Calendar Set and the Date

The summer before my first year teaching (my own classes in my own classroom!!!), I hand made a lot of signs.  I got blank white posters, some stencils and a lot of sharpies and made a variety of things from the "Sie verlassen den amerikanischen Sektor" poster on my door to signs for the date.

I know Teacher's Discovery has a Calendar Set that looks pretty decent - my mentor teacher had it and seemed to like it.  Honestly, they lost me at the price, so I decided to make my own calendar set.

The set I made includes...
- a sign for all the days of the week (minus the weekend)
- all the months (including the summer - I can use the signs when we learn months of the year and do birthdays)
- a sign for the year (I just put up a post-it note on it to show the new year - way easier than making one every December)
- numbers for the date (two 1s and two 2s, one 0, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 - just turn the six upside down and you've got a 9)

I used a lot of different colors - each month, day and number is different.  I had them laminated and stuck magnetic tape on the back of everything but the days of the week - I found it's easier to have them all hung up by one magnet so I can easily switch them each day.

One thing I overlooked, however, was how to put up the date.  I initially had it hung up with the numbers after the month - AUGUST 29 - like we do here in the US.  I was so entrenched in reading the date that way, it didn't occur to me to hang it up month and then date - 29 AUGUST - like they do in Europe.  And of course I was a little frustrated at how long it was taking students to remember the European way of writing the date...

Then one of my former German professors came to visit my school, did a quick re-arrangement when she saw the date... and I've had much more success since then :)

- Frau Leonard