Our (Cheap!) Morning Calendar Board - 3YO Preschool

Next week, we will be starting our preschool homeschool. Tripp is very excited to start school time again. We haven't done any formal tot school work all summer. We've been working on spelling and sight reading, which he's really good at, and counting to 100. But I'm happy we will be getting back to a regular curriculum. I'll be doing a post about that soon. First, I want to show off our Morning Calendar Board.

Aside from what I had on hand, I spent $3 at the Dollar Tree to make this. Including everything else, it would come in about $6.

Supplies Used:

• paper/cardstock/printer
• laminator with pouches
• paper cutter
• metal rings 1.25" (Dollar Tree, two packs of 8)
• thumbtacks
• brads
• Velcro dots
• page protector
• folded cardboard project board (Dollar Tree) 
• hole punch (I used this Crop-A-Dile)

How I made it: Most of the Morning Boards I've seen were on poster or foam board and stuck on a wall. I wanted something we could move to different areas of the house, because I don't see us homeschooling in just one room. Also, I can take all the flip cards off and fold this down to hide it if I want it totally out of the way. I used thumbtacks to hang all the flip cards. I had to get the hubby to use his pliers to bend the thumbtacks in the back so they weren't sticking out dangerously. I printed, laminated, and hole punched all the pieces.

DATE CARDS: The flippable date cards across the top came from Mama Jenn's blog. I loved the overall look of her morning board, so she's where I started when I was deciding what all I should include and how it should look. I printed these on regular paper because I plan to handle these more than Tripp.

TODAY, TOMORROW, YESTERDAY: This came from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Each day has a Velcro dot, as do the squares we will be moving around.

SIGHT WORDS: This came from Carisa over at 1+1+1=1. I got it out of her Calendar time notebook printable, shrunk it to 80%, printed it on green cardstock, and laminated it so I can use a dry erase marker each week as with go through that curriculum. I have the full version of this ($10), but she offers most of it for free on her website.

COLOR OF THE DAY: I also got these from 1+1+1=1. I put a Velcro dot on the front of the pocket, and on the back of each color. Tripp is already really good with his colors, so he'll be picking the color of the day each day.

SHAPES: These flash cards are the same ones Mama Jenn uses. I liked them because they include the basic 3D shapes, which is something I've been working on with Tripp the last few weeks since he knows his 2D shapes well. These are another thing he'll be picking each day himself. (Once you click the link, scroll down to find the Shape Flash Cards.) These are laminated, hole punched, and put on rings.

LETTER OF THE WEEK: These came from the 1+1+1=1 Animal ABC Bundle. I printed out the uppercase and lowercase letters for the week, cut them out, and glued them to a sheet of colored cardstock. They are attached to the board with a heavy duty sheet protector that's open on both ends. That way, I can pull this out for the lessons he needs it in front of him, and I can easily change it every week as we go through the alphabet. We are doing the Kumon order so we can work with penmanship, which means L is up first! I have the full version of this ($10), but Carisa has most of this bundle up for free on her website.

WHAT'S THE WEATHER/SEASON: From Confessions of a Homeschooler. I added the Saturday & Sunday printables from the Today/Tomorrow/Yesterday chart for symmetry's sake. And just in case we need it. Each set of rings has all the possible weather options on it. We will start the week with all the cards face down, and will flip through to pick which card is appropriate each day. The seasons chart we will change as needed. It's laminated with a brad holding the arrow in place.

EVERY DAY SONG: This is a printable from 1+1+1=1, but I didn't use the whole page. I laminated it, cut it down to just the song, then made a border of green with cardstock.

CLOCK: So many free printable clocks online for them to (almost) ALL be ugly! I was SO glad to hunt down this SUPER CUTE one from Hank & Hunt! This is printed on cardstock, laminated, and the hands are attached with a brad. I put 4 Velcro dots on the back at 12, 3, 6, and 9 to attach it to our board so when I'm specifically teaching time, we can pull this down to use it. During daily morning board time, we will set it for whatever time we start our day.

How will we use it? I printed Tripp out his own Calendar Notebook from Mama's Learning Corner. I also added in trace the day of the week pages from 1+1+1=1.  So as we work through his notebook, we will be going over each thing on the board.

And there you have it! A cheap Morning Board! I'll post again in a few weeks with a followup to let you know how it is working for us!