I wanted to make a calendar for my class to count down the days to Christmas. I wanted to make it more interesting than simply removing numbers. At the same time, I didn't want to put prizes under each number like the traditional Advent calendars do because it would be difficult to fit enough prizes into each box for eight children. Then I remembered seeing somewhere on the Internet, although I can't remember where, the idea of putting an activity under each number.
I came up with little activities that we could do at circle time each day. Most of them were very simple (balance a bean bag on your head or balance on one foot). Some were longer and a bit more fun (decorate the Christmas tree). For each activity, I found a picture to go along with it, printed out the picture, and glued a sentence explaining the activity on the back.
I had the children paint toilet paper rolls with red and green paint. Once they dried, I cut them in half, stapled one end of each closed, and pasted numbers on them.
I only used the numbers 1-15 because there are 15 days of school in December before Christmas this year. I put one activity paper inside of each box (and marked on my calendar which activity was in each box so that I would remember). Then, I used clothespins to hang them from strings in our circle time area.
Every day a different child chooses a number and opens it for the class. It's very exciting to see what we will do each day!
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