Name of teaching material
Magnetic perpetual calendar Today’s month, date, day of the week, weather...?
Japanese Page URL
*The description appears by hovering the cursor over the image.
| Target |
Children in kindergarten and elementary school Children having difficulties understanding calendar |
|---|---|
| Disability category | visual impairment mentally challenged multiple disabilities |
| Teaching units / Applicable scenes | special activities activities for independent living instruction for living skills pre-school education |
| Specific purposes |
1. The calendar is posted at the kindergarten/school entrance. Children check the calendar every day and find and move the correct pieces . * Grow interests in month, date, day of the week and weather. * Deepen understanding by repetitively manipulating the calendar pieces on daily basis, and cultivate the concept of time. * Learn the mechanism of calendar. 2. The calendar is used as a sample for 5th and 6th graders make their own original calendars (art class activity). (Each pupil expands and creates their own image based on the calendar, and makes his/her own calendar. See the PDFs for completed calendars by pupils.) |
| Considerations for disability characteristics |
* Months, dates and days of the week are also written in braille so that children with visual impairment can also use. * Weather pieces were prepared as relief work using paper clay and were designed so that children with total blindness can intuitively recognize them by touching. * The base panel has textures and colors varying by day of the week, facilitating children understand that each column shows the same day of the week. * Magnets are attached to the back of month, date, day of the week and weather pieces. They can be moved, making the calendar perpetual. * Special materials were used as the base for the spaces to stick today’s month, date and day of the week and to stick today’s weather piece so that children can recognize the places by touching. |
| Expected effects and results |
It aims to cultivate understanding of today’s month, date and day of the week by incorporating manipulation of the calendar in daily routine. It further aims acquisition of the concept of time by correlating with actual events and expanding the understanding to past and future, such as yesterday, tomorrow, day before yesterday, day after tomorrow, this week, last week and next week. The calendar was prepared in summer 2021 and has been posted at the entrance since September of the same year. Initially, the faculty asked children to find the correct pieces and move them to the designated spaces. Soon, the calendar became part of their school life. In several months, elementary school children, especially those in lower grades, started to actively and consciously find and move the magnetic pieces when they arrive and leave the school. The activity is still continuing today. |
| How to use |
* Find today’s month, date and day of the week from the monthly calendar on the left, and move the pieces to the designated space on the right (aluminum sheet with a blue diagonal line). * Find today’s weather, and put the corresponding weather piece on the red felt sheet. |
| Related teaching materials and information | |
| Useful for other students |
- Informant Naoko Sato
- Keywords calendar, replacing pieces, tactile, magnet
- Translator Yuko Makuuchi
- Created 2023-04-02 18:00:32
- Updated 2023-04-02 18:01:52