Build a Year; Make a Linear Bead Calendar

Calendar learning is normally done with a calendar right? My little guy is 4, and he has a paper calendar to mark off each day. Then I over heard the older girls talking about which months belong in each season, and I just decided to combine it all into a visual calendar that the kids could make! And so, the Linear Bead Calendar was born!

Supplies for the Linear Bead Calendar

Beads (we used a big tub of beads provided by CraftProjectIdeas.com)
Cord or String or even Yarn (we used hemp cord also from CraftProjectIdeas)

How to Assemble a Linear Bead Calendar

Ideally I would have loved to have 12 different colors, but this tub only had 9, and one was black which my kids don't like too well, so we worked with the other 8 making sure not to repeat a color in the same season.

I did encourage them to pick colors that reminded them of the seasons each month occurred in, and while one was stringing beads the other was counting out the days in the next month. See all the math learning going on, counting and the calendar!

We even acknowledged leap day in our linear calendar with a little black bead (the only one in the whole chain) at the end of February.

The girls quickly figured out it was fastest if one put the beads on at the end of the string and the other, after counting out her beads, helped move them too the end. Our year got pretty long in a hurry!

A quick tip, if you make your own be sure to start with more cord then you think you need because you definitely don't want to start over! We tied each side in a loop, so we could hang it vertically or horizontally.

How the Linear Bead Calendar Works for Us

Although the girls are the ones who made the calendar, as my little guy "wasn't interested" (his words not mine); he manipulates it more since it hangs next to his own paper calendar. Just playing with it and counting out the days to find which one we are on is giving him a great hands-on math lesson!

What Kids Learn Making a Linear Bead Calendar

Counting to 31 as they count out the beads.
Months of the year
Seasons
Which months are in which season
Leap year

I love the colorful, calendar representation and the fact that the kids can play with it to learn how many days are in a month or which months are in each season. Or they can just practice naming the months by touching each colored section. I think we will add a marker they can move for each day as well!

This was a very simple project with a beautiful, colorful result! It is also a great calendar learning solution if you have active learners like I do.