Days, weeks and a calendar row

I can put the days in order and step one day forward or back.

A day name is a position. Wednesday is fixed by Tuesday on one side and Thursday on the other, and moving forward and moving back are one walk in opposite directions.

The child names a hidden day from the cards either side of it, and can say which direction the pointer moves for tomorrow and which for yesterday.

First lesson. Ask what day it is, then what day it will be tomorrow. Take the answer, then ask how they knew, and let the class find that they said the week to themselves.

The book names all seven days in order across five school days and moves along them with the same three words a child uses: tomorrow, yesterday and the day before.

Children deal the seven day cards in a jumble, lay them left to right in the story's order, read the line aloud touching one card per name, then walk a pointer one card right for each tomorrow and one card left for each yesterday, saying the day they land on.

An ordered seven-card strip, one hidden day named from its neighbours, and a pointer walk of four days forward and two back.

Children clip the cards into a ring so Saturday touches Sunday, walk the pointer round from Monday until it returns, and say how many days that walk took.

I can say tomorrow's name without starting again at Monday.

A question about tomorrow arrives in the middle of a conversation. Reciting the week to reach the answer is too slow to be an answer.

The child names three days on from a spun start with the ring face down, and asks and answers the book's own question form at least three times.

Yesterday the pointer did the work. Today the cards go face down and the child has to hold the order in their head.

The book heads its seven pages Monday through Sunday and pushes the play date forward one day at a time, so six of the seven days are spoken as somebody's tomorrow.

One partner reads a strip and says which day the scene happens on; the other names tomorrow as a whole day name and moves a counter one card round the ring, and they swap after every strip.

Every one of the book's tomorrow sentences answered with a whole day name, and three runs of three days from a spun start with the ring face down.

Partners take turns finishing the book's own question — tomorrow is ___, isn't it — with a day that may be right or wrong, and the listener either agrees or names the day that should have been there.

I can count back two days and check the answer against what the story said.

A position reached by stepping back can be checked against one the story stated outright. When both roads land on the same card, the rota is right — and a day the story never constrains has to stay empty.

The child places Albert twice, once from the story as it happens and once by counting back from Friday, and points out that both landed on the same card.

Both walks so far have gone where the teacher said. Today the walk answers a question: whose turn was Wednesday?

The class feeds the fish on a rota the book gives away in two separate places without ever writing it out: one classmate claims Tuesday and tells Albert his turn is tomorrow, and on Friday Albert names three days backwards.

Children lay the school-day cards in order, put the two turns the story shows onto their days, then put Rachel on Friday and walk one day back for yesterday's feeder and one further back for Albert's own turn, saying each day name as a card goes down.

A rota with four names placed, Albert's card reached by two different roads, and one school day left deliberately empty.

Children find the one school day with no name on it, say which day it is, and say whether the story anywhere tells them who fed the fish that day and why guessing a name would not be reading.

I can build a calendar row from one date I am given.

A calendar is not given, it is built. One date under its own day fixes every other square in the row, and the count runs both ways from it.

The child's row has the anchor under its own day and no column holding two numbers, and they can read the row aloud as date and day together.

The week has been seven cards in a line. Today it becomes seven columns with numbers under them, and only one number is given.

The back pages set three children a calendar quiz and give away exactly one anchor, that the 10th of May is a Tuesday. No calendar is ever drawn for the reader.

Children head seven columns with the day names in the book's order, write 10 in the Tuesday column of the middle row, then count back across the row to Monday and on to the end of the row, one number to a column.

A three-row grid with every square filled and a recording strip naming the day for the 7th, the 10th and the 21st.

Children fill the rows above and below, seven squares to a row, then find 7, 10 and 21 and write the day each sits under, saying each pair aloud before writing it.

I can find a date the book never prints and check it against the anchor.

The quiz gives the day after and never the day itself. One step back along the row answers it, and counting on to the anchor proves the columns stand where the book put them.

The child names what the question withholds before answering it, and gives the finished answer with both parts: the date, and the day it falls on.

Yesterday's grid was built to be filled. Today it is used to answer something the book refuses to say.

The quiz's last question gives a day name and the date of the day after it, and never gives the date of the day it is asking about.

Children read the question twice, point at the two things the book gives and say the one thing it never gives, then find 21 on their grid, step one square left, and write the date they land on.

A recording card carrying the birthday date and the day it falls on, with the columns checked by counting back to the tenth.

Children read the day name above the square they landed on, count back along the grid to the tenth under Tuesday saying every date as they pass, and say whether the day they read is the Friday the quiz prints.

I can say whether an activity happens on one day or on any day.

A rule that names a day can be checked against the strip and gives one answer. A rule that says any day cannot be checked that way, and gives many.

The child says each row's rule in one sentence and says which row you could ask about Thursday and get one answer.

The grid answered a question about a date. Today the class finds a kind of question a calendar cannot answer at all.

Albert keeps colliding with school because at home nothing is pinned to a day and at school everything is. The book states both rules outright, three times each, and never resolves them.

Children build a school row where every activity sits on exactly one day card and a home row with no day cards at all, then move the painting card between the rows and say how many days it is allowed on in each.

Two rows with their rules said aloud, and one activity that has been in both with its day count named each time.

Children put a nap slip on the school row where the teacher's rule puts it and one in the home row, say what decides it there, and say which of the two rules a clock could check.

I can count the months from one named month to another.

Months step the way days do. Count the landings and not the box you started in, and the answer is a number of months rather than a pair of names.

The child hops both counts — to March and then to the later month the book allows — and reports both numbers.

Six lessons of stepping along days. Today the boxes are months, and the walk is the same walk.

The book asks how long winter is four times over and answers it none of them, but its notes name two months: the den is dug around the middle of October and the bears leave in March or April.

Children find both months on a twelve-month strip, put a red counter on the month the den is dug and a blue one on the month the bears come out, and hop a finger one box at a time saying each month name aloud, counting the hops rather than the starting box.

Two month counts reported aloud, one to March and one to April, and a coloured strip showing the child's own winter.

Children line their coloured strip under the bear's, January under January, say which winter has more months in it and put a finger where the shorter run stops — without working out how many more.