Early Calendar Teaching
We started teaching the calendar in Kindergarten when Eric
was about 5. I went to Office Depot and bought one of
the stand up presentation boards that business people use to give
presentations. It has three sections; two narrower side sections that it stands
up on and a wider central section.
On the center section I drew the calendar grid
making each day about the
size of a 3x5 card with the long side upright.
I put Velcro dots on each calendar date. One in the corner of each box for the
date and three or four down the length of the box . I also put Velcro in the
spaces at the top for the month, year and days of the week.
I took pictures of everyone involved with our
program with my polaroid making
their faces in the picture pretty small but recognizable. I cut out their faces
and put Velcro on the back of them. I also have the days of the week and the
number dates with Velcro backs.
I made two small red frames that go around the
day of the week and the day that can be moved each day (Velcro). This
highlights the current day and day of the week making it easier to visualize.
Every day, Ericís ěpeopleî schedule was put up and it was
reviewed with him. He reviews the date,
day of the week, month, and year. We also asked him "What are you going to
do today". He read down the
pictures on the date and could say. " I'm going to School with Rachel, I'm
going to work with Anna, and I'm going to stay with Mommy" This exercise
also helped with transitions because he was informed about what would happen
during the day and was less likely to tantrum.
Eventually, we left the pictures up from the
previous day and asked "what
did you do yesterday?" We did
this with tomorrow as well, putting up the pictures for the next day.
Once Eric learned to read, we exchanged the pictures
for words as you can see below.
We did this calendar every day until we started home
schooling (2/02). At that point we switched to a homemade paper calendar.
