How to teach your child the 12 months of the year : Kindergateners

The different months of the year is a foundational concept all children learn. It helps them understand the passage of time, helps them count dates, and gives them perspective. Once your child becomes aware of their surroundings, they may start asking you, “When is my birthday?” or “When will it be sunny again?” or “When will it rain again?” 

Such questions are hints that you need to teach them about seasons, weather, the concept of years, and as a result, months. The first step is days of the week; once that is understood, the next level is months. Once months are clear, they have a clear frame of reference for long and short periods of time, such as how long a year is, how long a week is, seasons, birthdays, important events, and so on.

How to teach the months of the year

Using Song 

There are several songs out there whose words are designed to teach the order and names of the months. One of the popular tunes is “Michael Finnegan”, just break the months down like so: 

January February March and April, 
May, June, July and August,
September October November December, 
Make up the months of the year!       

You can also look to other tunes, like, “Oh my darling Clementine!” or even make up your own!  

Word games

At a Pre-K or Kindergarten level, your child may not be able to read or write all the months of the year, so your word games might have to be oral. You can start by saying the months one after the other and have them repeat it. Once they are comfortable saying the words out loud, move to order, placing each month in the right order. One way to gamify this process is to use positive reinforcement. Get them excited about learning the months; if they see you having fun, they will likely think of this activity as fun.    

Poems

The months of the year have been around a long time, and there are so many classic poems that you can use. Here is one from the 1500s that is still in use today! While it might not get the order right, it teaches the number of days in every month. 

Thirty days has September,

April, June, and November,

All the rest have 31,

Excepting February alone,

Which has 28 days clear,

And 29 in each Leap Year.

Monthly planner 

Using a monthly planner is a really simple way to drill down the months, especially if they are already learning to read and write. Here is a simple monthly planner made specifically for children that you can use. Each month has a separate page, so you can use it to teach and track their progress. 

At byjuslearning.com, we provide curriculum-aligned, grade-level learning experiences for kids between ages 4 to 8, helping them build on skills they learn in school.