I absolutely love finding reasons to count, and we can get really crazy about making countdown calendars but I always forget to capture them. Also since most associate them with the holidays I had a tough time finding the right image until I remembered that I had actually taken photos of the one we did when my favorite and former co-teacher Mr. Jey went home on vacation to Puerto Rico. At the time I was really worried about his departure because Jey's vacation was six, yes 6 weeks long so I wondered how I could make the children aware of where Mr. Jey was and more importantly when he would be coming back! It isn't often that we have the privilege of having males in the early childhood classroom and when we do their absence is truly noticed. So I definitely wanted them to have a tangible piece of evidence that they could see just how long it would be before Jey returned whenever they would start to miss his presence in our class. I have to thank Mr. Jey because he actually did the all artwork for this poster seeing as how I can't draw a straight line! (Thanks Jey!) 
Every day during our morning meeting we would include a "Where in the World is Mr. Jey?" (report). The children really enjoyed counting the days we had left and how many days it had been since Mr. Jey had left for his trip. I have to admit it really made a big difference in the classroom climate. Anytime I would have a child ask me where Mr. Jey was or when he was coming back we would go over our countdown calendar. I do admit I only counted the school days because I didn't want to make it so difficult that they would lose interest or hope that Jey would ever return! The children got so good with it that they would begin to lead the lesson which was a real treat! The only thing I would have done differently would be to add the numbers to build on number recognition. So don't wait for the holidays to roll around, seize the activities you've got coming up right now for some real meaningful learning moments!
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