I too have struggled with the monotony of doing calendar time with young children for a long time. A few years ago in this very platform, someone suggested using a typical "desk top" paper calendar and following the idea of "recall time" from HighScope. I have used this way of doing calendar time for a few years now and it has transformed calendar time and made it more meaninigful to the kids. We now do calendar time at the end of the day. We still sing the days of the week and practice saying the full date aloud, but now I also ask for their input on what to draw in the box on the calendar for that day, hence "Recall Time." It is a nice way to review the activities, stories, skills, and and other interesting or fun things that happened that day. For example, the one day upon the kid's suggestions, I drew a letter P in the calendar box (our letter for the week), a sun (the weather of the day), a paintbrush (because we painted), and a little fire (because we had a fire drill). Everything I draw is based on what the kids recall from the day. They enjoy thinking of things for me to draw and it also helps them then tell their families at pick up time what happened that day at school. I also leave this desk top calendar out during play time and the kids love looking back at previous days and using it to count the days to future birthdays,holidays, or "no school" days. So in addition to learning the days and months, they are actually
USING the calendar to record events, thus helping them form an understanding of the passage of time.
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Susan Swiderek
Pre-K Teacher
Canton MI
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-14-2021 11:29 AM
From: Tiffany Myers
Subject: Teaching Calendar
The center I am at requires us to teach the calendar to our preschoolers, I have never been a fan of teaching this concept to such young children. For this reason I am having a hard time finding a good way to teach it. Currently I have a linear calendar and we sing the months of the year and the days of the week. At this point I'm open to any ideas or suggestions. Thanks
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Tiffany Myers
Lead Teacher
Ymca
Franklin PA
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