Months of the Year Activity They’ll Love (and so will you!)

Inside: This months of the year activity includes a free printable, plus additional resources to help you teach your kids the individual months as well as the concept of 12 months in a year.

Fun months of the year activity using a paper plate

I have the months of the year stuck in my head. You know that song that kids sing in preschool and kindergarten? That one. You’re welcome to sing along as you make this simple months of the year activity with us. Here’s the version we sing. (By the way, this entire video is a great teaching resource.)

With a new year starting, I’ve been reflecting on last year and looking ahead to the coming one. My girls are getting too old for preschool and even kindergarten crafts, but I still like to make them to share here.

This activity for learning the months of the year actually did catch their interest. They already know their months of the year, both by memory and as sight words. Yet, they love anything interactive, and anything they can color. They were happy to get their hands on this.

RELATED: Months of the Year Craft for Teaching about each month

Months of the Year Activity

This months of the year activity is super easy because I’ve made up a free printable for you. Really, all you have to do it cut and glue it on, an add a couple of interactive features to make it fun.

The pointer spins around, and the year slides up and down. So you can show your kids how, as you move from December to January, you change the year.

months-of-the-year-free-printable

(Disclosure: Books and Giggles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. I only recommend books I own or would be completely willing to buy myself.)

Months of the Year Activity – Materials

Here’s what you’ll need to gather:

  • Paper plates
  • Free printout (see below)
  • Crayons or colored pencils
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Clear #1 plastic, such as from a strawberry box
  • Permanent marker – we used yellow
  • Hole punch – I used this one (affiliate), which is 1/8″, but I think a standard one would work too
  • Paper fastener (affiliate)
months of the year activity

Grab Your Copy

To download the free, perfectly sized printable template, just click the blue Books and Giggles button at the very end of this post.

Instructions

  1. Color both parts of the printout, and then cut them out.
  2. Glue the circle cutout onto the paper plate.
  3. Cut out a plastic pointer from your clear plastic (the cut plastic can get sharp until you round the corners, so be careful). Color one side of the pointer with yellow (or another light color) permanent marker.
  4. Punch a hole in the plastic pointer. Attach it to the paper plate with a paper fastener.
  5. Cut 2 slits in the top of the paper plate wide enough for the year strip. Weave the paper through the slits.
cutting out the free printable for teaching months of the year

Your kids will love spinning the month arrow around and around, and changing the year every January.

Months of the Year Books

I spent some time looking for a story about Months of the Year to go along with this activity…

Oh my word! I’m in love with each one of these! They’re all perfect for teaching poetry as well as for reinforcing the months of the year.

santas-eleven-months-off


Santa’s Eleven Months Off is a fun new book about what Santa does the rest of the year. There’s a poem for each month.

months book

Chicken Soup With Rice by Maurice Sendak (of Where the Wild Things Are fame) is a classic. This one also has a fun poem for each month of the year. I may get several of these stuck in my head next.

calendar book

A Child’s Calendar by John Updike is simply gorgeous. There’s a lovely poem for each month, and beautiful watercolor pictures on each page spread. This was a Caldecott Honor book.

RELATED: Here are 12 more books about the months of the year. This is one of my very favorite book lists!

Do you have the months of the year stuck in your head now too? January, Feburary, March and April…

Additional Months of the Year Activities

If you’re interested in even more activities for teaching the months of the year, you may like this huge months of the year resource in my store, or find it here in my Teachers Pay Teachers store:

Perfect for pinning:

Teach the months of the year with this free printable activity

Download the Year Wheel Printable

Ready for the free printable that makes this craft super easy?

To get your very own copy, you can sign up right here:

I’ll add you to my weekly-ish newsletter too – it’s full of ideas and more free printables. Of course, you can unsubscribe at any time.

33 Comments

  1. I’ve tried on 2 different devices and the download will not work. It states that the server cannot be contacted and then after I’ve tried a few times, it says I’ve downloaded too many times. Can you please email the PDF to me? Thank you!

    1. Thanks so much for letting me know! I think I’ve fixed the problem now, but I also emailed it to you since you’ve been through enough trouble already. I hope you enjoy the free printable 🙂

  2. My students loved it !! They’ve been singing the song every day if January and this seemed like such a perfect tie-in.
    They can’t wait to show them to their families!
    Thank you !

    1. Thanks for letting me know. I sent you an email, but wanted to let you know here too. The links expire after I think 5 days. So you’ll need to request it again. You can use your same info and the system will send it out to you a second time. I’m sorry for the inconvenience, and hope you and your kiddos enjoy their months of the year activity enough to make it worth the trouble 🙂

  3. I love this to reinforce the months with my kinders! Unfortunately, the download didn’t work for me either. Any suggestions?

    1. Sorry you were confused. Read the paragraph right below the photo with scissors cutting out the printable. Once you fill in your info, you’ll need to check your email inbox (and maybe your spam folder) for the link to the file.

  4. I’ve tried several times to fill it out and have emailed to me, but it’s not coming through. It’s not in my junk box. Can you please help me out by sending it?

    1. Hi Isabel,
      I’m so sorry you’re having trouble. I just checked it, and it seems to be working fine here, and I can see that other people have downloaded it today. Is it possible you skipped the “I’m not a robot” part? Hope you can get it to work for you!

  5. My daughter will adore this. Still having downloading issues. I enter my email, but nothing happens!

    1. I’m so sorry! I’m working to resolve the problem quickly. Meanwhile, I emailed it to you so you don’t have to wait.

  6. What a fun activity for children and moms to do together. It hits all the biggies – learning, scissor skills, coloring, and having fun together.

  7. Thanks for this printable! I am excited to print this out and try it with my 4-year-old. He doesn’t know months or seasons yet, but this is a great starting point!

        1. I’m sorry it’s not working. I’m not sure what happened. I will go in and try to figure out what’s wrong later this morning.
          -Heather

        2. Oh, actually that was an easy fix! I updated my plugin on the backend and now it works perfectly. Let me know if you have any further problems with it.

  8. Hi Heather,
    I can’t down load your awesome months of the year paper plate. Could you please send me the email link?
    Thanks,
    Trina Wilson

    1. Hi Trina,
      It was sent to your email. Check your bulk folder if you don’t see it in your main inbox, and let me know if you still don’t see anything from me.
      Heather

  9. Hello! I am excited to use this tomorrow with my class. I can’t seem to download it- please, please, please can you email the link? Thank you!

    1. Hi Rachel,
      I’m sorry you’re having trouble downloading it. As it is set up right now it automatically downloads the pdf after you sign up (which I can see that you did). Do you have a popup blocker that could have interfered that you can turn off with a button click and try again? If not, let me know and I’ll try to find the file on my computer 🙂
      Heather

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