The original 2011 Calendar is pretty popular. But Gaz was finding that there wasn’t any space to write anything on them. So he sent in this amazing new version!
New 2011 Calendar (pdf)
I’m actually most impressed by the funky font and colours of the days. Which got me thinking… would these calendars work as “Days of the Week” flashcards with each column highlighted or something? What do you reckon?
The reason I ask is that although the planets Days of the Weeks cards have been as expected proving a big hit with kids, I’m having quite a lot of teachers not liking them!
Maybe these calendar style ones are better?
And one more question, which would you prefer as the first day of the week, Monday or Sunday?
Hey these are realy cute!! Good idea….
I must be one of the teachers not liking the planets. SORRY!
I have them printed, but I NEVER use them. I just don’t get it, despite of so many explanations from your side!
I rally like the new calendar, though something is bothering my eye with the weekdays. I don’t know. I like them, and think they look great, but maybe it’s the brightness my eye is having problems wit h OR
it’s the capital writing through all the words.
Gaz, sorry, but could you -for testing- make just one page with only the beginning letter capital?
As always GOOD JOB! in any way!
I know Sunday is the first day of the week, but I prefer Monday! Monday, the first day of the school or work week (I like Saturday and Sunday to stay together for the weekend.)
I like all the bright colours of the new calendar, but I have a hard time reading the weekdays. It would be great,as Margit asked, if we could see them with only the first letter being capital.
One more thing, I do not get the wedding picture for June. Is it there because June is a big wedding month? But, I DO like the calendar, do not get me wrong! Good job!!
I like this calendar more than the previous one, which became too similar year after year.
The font for the numbers is really excellent, but I am inclined to agree with the posters above requesting lower case for the days.
As for the ‘old’ days cards, I think they are brilliant – and I find most of the kids agree. The planets attract the attention of boys who usually don’t care about English and the symbols help them differentiate. I don’t usually go into details about the names and stuff with kids but I have used the cards with adults too, who are often interested in the origin of the names.
Wow, really great calendars, both of them, thank you!!! However, I am painfully missing Baby Monkey on it – instead on each left upper corner there is a bunny… I am sure kids will ask where Baby Monkey is, as they just loooove him/her and can’t get enough of him/her!!!
I definitely would prefer the week to start with Monday.
Everything else is great, as usual, and I wish you all a happy, healthy and creative New Year! You guys rock!!!
Sorry Gudrun I don’t agree…the week should star with Sunday (listen to the famous Happy Days song). Though I agree that European kids have a hard time accepting it. I just gave my students a test and part of it was the days of the week…I wrote them in a random manner and they were supposed to put them in the correct order ( I did teach it starting with Sunday).. some kids started it with Monday…!
I like the idea of using these as the flashcard…I don’t really like the ones with the planets..but can’t tell you why!
Nena
Keep the “funky” font. Just yesterday I was reading an article at salon.com that states “A recent study out of Princeton, and brought to wider attention by Jonah Lehrer at Wired.com, suggests that ugly, irregular fonts can boost the amount of information readers retain from a text, while easy-to-read type is more likely to just sort of slide out of their minds.” Go figure!
http://www.salon.com/books/readers_and_reading/index.html?story=/books/laura_miller/2011/01/18/hideous_fonts
I love the calendars a lot. I think it’s not a problem for children if we teach first Sunday or Monday, because when we teach a language, we also teach its culture, and also Spanish calendars begin with Monday, I always teach my spanish students that in England they start with Sunday, the same that English people write them with capital letters and Spanis ones not. So… I love also the numbers because they are big but If English speakers say the date ( number) with ordinals numbers, Why don’t you writhe the ordinals numbers? I don’t understand.
Thank you for your materials and time.
I really like the new calendars but agree with Margit and a few others in that the days should maybe just have the capital at the start.
I am amazed by Gaz and how he makes these amazing printouts.I still have trouble with the easiest of tasks on a computer!
I do like the planets but still would like some other days cards just for other groups…..
Thanks always for the updates and new ideas.
Cant wait for the new CD’s! I am holding out at school so they can buy them before the rest of the money runs out!
Take care in the cold!
Smashing calendar! Please can we have Sunday first – I teach arab kids and Sunday is called “day 1 ” so we need it to be first – they go to school on Sundays – it’s the first day of their week!
I saw the other comments and I guess Gaz will have to do both versions – sorry Gaz – love your graphics!!
First off, awesome calendar Richard! While not regular, I kinda wanted to give my two cents on this subject.
Personally, I never really saw the association with the planets. I know historically the Romans based the days of the week on their deities, which were the planets, and a similar system was adopted by the Greek and the Norse (thus where we get our adoptation from). Really, they’re only moderately related to planets, and for completely different reasons than I felt the flash cards relayed (Personal opinion, in no way meant as an attack on Richard).
The other thing as far as starting Sunday vs Monday. I teach it as Sunday first for the simple fact that every calendar the kids will ever see in their life will start with Sunday. I figure it’s a bit more practical to teach it from that perspective.
Personally when I’ve taught days of the week, my flash cards (In Japan anyways), I teach them to the elements they already associate to the days of the week (Sun, Moon, Fire, Water, Wood, Gold, Earth) and simply have very animated depictions; Tuesday is a picture of Kirby shooting flames out of his mouth ^^. Although I’m not really sure my kids would like seeing Aygo running around on fire as a representation of Tuesday ><.
I prefer font number 32, 2nd pick 16 and 3rd pick would be 17. All of these choices are based on the fact the the ‘a’ is written as it should be, not as you see it here a. Also the first letters are capitals. Here in Japan I find many kids know the capital letters because they are used everywhere but they have a hard time with the lower case letters. In Oz many calendars start with Monday, Sorry I don’t want to get all religious on everyone but God rested on the 7 day, Sunday. Having Sat and Sun together is good. But here in Japan the first day of the week is Sunday.
Cheers, thanks for always letting us air or views.
Terry
I like #35 is is “clear” for even young students and it is genki!
Hello everyone!
I would like to stick on the walls a school-year calendar ( beginning in September ) and write the kids birthdays and special events… When do you usually start working on them? Either I start by printing Sept to Dec 2011 and wait for the new calendar or I print the whole year 2011 and cheat on the dates from Jan. till Aug…
Anyway thanks for your wonderful work…
Hi Emma,
Usually I do them in the Christmas week before New Year’s. So it’s probably best to just to do the ones for 2011 for now!