Looking for a way to motivate your students use calendars? Make planting calendars with them!
The purpose of planting calendars is so the children can remember when to plant which seeds. We looked carefully at the pictures on the seed packets to determine the best planting times for our seeds. This led to a conversation about the importance of planting different seeds at different times and why.
We decided when to plant our potatoes, carrots, radishes, dahlias, zucchinis and pumpkins. We were careful to take our school vacations and holidays into consideration when planning our planting as well. Once the decisions were made, some of the children volunteered to draw pictures on the calendars.
We will be planting the dahlias during the first week of April, the potatoes during the second week of April and the radishes during the last week of April. When the calendars were finished, I taped them and the seed packages to the inside of our classroom window.
This learning experience gives the students a “real-world” reason to use a calendar. The children look forward to planting the dahlias, potatoes and vegetable seeds. They are motivated to check the calendars often. And in the process, they are learning to recognize the names of the months, becoming familiar with reading a calendar, learning about ordinal numbers and are beginning to use calendar vocabulary (Monday, the 6th of May).
Whether you plant seeds indoors or outdoors, planting calendars are a fun way to get your students using calendars.
