Art Ideas for Children's Calendars
Calendars do so much more than systematically breaking down our weeks and months into little squares. They can help us to appreciate time and teach us to manage our time wisely. Children's calendars can teach kids not only the basics of time management, planning and placing future goals and striving to meet them, but the artwork of children's calendars should inspire them to tackle each day with energy and enthusiasm.
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Gratitude Calendar
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This calendar can be a project done with the entire family. Ask kids to make a list of 12 things in the world that they are thankful for. Give them absolute freedom to include anything that they want on their list from puppies, to ice cream, to weekends, to their best friends. Then take pictures of all the things that they are grateful for. Print out glossy, colorful pictures of these items and print out calendar tables for each of the 12 months of the year on colorful card stock. Match each month with a picture and tape them together. Each month your child can change the picture and have the calendar remind him of something special in his life.
Literate Children
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For children who love to read, you should capitalize on this passion and encourage it by helping kids create a calendar exclusively donated to their favorite illustrated books. Certain children's books can touch and influence a child in a magical lasting way, perhaps even more than books read as an adult. Ask your child to make a pile of her favorite illustrated books and go through each one, marking her favorite illustration with a sticky note. Make high quality color copies of the designated pages, allotting one for each month. Print out calendar pages of each month of the coming year on high quality paper or card stock and match a month to a picture, taping them together.
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Art Work Exchange
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This activity is best with a group of six to 12 children. Give each child a set of pastels, watercolor paints or finger paints and assign each child a month or two months that they must draw an image for. Help the children think of ideas. For example, if a child must draw two pictures for February and March respectively, help them think of winter activities that people like to do for February, such as ice skating, skiing, drinking hot chocolate around a fire or building a snowman. For March, help children think of scenes or activities that symbolize the coming of spring, such as flowers poking out from snow, or icicles melting from tree branches, or going for walks in the park. Once each child has completed their pictures, make color copies so that everyone has 12 pictures, one for each month. Pair each picture with a print out of a calendar month and tape them together. Each child then gets to have a calendar that possesses some of their artwork and the artwork of their peers.
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Resources
- Photo Credit calendar with bow image by Photoeyes from Fotolia.com
