If you have been trying to figure out how to teach the months of the year to your kindergarten class in a fun way, then look no further! The Calendar Kids ® Collection is a teacher-created resource that promises to making a lasting impact on your students. Teachers across America are reporting that their students LOVE to meet our characters each month.
Author April Martin has spent over a decade working on how to help make the classroom fun again! We have really grown over this past year and we are excited to share more ways to bring the months to life. Whether you go back in July, August, or September, we have you covered for the start of the school year! Continue reading to see ideas on how to incorporate the Calendar Kids into your beginning of the year lesson plans.
The Calendar Kids collection has grown to a total of 8 books with both books 9 and 10 publishing this year too! Now that we are almost complete we have started working on helping make your calendar time experience with your students work to its full potential. We are finalizing the covers of the rest of the books this summer, but more importantly, we are creating more resources for you to continue to use in class. See below for those ideas!
How to introduce the Calendar Kids to your class
If your school starts in July, here are some tips: Get settled in those first few weeks. Teach your routine to your students. When you reach August, start the Calendar Kids books series! August's story begins with him getting ready for the new school year. He was really nervous about starting school, but he learns that everything turns out OK in the end. Use this book as a way to recall how your students felt before school started. Discuss what friendships they have started to form since the beginning of school as well. See the August tips below on day to day plans.
If your school starts in August, here are some tips:
The first week of school get settled in.
Day 1: When you begin to introduce your morning meeting/calendar time to your class use the Meet August book cover to share with them some friends they are going to meet throughout the year. Tell them they are going to help teach with silly stories and point out that they have really silly hair too! Have the students take a look at the pencils in August's hair. Let them know that is their reminder that August is the beginning of a new school year for many.
Day 2: During your morning meeting/calendar time. Show the class your new friend August again and ask them if they are ready to meet him. Read the book to the class and discuss how they felt getting ready for school. Go over the weather in your area and recall the weather in August's book too. Share with them that August is a hot summer month. Share your weather tracking routine with your class.
Day 3: Re-read the story to the class and use the discussion questions in the back of the book for story comprehension. Use one of our free worksheets on TPT as a way for the students to connect with the story even further. We have easy coloring pages for preschool and kindergarten, spelling pages for first and second grade, and journals too!
For our September back to school friends you can do one of two things!
September's book talks about the beginning of the school year and she hunts for the first signs of fall. You can definitely just hop right in with her book...
OR
In the first few days of school we all go over our summer in many ways. It's a great ice breaker to get to know eachother. Why not start by introducing both July and August to go over what you did over the summer? You can read Meet July and discuss what you did for the 4th of July. The class could do our coloring page or worksheet "My summer" and share. You could then read Meet August book and go over what ways they got ready for school, if they were nervous, and what they did to celebrate the end of the summer.
We hope this helps give you a head start on introducing the Calendar Kids® to your class!
Extras: Use our new Calendar Pocket Chart to begin going over the days of the week, today's date, and any special events coming up. You can get yours here.
Incorporate our Calendar Kids® dolls for an extra special way to bring the months to life! These are a great tool for our kinesthetic learners as well! You can get our August doll and more on our website at www.calendarkids.com/shop.
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