Jewish months calendar

Posted by: Kathryn on: 29 June, 2014

• In: Craft for kids | Craft for mums | Festivals
• 6 Comments

I wanted a simple calendar for my classroom which would show the entire Jewish year at a glance.  So I made this:

It is a laminated circle showing the Hebrew months set against the Gregorian calendar months.  I used a split pin (brad) to attach it to a backing piece of cardboard, so that you can rotate it as the year goes past.  (It actually was Adar when I made it!)  I put a second circle in the middle which does not need to rotate, and my original plan was that this would cover the brad.  Unfortunately I couldn’t find a brad which was large and flat enough that the circle would stick to it – so I had to put the brad through both circles.

Admittedly it is only approximate, and does not take into account leap years (when the Jewish calendar gains an entire extra month), but it does show the whole cycle of the year at once which was my main requirement.  I added stickers or drew pictures to indicate the main festivals.  I think this would be a great project for kids who are learning the names of the months of the Jewish calendar.

I made it by drawing concentric circles on the computer and then using a quilting ruler as a protractor to add the “spokes” after I had printed it.  You are welcome to use my template for the circles and add your own spokes and text.

I decided when I made it to write the months going anti-clockwise around the circle, but I notice now that every other circular, perpetual Hebrew calendar I can see on Google goes clockwise, so my classroom calendar might be unique in more ways than one!  However as long as the months are in the right order, I guess it doesn’t really matter too much.