Grade 3: Calendar & Dates

Warm up with a quick recall on the board. Use a real calendar to read the day of the week for a date, count on the days between two dates, and work out whole weeks and leftover days in a month.

Calendar work is reading a month grid and using it: naming the days of the week and months of the year in order, finding a date, working out the day a date falls on, and counting the days between two dates. It puts number order and pattern to practical use. Model the method clearly, thinking aloud:

• Learn the seven days and twelve months in order first, since everything else depends on the sequence.
• Read the month grid: each column is a weekday and each row a week, so the same weekday sits in one column.
• Find the day for a date, and the date for a clue like 'the second Tuesday', by reading down the column.
• Count days between two dates by counting on through the grid, watching the jump from the end of one week to the next.
• Learn how many days each month has (the knuckle trick, or 'thirty days has September'), and that February has 28 or 29.

Work this through step by step on the board, then have the class talk you through a second one.

• Days from Mon 3rd to Mon 17th:
• 3rd -> 10th is 7 days (one week)
• 10th -> 17th is 7 days
• total: 7 + 7 = 14 days

Do the first few questions of the practice worksheet together, one child explaining each step. Check for understanding before releasing the class to work alone.

Students complete the worksheet independently. Hand out the three difficulty levels below so every child works at the right stretch.

Circulate and look for these, they are the usual sticking points:

• Getting the order of the months or the days wrong.
• Counting both the start and end date, or neither, so the total is out by one.
• Forgetting that months have different lengths, and that February varies.
• Losing count when a span crosses from one week or month into the next.
• Forgetting months have different numbers of days, and miscounting across the end of a week.

Pull the class back together. Ask one child to explain calendar & dates in their own words, pose a single check question everyone answers on a mini whiteboard, and name what you will build on next lesson.

Use the independent worksheet as the evidence. A child who can complete it accurately and explain one answer has met the objective; anyone who cannot needs the easier level and a short reteach next session.