Play to Learn ~ Calendar Time

Welcome to this week’s Play To Learn feature where I’m sharing what we do for our calendar time! This is an extremely useful time for us, where we practice counting, patterning, days/months memorization, singing and life skills such as appropriate clothing for the weather.

We start each day with group time which includes our calendar activities. Several of the printouts you see here are part of my Letter of the Week curriculum. Here is what our "calendar area" looks like and some of our activities:

(Calendar and numbers are from Lakeshore Learning, I can't find it on their site, but found it at Teacher Storehouse)

Recite the:
Pledge of Allegiance
Memory Verse: Click here for my A-Z memory verses
Alphabet Song

Days of the Week song: (To the tune of Adam's Family")

• Days of the week (clap clap)
• Days of the week (clap clap)
• Days of the week (clap clap)
• Days of the week, Days of the week, Days of the week
• There’s Sunday and there’s Monday,
• there’s Tuesday & there’s Wednesday,
• there’s Thursday & there’s Friday
• and then there’s Saturday!
• Days of the week (clap, clap)

Today Song: ( We found this song at Delightful Learning and LOVE IT!)

{Sing to the tune of Frère Jacques}

Today is ______

Today is ______

All day long, all day long

Yesterday was _____

Tomorrow will be _____

Let’s have fun, let’s have fun!

Month’s of the Year song: (To the Macarena)

• January (Right hand out)
• February (Left hand out)
• March (Right hand palm up)
• And April (Left hand palm up)
• May (Right hand on left shoulder)
• June (Left hand on right shoulder)
• July (Right hand on right ear)
• And August (Left hand on left ear)
• September (Right hand on left hip)
• October (Left hand on right hip)
• November (Right hand on right hip)
• December (Left hand on left hip)
• 12 months in a year! (Hop in circle as singing)

Count our calendar:
Put up today’s number on calendar along with appropriate colored chain link to continue our pattern for the month and count from 1 up to today’s date (1-11 in the below picture), then say the date: “Today is Thursday, March 11, 2010”

Today/Yesterday/Tomorrow: We discuss what today is, what yesterday was, and what tomorrow will be and update our chart:

Chart the Weather: Each day we chart the weather and discuss appropriate clothing, whether it is cold or hot outside. Then fill in a square on our Weather Graph. At the end of the month we discuss which type of weather we had the most of, least of etc.

Seasons Chart: We don’t do this daily, but we do discuss the name of the season when we chart our weather and appropriate clothing. We talk about what kind of activities we do during each season as well.

Address: We review our Address and Phone Numbers:

For song & movement time we use one of these fun ideas:

• Hide ‘Em In Your Heart Vol 1 by Steve Green
• Hide ‘Em In Your Heart Vol 2 by Steve Green
• Songs for Saplings by Dana Dirksen
• Kid’s In Motion by Greg & Steve
• Kids In Action by Greg & Steve

For more calendar time ideas visit one of these fabulous posts!

• ABC & 123 Calendar Skills
• Delightful Learning
• Homeschool Creations
• Mama Jenn
• 1+1+1=1

Those are just some of many ideas for using calendar time to practice a bunch of different skills! If you have more ideas to share, or would like to be included in future “Play To Learn” posts, please email me at homeschoolerconfessions {at} gmail {dot} com, we’d love to hear from you!

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