Are you starting to think about next school year yet? I hope not! If you are a teacher, I hope that is the last thing on your mind. But, honestly, this is the time when we reflect about went well, what we want to do better, and new things we might try next year... or maybe you are thinking about vacation, baseball, and beating the heat.
These calendars are the first thing I do each summer for back to school because I have so many teachers who depend on me to make calendars for their students each year. We all use these for kids to learn and practice writing numbers to 30 in our classrooms. This is an activity teachers have been doing for years and it is one of the few things I have NOT kicked to the curb since common core came along.
When CCSS came along, there were so many new activities to try, new curriculum to implement, and I felt like there was not enough time for everything... especially in a partial day kindergarten. There were so many old activities that just had to go. But this activity is still my go to for monthly number writing. There are so many concepts we work on each time we do this... of course the actual handwriting of numbers, which is TRICKY for little learners. And of course there is the rote counting and remembering the number order. We also do a lot of work on the order of numerals in the two digit numbers. We look at patterns that can help us remember. Kids also learn to use tools in the classroom to help themselves. Many students work on perseverance, focus, and time management as well.
Even though I really do like my adopted math curriculum, it doesn't give the kiddos as much practice with number writing as they need. So this is an important area to supplement. If I don't send them to first grade knowing this, then I have failed. My friend next door teaching first grade still does this in her room every year too. The kids benefit from fine motor practice and double digit number practice. Did I mention that the families LOVE getting these at home each month? I have parents comment on them all the time. I even have kids tell me where they put the calendar in their homes.
OK, so... clearly this is a tried and true learning activity. Are you doing these in your classroom? If not, why?
Is it because you don't have time to think up an art project each month? I've got you covered! My calendar product comes with art ideas for the entire year with details about how we did the project. I update it each year with new projects. It also has links to my Pinterest boards so you can search for new ideas. Is it because you don't want to have to buy a new download each year? Got you covered there too! My calendar product is perpetual, so you automatically get a new download each year. Just go into My Purchases on TpT, find the calendar product and download again! Easy Peasy!
So, if you own my Calendars for Number Writing ~Perpetual~ go download it and grab your new calendars. If you don't have it yet, you might want to consider investing in it. I have a commitment to make these calendars through 2028, and will probably make them well after that. The price will be going up when the school year begins, so I hope you get it this summer to save.
Let's look at some adorable seasonal art and then I will show you the new calendar set for 2017-2018.
This was a fun project for November! We just did a construction paper collage on cut paper plates for the pie. The napkin is construction paper too. We glued on a fort to make it complete!
This is one of my favorite projects for December. I always have several colors of paper available so kids can make candles any color they like. That way we honor any family celebrations or lack thereof. The greens are just ripped paper glued on in two shades of green. You can do ripped red paper for berries, or glitter berries too. The flame is gold glitter.
This is my new favorite winter art project. We did these last year for December and they all came our just beautiful. This was a two part project. First, kids make a tissue paper collage on card stock using a glue-water mixture. After this dried, they cut out triangle shaped trees and glued them on the dark background paper. Lastly, they dotted on white tempera paint using cotton swabs to make snow. Each one came out as unique as the child that made it, but they were all lovely.
This project was a water color resist using white oil pastels on white paper. Kids cold draw trees, houses, snow people, snowflakes, etc. It was an open ended winter drawing. Then they painted over the drawing with winter sky colors like blue, purple, etc. It is always an experiment doing water color resist with young kids. They have to press hard with the pastels. I just loved the way this one came out. I like the colors and how it isn't "perfect". It is beautiful.
I just adore these love bugs! They made great art for our calendars a few years ago. I used Ellison die cuts for the hearts and circles. I cut some of the circles in half for the wings. We had lots of different colors available for our little artists. We also used googly eyes and oil pastels for details.
This spring calendar was also done with Ellison die cuts. We have the flower die at school. I made lots of those in yellow and white and the kids used tissue to make the little centers for the flowers. They are supposed to look like daffodils... even though they aren't really accurate, they are still pretty flowers for March.
OK, this is the last one... Earth Day art for April! This earth template and the little Everyday is Earth Day sign are FREE in my TpT store. They are part of an Earth Day writing activity You can grab them right here: Earth Day FREEBIE!
Oh my goodness... that is a lot of art! So even if you don't use my calendars in your classroom, I hope you found some ideas that you can use! Here are my Calendars for Number Writing 2017-2018:
Thanks for stopping by!
Happy teaching!
