 14" x 22" piece of styrofoam, glued the same sized piece of posterboard onto it, placed the words "Our Weather" at the top, then I covered the whole thing with clear contact paper.  I then randomly "stuck" 3 hooks onto the chart (self-adhesive type).  The Weather Helper of the day walks to the window or door to see what kind of weather we're having.  He/she then chooses an appropriate weather picture(s) from the ones I've made for hanging on the hook(s).  Pictures consist of: happy-faced cloud, Mr. Wind, happy-faced raindrop, umbrella, lightning strike (I cut a strip of cardboard in zig-zag fashion and covered it with aluminum foil), snowflake, happy-faced sun, and a foggy picture (I glued a small construction paper tree onto a small rectangular piece of cardboard then covered the "scene" with waxed paper which gives a foggy appearance).  The Weather Helper decides whether one or two pictures apply to the day's weather.  The children love hanging two items (raindrop and lightning strike, for example) -- and it's great eye-hand coordination practice.  In past years, I've had the following words printed on two sets of cards: foggy, rainy, sunny, snowy, windy, and cloudy.  Then, if it's rainy, for example, I hang the word "rainy" on one of the hooks, and the Weather Helper gets to find the same word from the second set of cards to hang on top of mine.  No, the children can't read, but it's just another way to expose them to language, and in this case, they are matching letters.
Note about placing hooks on your chart: Make sure you space them far enough apart so that your weather pictures will have enough room for "hanging."

Stormie's Games: By the way, you no longer have to create your own "Weather Cards" as I've made them for you.  Look in the "Teaching Aids" section of "Stormie's Stuff for Teachers.  

Temperature Chart: This is so neat -- but a bit difficult to explain: On a very thick piece of cardboard -- rectangular shaped (24" at the sides and 6" at the top and bottom), glue red construction paper to the top half and blue to the bottom half.  Glue (or anchor quite firmly) a zipper to the center of the cardboard -- with the base starting at the blue end.  Each day, the Weather Helper gets to zip the zipper up the blue section for cold to cool or continue zipping up to the red section for warm to hot.  How high or low the zipper is zipped onto the colors depends on how the child feels at the moment--just a little warm (zip only to the lower portion of red)--just a little chilly (zip to the upper portion of blue).  I printed "Hot" at the top part of red and "Warm" at the lower part; I printed "Cool" at the upper part of blue and "Cold" at the bottom.  Light-hearted warning: The kids usually say they're "very hot" or "not very cold" because they like zipping the zipper as high as possibly appropriate.   Just remember to unzip the zipper back to the bottom each morning before the Weather Helper comes up to do their "job."  Gee, I hope all that makes sense.  E-mail me if you have questions.

Introducing Today's Activities: For me personally, one of my biggest pet peeves is working someplace where the day's activities are never introduced -- they are just put out.  Or, in the case of art projects, the poor teacher doing the activity repeats herself 15 times telling each child what/how to do it.  I have NEVER understood this practice.  Surely, we still need to clarify throughout the morning since these are very young children, but we can save ourselves so much time and energy by describing or demonstrating new activities during our morning "Greetings Grouptime."

Outdoor Or Gymnasium Play Notes:
Transitional Activity: One of my favorite things to do upon returning from the playground to help the children settle down is to sing "Are You Sleeping?":
First Verse:
Are you sleeping, are you sleeping
All the boys and girls, all the boys and girls,
Morning bells are ringing, morning bells are ringing,
Don't wake up, don't wake up.
(All the children pretend to sleep)

Second and third verses:
Change "all the boys and girls" to "all the girls."  Change the last line to "Wake up girls, get out of bed girls."  The girls then rise while the boys remain asleep.  Then do a third verse for the "boys."
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Reminder from Stormie: If you would like to begin collecting ALL my current classroom ideas (each on a 4 x 6" index card), as well as new ones that I create, you can do so by ordering my "Activity Cards."  Click here to check them out.