Calendar Math

Try these activities with your child. They will make the calendar more meaningful to him.
by: Trish Kuffner, author of The Children's Busy Book

Calendar Math


Materials

  • Large sheet of poster board or paper (at least three feet square) or old bed sheet
  • Pen or marker
  • Beanbag

Directions

  1. Read the calendar with your child daily. Say the day of the week, the month, the date, and the year. Ask your child what yesterday's and tomorrow's dates are.
  2. Teach your child this rhyme to help him remember the number of days in each month:
    Thirty days has September,
    April, June, and November.
    All the rest have thirty-one,
    Save February, which alone
    Has twenty-eight, and one day more
    We add to it one year in four.
  3. Talk about calendar patterns. For example, why might there be five Sundays in a month but only four Mondays? If the first Tuesday of the month is the fifth, what will the second and third Tuesdays be?
  4. Make a blank calendar grid. Find out what day of the week the first of next month will be, then make a calendar for that month with your child. Write the days of the week across the top of the calendar. Write the date in the upper right corner of each square. Mark holidays, birthdays, and other special days with stickers or pictures.