This is another one of my favorites. It is easy to build a routine, use with a variety of ages/grades, and versatile, as it can target so many skills. I use it primarily with my 2nd-5th graders, but depending on the students and their needs, I have used it with slightly older and younger students as well. Big surprise, I typically use it once a month. The kids always want to do it on the first day of a new month, but I actually prefer to wait until we are at least a week in. That way we can talk about both past and future events, targeting verb tensing.
From an expressive and receptive language perspective, it's great for asking and answering questions (ex. What season is it? When is the field trip?) and building vocabulary...there are so many activity magnets in addition to the holidays. It's great for working on time and sequence concepts (before/after, next week, first/last, two days ago, etc.) as well understanding year/month/day and season vs. weather, which so many of my students get confused. The calendar is also great for practicing giving and following directions.
Believe it or not, the calendar is also great for targeting speech articulation, specifically "th". Just think about it...month, Thursday, third, thirteenth, 30th, fourth, etc. Many of my Deaf and Hard of Hearing students need this direct instruction to understand that you say the date using ordinal numbers.
For my Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, I can also readily make the calendar a listening/auditory skill development activity by using the acoustic hoop. This would be for my students working at the levels of discrimination, identification, and comprehension at the sentence level.
Kids find this pretty motivating when they get to put events that are meaningful to them on the calendar. These include birthdays, field trips, lost teeth, sports, family outings, and appointments. And let's face it, when kids can personally relate to something they are more likely to learn and remember.
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