Teach Kindergarten Students Calendar Skills
Month, Week, Day, Weather, Counting, Rhyming, and Letter Lessons
Aug 18, 2008
A calendar is an invaluable teaching tool in the Kindergarten classroom. Primary teachers begin each school day with whole class calendar instruction to teach students a variety of math, reading, and science skills. Student learning is increased in all areas due to the daily repetition of the skills and the real-life context of the lessons.
The classroom calendar is displayed on a large bulletin board near the front of the room. The month, the names of the days of the week, and the numbers for each date are clearly labeled in the center of the bulletin board.
On one side of the calendar is a weather section with the title, “Today’s weather is _____!” Underneath the title the teacher has weather words, such as sunny and cloudy, tacked to the board with push pins that the students can use to complete the weather sentence.
On the other side of the calendar are the words yesterday, today and tomorrow. The seven days of the week are tacked underneath these titles. Students place the correct day of the week under each heading during calendar time.
Each day the teacher reviews the month of the year and the current date with the students. Today’s date is added to the calendar and the other sections of the bulletin board are updated. The teacher then completes calendar activities with the students. Depending on the needs of the students the teacher may do the same activities daily or choose a new activity each day.
Activities to Teach Number Identification and Counting Skills
- Students can name the numbers on the calendar and count to 31.
- Teachers can teach kindergarteners the multiples of 7 by having them count by weeks.
Activities to Teach Days of the Week and Months of the Year
- Teachers can change the words to common songs to help students practice the days of the week and the months of the year.
- Students can take turns using a pointer, such as a hand on a stick, to point to and say the days of the week or today’s date.
Activities to Teach Upper and Lowercase Letters and Word Patterns
- The days of the week can be placed on the classroom Word Wall to help the students read and write them.
- Teachers can have the students search the bulletin board to find letters or word patterns that the class is studying. For example, she can ask everyone to stand up if they see an uppercase M or put their hand on their heads if the see the “ay” word pattern.
- During calendar time students can practice rhyming by naming as many words that they can think of that rhyme with "weather" or "May."
Activities to Teach Weather and Clothing Skills
- In addition to the daily weather sentence the teacher can place a picture of a dog on the bulletin board along with pictures of different types of clothing.
- After the students complete the weather sentence they can apply their weather skills to dress the Weather Dog appropriately.
A classroom calendar is a valuable teaching tool for Kindergarten teachers. The calendar teaches students the months of the year, the days of the week, and the concepts of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. It can also be used to teach skills such as counting, rhyming, spelling, weather, and letter, number, and word pattern recognition.
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