Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Gross Motor Calendar Activity for Kids

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A fun calendar activity for kids to practice learning the months of the year.
I thought it would be fun to teach my oldest son J the months of the year. And I figured a more active approach would be the best way to do it. 

The result? This simple gross motor calendar activity for kids.

This activity ended up being a great mix of gross motor skills, word recognition and matching, reading practice, visual scanning, and counting. It covers a wide range of skills!

Learning the months of the year calendar activity for kids

What You'll Need for this Calendar Activity for Kids

Teaching the kids the months of the year has never been this fun. Here's what you'll need to do this calendar hop game with your kids:

  • A calendar or a print out of each calendar month - I personally printed one off of the computer, but you could use an old calendar
  • Masking tape or painter's tape - To stick the calendar to the floor so it won't move
I printed a calendar off of the computer with each month printed on a separate piece of paper. I then randomly taped the months to the kitchen floor using painter's tape. I laid the homemade month spinner, set to show January, on the floor next to the calendar. To play, simply spin the month spinner, read the name of the month (with assistance, if needed), find the corresponding month on the floor, and then jump on it.

As an alternative, you could modify this calendar activity and play it like a game of Twister. You just give commands like place your right hand on May and your left leg on September. That kind of thing.
Fun calendar game for kids

This Activity is Such a Fun Way to Learn the Months of the Year!

One of the first things my oldest son J did was sit down and look at the calendar. Not surprising given all those numbers and words. So I kind of knew that he would be interested in this calendar activity on that basis alone. Calendars are like hyperlexic heaven after all. I just didn't know yet that it was called hyperlexia.

I explained to J that he was welcome to start jumping on the months as they appear on the spinner. And then I modeled how to jump from January to February to March and so on. That's when we caught the attention of the my youngest, K. He jumped in (literally) and started imitating our hopping.

Toddler doing a calendar activity

Shortly after, J decided that he was ready to try out this calendar learning activity. He started on January. Then he would spin his months of the year spinner to spin to the next month. Then he would scan the floor for that month and hop to it.

Close up of preschool child standing on a calendar hop game

Teaching the months of the year to kids with a simple activity

After hopping on the months for a while, with me reinforcing the names of the months, J took a closer look at each month and started counting the number of days. Because numbers are his thing after all. Turns out it's called hypernumeracy!

I'm pleased with how this activity turned out. It was a great way for J to practice the months of the year. And I also discovered that he is starting to recognize some of the names already. FYI, this was before I knew his early reading ability was called hyperlexia so really it shouldn't have been too surprising to me. But it still was.

Anyway, this calendar activity for kids was a big hit. It was great for burning off energy and for teaching new skills like learning the months of the year.

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Teaching the months of the year with a simple gross motor calendar activity for kids