Happy New Years readers! It’s time to throw out all of the old calendars and get ready for 2011. So I figured that now is as good a time as any to teach the kids about the months of the year.
I decided that it would be neat to let the kids see how the weeks stack into months and months stack into years and what better way to see that than in a calendar. I also thought it would be great to teach them about their schedules. So I set out to have our first educational activity of the year be to make a calendar. In addition to learning about the months, this will also reinforce both letters and numbers. There is nothing more important to a toddler than having a routine established and this activity will also reinforce to them that there is order to our seemingly random days.
Here are my steps for making a calendar with your toddlers:
Step 1: Get colored construction paper.
The first thing I did was to grab some construction paper in 4 colors – 4 blue for winter (the extra one is for filling out the January calendar, but I’ll get there), 3 green for spring, 3 yellow for summer, and 3 orange for Fall.
Step 2: Add the month name and number
I wrote the letters J-A-N-U-A-R-Y in the middle of the first page while saying each letter when I wrote it. Then I pointed to each letter and let the kids try to spell out January. I told them that it was the first month of the year, and the month that we are currently in, and I wrote a big “1” in the upper right corner.
Then we talked about what goes on in January. It’s the first month of the year. Daddy and Grandma Pat both have birthdays in January. I asked Briana what the weather is like in January. “It’s sunny but then sometimes it’s snowy and then rainy. I don’t know.” Oops. The weather has been all over the place here in the last week or so. “Well, in January it’s always cold out isn’t it?” She agreed to that. I added that it starts to be very snowy in January usually.
Step 3: Decorate
To reinforce what goes on in January, I then handed the paper to Briana and then Abigail in turn and let them tell me what happens this month. I told them to draw and glitter and sticker us a page all about the month of January. As shown in the picture, we ended up with an ice skating Dora, a snowball, a birthday present, and silver glitter for New Years as our representation of January.
Step 4: Repeat
I then got out another blue piece of construction paper for February and wrote out F-E-B-R-U-A-R-Y and talked about the letters. I then told the kids that it was the 2nd month of the year and that after we run out of days in January, it would turn into February.
February is a month all about love. Valentines Day and Black History Month (which, incidentally, I explained as a month to remember to love everybody and left it at that for now) are in February. It is also the last month of cold wintertime. “When belly buttons hide” added Bree from one of her favorite books by Sandra Boynton (Belly Button Book!)
The kids followed up by decorating February with Valentines and hearts, both drawn and stickered, and some unexplained other scribbling.
The kids were quite excited and curious to see that the next month, March, got a new color. I told them that there are four seasons in the year and each season has three months in it. Each color represents a different season.
We talked about March being the end of winter and when Spring begins. I also added that people say “March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb”. Bree had me add that saying to the March sheet. Since the weather in March starts to get a little bit warmer, Bree thought March would be a good time to go outside, so she put a picture of Dora with a magnifying glass on the March sheet, and some ladybugs because we talked about animals starting to come outside again. Bree attempted to draw a lion and a lamb too.
In April we talked about how “April showers bring May flowers”, so there’s lots of rain drawn falling onto Dora’s umbrella. Bree also thought it was a good time for a picnic (though I think she just couldn’t wait to put her picnic sticker on somewhere since she kept asking if it was warm enough to picnic every month). We also talked about Easter and the resurrection what it means to us as Catholics, which Bree summed up with a picture of Dora and Boots in an Easter egg. Abby added a picture of Swiper in an Easter egg and excitedly screamed “Swipy! Swipy!” My husband added that Taxes are done in April. And most importantly Abby got to add a cupcake for her birthday.
May is Mommy’s month – both Mother’s Day and my birthday are in May. I was a little bit surprised to see that my month, to Briana, was best represented by Boots in a spring hat, but ok. “This is the perfect picture for Mother’s Day and your birthday, Mommy” she said as she carefully placed Boots on the May page. She also added a heart sticker and flowers, from the April showers.
We moved on to the summer months of June, July, and August.
In June, school is out for Summer and camp starts. I had to add the “camp starts” part quickly because Briana started to whine, “Oh no! I want to go to school in June and see my friends!” Father’s Day is also in June, and represented by the heart sticker. We usually go to the shore house some time in the summer so she added a sand castle and drew some waves.
July’s most important day is the 4th so I wrote out “4th” and explained why I used red, white, and blue glitter pens. Briana said “July is when we run a lot of 5Ks” and added a sticker of Dora running. Um…I hope she’s not disappointed that the 5K thing was kind-of a last summer thing and not an every July thing. I better get training because I have a feeling that we'll probably at least walk/jog one race this summer. Bree also added a tennis racket and a ball because in July we do “outside sports” and we couldn’t find a soccer ball sticker.
In August we talked about how it is very hot outside and we go to the beach. Abby added the map (which I’m going to say is because we usually do a roadtrip then) and then Abby was done with the months and mostly ran around while we finished up the last ones.
In September, school starts up again and so does football. Bree reminded me that we see acorns and pinecones around the beginning of school and somehow found acorn stickers. I explained that we’re switching to orange paper for the Fall, which is also called Autumn.
In October we celebrate Halloween and Briana’s birthday and apparently some kind of big red scribble.
In November we celebrate Thanksgiving. In case anyone is wondering, my family, from Texas, comes to our house for Thanksgiving and we talk a lot about the Cowboys so Bree added a Dora cowboy sticker. I didn’t have the heart, after she proudly presented the cowboy sticker, to tell her that the Cowboys football team is what the guys are talking about. We also eat lots of food so she added that.
Finally, we finished up with December, when it gets cold again. December was described as the last month of the year, wherein it is very cold and snowy and of course it’s Christmas time.
Then we laid all of our pages out on the table, with each season on one side of our square table. We walked around the table a couple of times, saying the months in order. Finally, for that day, we talked a lot about how we were in January now.
Both of my girls needed a winter break from learning about months before we delved into January so we stopped for a couple of days.
Step 5: Fill in the activities
A couple of days later I got out some activity stickers, and the favorite Dora sticker book and that final sheet of blue construction paper, on which I had pre-drawn the schedule of days on. We reviewed the months, which were still laid out in the dining room and then I told them that we were going to focus on this month. “It’s January. Then February.” Bree related. I was so proud that she remembered the first 2 months of the year! None of the other months were remembered but she did remember that “it was a new color for a new season”.
We talked about the days of the week and began building our schedule. We stuck a butterfly sticker on the days the kids go to school. Why a butterfly? You’d have to ask Briana who insisted that “butterflies are perfect for school”. Grandma Pat’s birthday (today) got special treatment with a pretty flower, as did Daddy’s birthday which got a blue balloon. Then we added a bell for the maids’ day ("because they always make the alarm make a ringing sound when they get here") and an apple for the fruit delivery day. MLK day was marked with three hearts. Briana thought three hearts specifically would be perfect for the day of loving your friends. Ever since Briana turned three, three is the magic number for perfection of any kind. Playdates were marked with pictures of Dora though I tried to tell her it would be better to write our friends names on the calendar so we knew who we had a playdate with when we looked at our calendar, but by then Bree knew “all about how to do calendars now because [she was] THREE”. Briana insisted that I put some of my things on the calendar so I added a ball for a volleyball game that I have on Monday (I’m going to watch! And maybe coach a litte. I think. I just had back surgery and am not allowed to join in yet.) I also added a Mommy playdate with one of my friends with my own Dora sticker. Abby mostly scribbled, stuck Isa stickers on the top, and smeared glitter glue, but I like to think that my Abby was adding her activities to the calendar that she just can’t articulate yet.
I think that each month I will spend a day mapping out the calendar for that month with the kids just to reinforce the months of the year and days of the week, and familiarize them with their schedules since come February, gymnastics and ballet and a host of other activities start up again.
My kids have mapped out their schedules for the month. How about you?
<3 Pedigreed Housewife
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