Want to add a calendar board to your schoolroom? Set it up quick and easy with these Calendar Board printables! Great for both classrooms and homeschool!
We have been using Calendar Time as part of our morning homeschool routine for quite awhile now. While we are still using our calendar notebooks (I love that the notebooks provide individual calendar work for each of my kids), I have since made some improvements to our old calendar board that have really streamlined our Calendar Time. I LOVE our new calendar board set up and I am excited to share it with you!!!
The main change with our NEW calendar board is that it is now made up of a bunch of “flip charts” on metal rings. So, I don’t have to keep up with anything because everything we need is right there on the board! No more missing pieces…no more having to remember to set the pouches out each night…etc.
How We Use Our Calendar Board
Each day the kids still do their calendar notebooks and they take turns updating the calendar board. As opposed to me going over the calendar board, the person who updates the board also get to “teach” (i.e. go over the updates on the board.) As they go over the calendar board, the others follow along in their calendar notebooks. While I sit in on the kid’s teaching, I glance over their calendar notebooks.
So, want to make your own calendar board? I’ll provide all the details below!
Calendar Board Supplies:
- calendar board printables (download links below)
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poster board
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colored paper
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hole puncher
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thumbtacks
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plastic adhesive hooks (from the Dollar Tree)
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plastic cups (from the Dollar Tree)
How To Make the Calendar Board
First, prepare all of the elements you want to include on your board. Print, laminate, cut, and hole-punch all of the pieces.
The board itself is just a piece of poster board. Design the board by deciding where everything will be placed.
Use construction paper to add more color to the board. Use adhesive hooks and thumbtacks to hang the rings onto the board.
I’ll continue by explaining all of the different parts of the board and tell you where to get them and how we use them!
TODAY’S DATE: I created the Today’s Date printable (available for purchase below) with all of the days of the week, the months, numbers, and years (through 2036). Plus, you can choose between two different fonts! (Click the Buy Now link to visit my shop and view the two font choices.)
Cut and place the Today’s Date pieces on round metal rings. Each morning the kids flip the cards so that the appropriate date is displayed. All of the pieces are laminated for durability.
OBEDIENCE PRAYER: I downloaded this from Totally Tots. I slid it into a page protector. Periodically I change it out and slid in other pages for my kiddos to go over.
MY ADDRESS: I downloaded this from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Although it is not filled in in the photo, it now has our new contact info on it so that the kids can learn our new address and phone numbers.
MAKE THE DATE WITH MONEY: This is from our old calendar board. I simply adhered a strip of velcro onto the board to display the date in coins. For example, if the date is April 28th, there should be 28 cents displayed on the board. The extra coins hang on a strip of velcro on the side. FYI, there are velcro dots on the back of the coins so that the kids can practice with real money.
DAYS IN SCHOOL: I was inspired to create the Days In School printable (available for purchase below) after seeing it on Homeschool Creations. However, I created my own version of the printable and the numbers so that there was enough space to hole-punch them and hang them on the rings. The rings are hanging from thumb tacks. All of the pieces are laminated for durability.
We keep track of how many days we have been in school…while working on place value at the same time. I love the visual aspect of adding the cups underneath it. (Cups are attached to the board with velcro.) The kids add a stick for each day. Once they have ten sticks in the cup labeled “ones”, we rubber band them and move them to the cup labeled “tens”…and so forth. I wanted to use plain ole popsicle sticks, but my cups would not hold enough of them. So, I used these smaller sticks instead.
SHAPES: I downloaded the shape cards from TLSBooks.com. (Click the link and scroll down. Click on Shape Flash Cards to download.) This time I included the 3D objects. I printed them, laminated them, hole punched them, and added them to rings.
FLASH CARDS: (bottom left corner on poster board) I hole punched a few sets of flashcards (colors & states) that we go over as well.
WEATHER: I used the download from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Each set of rings has all of the possible weather choices on it. We start the week with all of the cards turned facedown. Each day they turn over the cards and flip through to find the appropriate card to represent the day’s weather. All pieces are laminated for durability.
CALENDAR: We still use our calendar (shown above)…just as before. (We purchased if from the Dollar Tree but you can find similar calendars here. There are velcro dots on each box on the calendar as well as on the back of each number card. The bag that holds the extra calendar numbers is attached to the side of the board…as is the bag of extra wooden sticks for the place value cups.
So, hopefully that gives you a better idea of our new calendar board setup. I am LOVING that everything is all in one place. It is SO much better than what we had before! Plus, the kids get a kick out of all the little flip charts!
More Calendar Time Links:
More Calendar Time Ideas:
This post was originally published on May 31, 2011.
