Calendar Creations
HOW I T WORKS
Calendar Creations is a highly enjoyable interdisciplinary program that
helps students
achieve performance standards in Language Arts and
Math. The finished product is a literary
calendar designed and produced by the
students. In the Language Arts component of the
program, the students read books from the
N.Y.S. Standards list and then select their
twelve favorites.
Working in pairs, the students create art pages for the twelve selected
books. The pages
reflect the main character or idea of each book.
In the Math component of the program, the
students master the various elements of a
calendar. They learn the names of the months of the
year and the days of the week. Computer lessons teach students how
to lay out and then
print the individual pages of the calendar.
Through hands-on calendar activities, the students learn about ordinal and
cardinal
numbers and concepts such as greater/fewer,
before/after, and last/next. A Social Studies
component of the program uses the calendar to
examine important holidays and other significant
dates throughout the year. Social Studies lessons can be created around
various holidays
and for the first day of spring, summer, winter,
and fall. Finally, the Internet can be utilized to
allow students to examine examples of
calendars from other countries and the different
holidays that the people in those diverse cultures
observe.
THE STUDENTS
There are 26 first-grade LEP students from five
different countries participating in the program.
Language and intelligence levels vary. Calendar
Creations’ hands-on design allows all students
to make a positive contribution to the creative
process. This program can easily be adapted
for any class on the K-2 level.
THE STAFF
Jodi Abrams has taught computer classes and
ESL for fourteen years. In 1996 she became
the Title VII Resource Specialist at P.S. 217 and
was also in charge of curriculum writing. She
presented and organized staff workshops that
focused on technology and was involved with
staff development for the ESL program and
theories of second-language acquisition. She has
also worked with the Common Sense/Penny
Harvest Program and the school’s Service
Learning group for three years.
Chris Brady has taught ESL for 13 years and
has been teaching first-grade ESL for the last
five years. She works with children who come
from countries such as Mexico, Russia,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, and China, to name a few.
Last year, Chris was a participant in the Title VII
program. She was a previous recipient of an
IMPACT II Disseminator grant.
WHAT YOU NEED
The program utilizes books on the New York
State Language Arts Standards. The months of
the year are introduced through Maurice
Sendak’s Chicken Soup With Rice. Eric Carle’s
Today is Monday introduces the days of the
week. Access to a computer and to the computer program Print Shop Deluxe is necessary.
Internet access is helpful, as is a laminating
machine and a binding machine.
OVERALL VALUE
Calendar Creations is an exciting, visual hands-on
program that results in a product created by
and for students. The program incorporates
literacy, art, math, and technology. It promotes
language acquisition and helps the students
become comfortable using the computer, in addition to helping students achieve
performance standards in Language Arts and Math.
It also empowers students by allowing them to
select their favorite books for use in creating
their own calendar. |