How to Make an Earth Cycle Calendar

Write out the list of earth cycles that you wish to include on your calendar. This may include the growing season, as it changes through the season, the phases of the moon, average rainfall in different times of the year, hours of sunlight throughout the seasons, fruiting seasons for various plants, the movement of the constellations or any other natural cycle.

Look up the information you will need for your calendar. Some data, such as phases of the moon, will be precise and refer to specific dates. Other data are natural cycles, such as planting seasons, and may occur during a more loosely defined period. Check out some of the examples found in the Resources section.

Make a rough draft. Draw a large circle out on a poster board in pencil. For this step, write lightly with the pencil so that mistakes are easier to clean up. Use a compass to divide the circle into 365 equal portions. Each section will be approximately 0.986 degrees. By making your earth cycle calendar in a circle, you represent a way of measuring time that is in accordance with natural systems.

Refer to a traditional calendar and mark off the small marks into 12 months. Make January first at either the top or the bottom of your calendar according to your own taste. Make slightly thicker lines to denote the beginnings and ends of the four seasons. Winter officially begins on the winter solstice, which is either Dec. 21 or Dec. 22. At the time of publication, the date was Dec. 21. In the United States, spring begins on March 20. Summer begins on either June 21 or 22. At the time of publication, summer began on June 21. Fall begins on either Sept. 22 or 23. At the time of publication, fall began on Sept. 23.

Add any daily data you may have collected. This could include the phases of the moon or the hours of sunlight. Write this data in a wider circle surrounding the dates. Decorate the calendar by drawing the moon, or a sun higher or lower in the air to represent the increasing and decreasing hours of daylight.

Add more abstract information such as growing seasons and rainfall. If you wish to use the calendar to remember to plant things on a certain date, you can draw the plant or write its name on those dates. If you wish to add growing seasons for a more decorative purpose, draw the plants on relative dates. For instance, you could draw cherry and plum blossoms in late winter and early spring, and pumpkins and squash in the fall. You may also wish to show the growing season more generally, by drawing young buds and shoots in the spring, plants in full bloom in summer, retreating plants losing their leaves in the winter, and empty fields or dead stalks in the winter. For rainfall, you may wish to draw heavy clouds over the rainy months, no clouds over the summer months, and clouds pushed by wind in the fall and spring months.

Add the constellations. The simplest way to do this is to draw each constellation of the zodiac at the time when it is dominant in the night sky.

Finalize the calendar. Look over your calendar and check that you like the arrangement you have drawn out in pencil. Color it in with colored pencils or markers, deepen the lines with pen, or use paints to add your illustrations. You may wish to color in a large yellow sun in the center of the calendar to show that all of the earthy cycles displayed are dependent upon the Earth's revolution around the sun.