Make an Infinity Calendar (Part 2)

We developed several flexible, perpetual calendars a few years ago for my daughters' rooms. Low tech calendars with potential! To get started, pop over to Part 1 for the list of ingredients and pull those together and prepare everything before taking the next steps. This orange calendar is our second infinity calendar.

Play-by-Play

1. With pencil & ruler, measure a space in the center of the board roughly 14" tall x 21" wide. Draw horizontal lines spaced every 2.5" and draw vertical lines spaced every 3". You will have a grid of boxes with 5 rows (horizontal) and 7 columns (vertical).
2. If this looks good and even, use a thick marker or sharpie to draw over the grid lines.
3. Using double-sided tape, modge podge or glue, attach 35 framed date backgrounds in each of the gridded blocks. When selecting images, let kids choose within one box/pile of paper or cut images from a magazine. Or... skip the paper background and ask kids to color or draw patterns in the gridded boxes with colored pencils or markers (not crayons).
4. Attach the 7 framed day name backgrounds above the columns.
5. Attach 1 framed month name background at the top center of the calendar.
6. Write the numbers 1 through 31 on the date cards.
7. Write the days of the week on the day name cards.
8. Write the months on the month cards.
9. Write and decorate the holiday/birthday type cards.
10. On the foam board calendar, attach one hook (more pointy) side of a velcro piece to the center of each framed date background, to the center of each day name background, and a few extras vertically along the left and/or right sides of the calendar. The extras are to store unused holiday/birthdays, the next month, days 29/30/31 when unneeded.
11. Attach one loop (soft, fuzzier) side of a velcro piece to the back center of each date number (31), to the back center of each holiday/birthday type card, to the back center of each day name card (7), to the back center of each month name card (12).
12. Have kids research the current month and set up the calendar with the current month, current dates, etc.
13. Kids will need a tiny reference calendar for the next few years, so they know how to set up each month's dates. Hint: print from the web and tape to the back of their calendars.
15. Keep the extra month names in a little box. Hint: velcro to the back of the calendar for easy access!

More ideas...

• Calendars are great fodder for learning concepts such as time, phases of the moon, grids, days, weeks, months, years, annual events. Learn about calendars from other civilizations such as the Mayan or zodiac calendar. 
• Educational calendar resources from EMINTS
• Calendar and time related resources at timeanddate, including calendars for any year.
• US Naval Oceanography portal is overflowing with good info, including phases of the moon, Astronomical Information Center.
• All about Velcro, invented by George de Mestral.

Comments

[Trish]

Another AWESOME project :)
Love using the infinity calendar in my classrooms!

Check out one of mine inn "Using heART to Create an Inspirational Learning Environment," an article in my classroom management category.