Calendar Picture Activities by Jean Warren

CALENDAR PICTURE ACTIVITIES

Here are a number of ways that you can use the pictures from old calendars and turn them into creative art projects and fun teaching tools.

ART

CONFETTI PICTURE

	Take a picture from an old calendar and a hole punch and punch out a pile of colored paper circles.
	Give your child a piece of black construction paper and some glue.
	Have your child spread glue across her paper and then sprinkle on some of the colorful confetti.
Variation: Let older children cut out their own confetti using hole punches.

NEW YEAR’S LANTERNS

	Give your child a calendar picture.
	Have him fold the picture in half length-ways.
	Now give him some scissors and have him cut 1” strips along the fold of the picture towards the edge of the paper, stopping 1” from the edge.
	Help your child open the paper and roll it into a cylinder and tape the ends.
	Show your child how the paper has now turned into a lantern, especially when you press the two ends of the lantern together, so that the sides jut out.
	Hang the colorful lanterns on a string stretched across your room.

COLORFUL CHAINS

	Cut the pictures from an old calendar into 1” strips.
	Set out the strips, along with some glue.
	Show your child how to glue one end, then loop the strip around into a circle.
	Have your child then begin adding additional loops to his chain.

SNOW PICTURES

	Cut out one of the winter pictures from an old calendar and lay it on the table.
	Give your child a small cup of glue and a brush.
	Have her brush the glue across the winter picture.
	Next, have her sprinkle on some white glitter.
	Shake off the excess glitter when the glue is dry.
	Your child will now have a snowy winter picture.
Variation: Let your child sprinkle colored glitter on non-winter calendar pictures.

COLOR STRIPS

	Cut a calendar picture into 1 or 2” strips.
	Give a set of calendar strips to your child along with a background paper and some glue.
	Have your child glue the back of each strip recreating the picture in it’s correct order onto his background paper.
Variation: For younger children, just let them glue the strips on his paper however he wishes.

MOZAIC PICTURES

	Cut one or more calendar pictures into 1” strips.
	Give the strips to your child or children along with some safety scissors.
	Have your children cut the strips into 1” squares.
	Next, pass out glue, brushes and background paper.
	Have your children glue the 1” pieces across their background papers, to create a mosaic picture.

PUZZLE PICTURES

	Take a calendar picture and using small pointed scissors, cut out four shapes (such as; circles, squares, triangles, hearts) in the picture.
	Give the picture and the four puzzle pieces to your child along with some glue.
	Have your child spread glue onto the back of the large picture and paste it onto a background piece of paper.
	Then, have your child place glue on the back of each puzzle piece and glue the piece back into the picture where it belongs.

BUTTERFLIES

	Take a calendar picture and accordion fold it, from one side to the other.
	Give the folded picture to your child and have them fold the folded strip in-two.
	Next, give your child a small chenille (pipe cleaner) to wrap around the middle fold.
	Have child curl the end of the chenille stems for antennae.
	Show your child how to spread out the folded wings of her butterfly.

PENCIL HOLDERS

	Cut calendar pictures to fit around soup cans.
	Give your child a picture and a clean can, plus some glue.
	Show your child how to glue one side of the picture onto his can, then wrap the picture around the can and glue the other end, overlapping the other side.
	Let your child give the pencil can to someone for a gift.

TEACHING TOOLS

PUZZLES
Use the pictures from old calendars to make puzzles for your child.

	Glue the picture onto a piece of heavy paper.
	When dry, cut the paper into 4-8 puzzle pieces.
	Store the puzzle pieces in a zip-lock bag when not in use.

STORY STARTERS

	Sit with your child and hold up one picture from an old calendar.
	Using the picture as a starting point, start a story for your child.
	Stop every once in a while and encourage your child to contribute to the story.
	Continue the story as long as interest lasts.

COLOR SEARCH

	Give your child a picture from an old calendar.
	Ask her to point to different colored objects in the picture, or just say, “point to something in the picture that is green”.

LACING CARDS

	Glue a calendar picture to a piece of heavy paper.
	Now using a hole punch, punch holes around the edge of the picture.
	Give your child a lacing string, or a long shoe lace and have him sew around the Lacing Card.
Variation: You can make lacing strings, by taping one end of a piece of yarn to use as a needle. Also, before your child starts, tie the other end of the string through one of the lacing holes, so that the yarn will stay in place.

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