Seasons, Holidays and Calendar Activity
We study each holiday as it rolls around and each day we do our calendar so that we know what the date is including the month and year. We have also studied the seasons and what each season brings such as summer is warm and sunny and winter has snow, etc. So as we start this next year I want to really focus on tying it all together. I started by making the following activity.
I divided a large piece of paper into 4 sections and labeled them Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. Then I printed up the name of each month and cut them out. I had Gess pick a month and try to place it in the correct block.
She actually did pretty good and got at least half of them right. Of course, since this was her first time I helped her until we got them all right.
We then added our weather symbols from our weather board so she could visually tie in the weather with the months that belong in each season. I wasn't really certain how to symbolize fall, but those were all we had left anyway. I don't have a leaf on my weather board! Anyway, in the end it looked like this:
Now I wanted to delve even deeper. While Gess found the first part of this fairly easy, this next part was quite a challenge for her. That is alright though, I plan on spending the entire year next year working this one out. As we celebrate each holiday we will emphasize the month and season it is in rather than just the purpose for our celebration. This will be a good visual tool to help her see the connection. Maybe by this time next year she will know where more of these belong.
We did the same thing as before. We had her pick a holiday and try to put in the corresponding season.
This time though we had the months under each title so we placed them in the correct season and month. After we were finished I would just quiz her. For example I would say, "name a holiday we celebrate in the fall," "name a holiday we celebrate in November," or "What season (or month) do we celebrate Groundhog Day" etc. She would use our finished board to help her find the answers.
As we start the new year I will have something like this but on a larger scale. We will have something marked with the seasons and a card for each month. As we celebrate and study a holiday we will put a picture for it on that card and place it in the correct season. By the end of next year I think she will have a better grasp on how our year is divided and know which seasons and months go together.
Another game that my speech therapist recommended is to use the cards with the names of the months and simply practice putting them in order. First have a board/paper that has the months listed in order and just have them match the cards. Once they get good at that remove the list and stop matching. The next step is to place the cards in order but leave a few of them out and have them place them in the appropriate blank. Leave more and more out until they are putting them all in order on their own. We already do this with the days of the week but will be doing the months soon.
Another great tool is the My Calendar Book by Christian Light Publications. For each month you have something that you keep track of every day. It might be the temperature, the strength of the wind, the rainfall, or other things related to that season and month. At the end of the book they get to graph the results. There is also a coloring page for each month that says the season on it as well as questions for each month such as what month it is (3rd, 4th, etc), how many days does it have and what season is it in. I really liked it this year but lost track of it in the summer. I am getting another book and starting over again in January. (This is a book that goes from Jan - Dec rather than following the school year so if you want to use it you should get it now.)
I divided a large piece of paper into 4 sections and labeled them Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. Then I printed up the name of each month and cut them out. I had Gess pick a month and try to place it in the correct block.
She actually did pretty good and got at least half of them right. Of course, since this was her first time I helped her until we got them all right.
We then added our weather symbols from our weather board so she could visually tie in the weather with the months that belong in each season. I wasn't really certain how to symbolize fall, but those were all we had left anyway. I don't have a leaf on my weather board! Anyway, in the end it looked like this:
Now I wanted to delve even deeper. While Gess found the first part of this fairly easy, this next part was quite a challenge for her. That is alright though, I plan on spending the entire year next year working this one out. As we celebrate each holiday we will emphasize the month and season it is in rather than just the purpose for our celebration. This will be a good visual tool to help her see the connection. Maybe by this time next year she will know where more of these belong.
We did the same thing as before. We had her pick a holiday and try to put in the corresponding season.
This time though we had the months under each title so we placed them in the correct season and month. After we were finished I would just quiz her. For example I would say, "name a holiday we celebrate in the fall," "name a holiday we celebrate in November," or "What season (or month) do we celebrate Groundhog Day" etc. She would use our finished board to help her find the answers.
As we start the new year I will have something like this but on a larger scale. We will have something marked with the seasons and a card for each month. As we celebrate and study a holiday we will put a picture for it on that card and place it in the correct season. By the end of next year I think she will have a better grasp on how our year is divided and know which seasons and months go together.
Another game that my speech therapist recommended is to use the cards with the names of the months and simply practice putting them in order. First have a board/paper that has the months listed in order and just have them match the cards. Once they get good at that remove the list and stop matching. The next step is to place the cards in order but leave a few of them out and have them place them in the appropriate blank. Leave more and more out until they are putting them all in order on their own. We already do this with the days of the week but will be doing the months soon.
Another great tool is the My Calendar Book by Christian Light Publications. For each month you have something that you keep track of every day. It might be the temperature, the strength of the wind, the rainfall, or other things related to that season and month. At the end of the book they get to graph the results. There is also a coloring page for each month that says the season on it as well as questions for each month such as what month it is (3rd, 4th, etc), how many days does it have and what season is it in. I really liked it this year but lost track of it in the summer. I am getting another book and starting over again in January. (This is a book that goes from Jan - Dec rather than following the school year so if you want to use it you should get it now.)
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