Does your child attend a preschool that breaks for the summer time? If so, this is a great time for them to learn the concepts of months and weeks. Early Learning Standards require that our children learn about physical systems.
On the last day of school when your child comes home, take the time to explain to them that they do not have to go back for two whole months! “How many sleeps is that?” they might ask.
A creative way for children to learn this is with a rock garden. Have your children gather enough rocks as days that there are in their summer break. Tell them to sort the rocks from largest to smallest. Then, have the children set them up like a calendar with rows and columns. To make this easier for the children, have the calendar grid outlined with fishing wire pinned into the dirt. One rock per square!
As each day goes by, the children can remove a rock and decorate it with paint, stickers, glitter, etc. and start a pile for their own rock garden. As the summer dwindles down, the children will get to watch as the rocks left in the calendar get smaller in size and fewer in numbers; at the same time, they’ll see their colorful rock garden growing each day! When there is one rock left, they will know that they go back to school the next day, and will have a beautiful rock garden to show for their summer.
