Strategies

Students can:

• read a visual text (calendar)
• understand how calendars are structured
• order the days and months

Activities to support the strategies

Activity 1

Students group themselves according to their birthday month.

Students write the names of the months on large cards. They then place the month cards in the correct order.

Ask:

• Which month is the first in the year?
• Which is the second month? etc.

When cards are in order, students sit in a line behind their birthday month. This could be used as the basis for a chart of student birthdays.

Activity 2

Play dice roll in pairs or small groups. Students are given a card with the months listed in the incorrect order. Each student rolls a 12-sided dice and places a counter on the ordinal of the month to match the number rolled. The first student to complete their card wins.

Make a class calendar for the current month, using a blank grid, a month card, a set of cards numbered from 1 to 31 and a set of cards with the days of the week. Have students assist in remaking the calendar at the beginning of each month.

Have a class quiz about the calendar for the month to identify special days or particular days, for example, the date of a student's birthday, a class excursion, the date of the 3rd Monday.

Activity 3

Use the calendar below to answer the following questions:

• How many days are in January?
• What day of the week is January 17?
• What day of the week is January 29?
• How many Mondays are in January?
• How many Wednesdays are in January?
• Colour the numbers on the calendar.
• Colour weekends blue and weekdays yellow

References

Australian Curriculum

ACMMG041: Use a calendar to identify the date and determine the number of days in each month.