Make a journal for the special days that you are counting down to on the rings (the rings that were a certain color). Depending on your child's ability, you can do any or all of the following:
BEFORE THE EVENT:
Have your child write about how he/she is feeling about the activity or special day. If your child is not writing, have him/her circle a happy face that is showing the correct emotion or tell you about it and you write it down.
Have your child write about what he/she thinks will happen that day. Again, the journal "entry" can be a drawing, a drawing plus a few written words (either by you or your child), a sentence, or a paragraph.
I know that sometimes the events occur in the morning or the morning can be taken up with having to get ready. Therefore, this activity may be best to do the day or night before.
AFTER THE EVENT:
Have your child write about the event after it occurs. Have him/her write about what happened, how he/she felt about it, how it was different than expected, who was there, etc. You may want to use the story order prompt that I created. (click here for the pdf file)
For those of you who have children who are working on pragmatics or who have Autism Spectrum Disorder, this can be a great activity! It can help you understand how your child is feeling about something that's coming up, it helps give your child the language to talk about how he/she is feeling, and is another method in trying to get your child to process the change or event that will occur.
Have fun with your journal entries. You can re-read them in order to talk about all the fun things you have done. It will also make a great keepsake!