For young children, concepts like yesterday and tomorrow are challenging to learn. The systems of numbers and names we give to months and days take a long time to become truly meaningful for children. Teachers can help by creating a simple hands-on calendar to help children begin to get familiar with how time is measured.
Instructions
Making your calendar
1. On your large posterboard, make a 7" x 5" grid of 2" x 2" squares, using yardstick, pencil and heavy marker. Leave room at the top of your grid for titles of each month. Above the grid, also leave room to write the names of the days of the week. Print the names clearly.
2. Cut strips 1 1/2" x 8" from other colors of posterboard and print the names of the months clearly. If you want to include the seasons of the year, make 1 1/2" x 4" strips for them and print season names.
3. Using another color of posterboard, cut out 31 squares 1 3/4" x 1 3/4". Print numbers 1 to 31 as large as you can on the squares in heavy marker. You may wish to make squares for weekdays out of one color and weekend days out of another.
4. Draw or cut out magazine pictures of seasonal activities or other pictures you want to include---perhaps a music-note for weekly music classes or a sneaker for gym days. These can be mounted on the upper right-hand corner of the calendar to mark special days or activities.
5. Laminate, if possible, all calendar pieces to make them more durable for children to handle, put on and take off the calendar.
6. Cut 1 yard of velcro in 31 pieces. Separate pieces, place one on each calendar square and the other half on the number square. Use the other yard to velcro months, seasons and pictures. Your calendar is ready to use.
Tags: heavy marker, square other, yard velcro