Children's Ministry: Kids Sunday School Resource- Church Seasons Calendar Wheel Poster

Seasons of the Church Poster - finished size approx. 20 inches

Kids Seasons of the Church wheel Poster
Liturgical Seasons Wheel Poster
Sacred Seasons and Days in the Life of the Church Poster

Print each page.

Color printing works best, but the wheel will work if you print the season sections using a black and white printer

(minimum grade 2, to 8)

Why do many of the dates change from year to year in the church calendar except Christmas Day?
Christmas day is a birthday. Everybody's birthday is a specific date each year.So is the birthday for Jesus.
When is your birthday? (let each one answer)
Thanksgiving comes on a different date every year. A long time ago, (1942) the United States government declared the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving. It comes about the same time every year on the same day of the week, but on a different date.
( If you have a multi-year calendar, you may show the class.)
The leaders of our church (denomination) figure out what dates we should celebrate special days, especially Easter. Then they decide each year, when many of the other special days and seasons will be - those that do not have a set date. The date for Easter Sunday/Resurrection Sunday is key.

Pentecost, Lent, Advent and some other seasons and days are figured out by counting days from Easter or Christmas.

The church seasons are made in a circle or wheel, because they go on, round and round. No matter where you start on the wheel, after you go all the way around, you keep on going all the way around again and again, changing the specific dates for a certain year.
Ordinary Time - sometimes called the season of Pentecost, is the longest season - almost half a year.

SEQUENCE:

If you start with Ordinary Time,
Advent (follows ordinary time)
Christmas / Christmastime / Christmastide (follows Advent)
Lent (follows Christmas)
Easter (follows Lent)
Pentecost and Trinity Sunday( follows Eastertime / Eastertide)
and you are back to Ordinary time.

The church season calendar is called a liturgical calendar while a regular calendar is called a secular calendar. Secular calendars show Thanksgiving, the 4th of July, presidents days, new years Day, etc. - government holidays, and sometimes major church holidays. A lectionary or liturgical calendar shows church related special days and seasons, but does not necessarily show government holidays.

Teacher side note: a lectionary also shows specific Bible readings for each Sunday in the year.

Get the  6 main pages plus the yellow and blue Special Days Addition sheet if you want to add other Special Church Dates within the wheel. Write them in and include the date.

The direction of the arrow shows the flow of the seasons, and this wheel is shown in it's correct order.