Back to School Countdown Calendar Craft

Back to School Countdown Calendar Craft

This may or may not be a great craft for your child anticipating the new school year. My oldest child is not suffering any form of anxiety in starting Kindergarten in September  (unlike his mother who is having a harder time with the idea). He actually asked me to make this countdown calendar to help him count how many days there are until the new school year begins. It may cause the "I'm not so sure of this Kindergarten thing" child to go into anxiety as the day draws near (sometimes not knowing exactly when it's going to hit ya is a good thing!) You can create this anyway that you would like. Below are some Kindergarten-ready steps on how to make our Countdown Craft.

Classified: Fun & educational. Incorporates: tracing, cutting, letter and number recognition as well as hand-writing numbers!

What you need:

• Letter Stencils to spell out SCHOOL
• Kid friendly scissors
• Glue
• Black marker
• Colored construction paper
• A dry erase board or chalk board. We purchased ours from a dollar store (love them).

What you do:
1. Have your child spell out the word SCHOOL with the letter stencils (letter recognition and spelling).

2. Allow them to chose a color for each letter in the word school (color identification).

3. Trace each letter and cut out (small motor skills and cutting skills).

Tracing letter stencils

4. Glue the word school onto the dry erase/chalk board. (spelling)

5. We discussed what objects reminded my son of school. He came up with an apple and lunch box. We drew them together and wrote out 'Days' and 'Until'.

6. Glue the school objects with the words Days and Until in sequence to read out "Days Until School."

7. Use a calendar and count together how many days there are until school begins. Have your child write them on your completed countdown board. (Counting, number recognition, and writing)

Writing the days until school

8. Have your child erase and write the number each day. As the school day draws closer discuss their fears, what it is going to be like- and start preparing by going to bed earlier!

A face only a mother could love!

Happy new school year to all you new Kindergartners!