Printable Month Names

What are the benefits of learning month names?

1.       Describes current situation in detail way

When we have to tell an occurring situation, mentioning a name of the month helps the description become more precise.

2.       Thinks in order and systematically

Memorizing all names of months will be perfect if we know which one is the first, second, to last order of the months.

3.       Be capable to predict events

The probability of next activities can be estimated when we decide the right month.

4.       Makes the estimation of the duration of events more accurate

When we already know the sequence of month names correctly, we will understand how long activities will occur or be done.

 

When should we introduce month names?

When children begin their studies, they have learned reading, writing, and telling about their surroundings. Those skills will help them to learn month names. So, we can begin to introduce month names since first grade at school, approximately at the age 6 to 8 years old. They also commonly learn about telling time simultaneously.

 

What are the problems when learning month names?

1.       Confusions of abbreviations

Sometimes, we commonly find on TV, websites, and the internet that January is written as “Jan” or “J” in the first order instead of “January”. This makes them confused since the first time they were introduced, they were shown the full name instead.

2.       Inability to name a certain name to describe current month

They feel like they need to go through from January in order to mention the occurring month.

 

How to teach kids month names?

1.       Introduce months vocabularies

Maybe they have heard “December” during Christmas. But, they haven't learned the other names of the month. Thus, we can use calendars to show all the months we have in a year.

2.       Arrange month names in order

Month names will be useful if we put them in order. So, we can know which month that comes first or last. Therefore, we need to teach them how to sequence month names. We can try arranging the first four month names so that they don’t feel overwhelmed.

3.       Learn calculating the span

When counting the duration, we need to know the difference between a certain month to the other months. Teach them how to skip months forwards and backwards so that they know the difference. This is similar to learning skipping numbers using a number chart.

4.       Associate month with certain events

Kids can understand month names better if it’s personalized. For instance, they can remember Christmas in December. Or simply let them know that they were born in March.