Video Transcript
Reading Calendars
In this video, we’re going to learn
how to use a calendar to tell the day and the month of an event and to write the
date. We call this a calendar. This one’s made out of paper. But we can find calendars in all
sorts of places, even on a mobile phone or a computer.
Calendars show all 12 months of the
year. The first page of this calendar
shows the first month of the year, which is January. Do you remember the 12 months of
the year in order? January, February, March, April,
May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and the last month of the
year is December before we start back at January again in the new year.
So if we turn the page on our
calendar from January, we get to see the month of February, then March, April, and
so on. Let’s stop on the month of
April. What can we see? We can see that part of the page
has been divided into squares. We could call this a grid. And each of the squares has got a
number in it, well, not all of the squares. Some of the squares have been
shaded in with a color. These show us that they’re not part
of the month of April. The only days in the month of April
are those with numbers in them.
And the numbers tell us what day of
the month it is. Here’s a question for you. How many days are in the month of
April altogether? We can see that the first day of
April has a number one written in it. This is the first day of the
month. And the last day of the month is
the one with the last number in it. We can see this is 30. So we can say there are 30 days in
April altogether. The month of April begins on April
the first, and it ends on April the 30th. When we write out a day of the year
like this, we call it a date.
Now, what else can you see about
our calendar? We can see that all the squares
with numbers in, so that’s all the days of the month, are arranged in rows. How many squares are in each
row? One, two, three, four, five, six,
seven.
Now, why do you think the person
that first designed the calendar decided to put seven squares in each row? Why not four or five or 10? There’s a reason why they chose
seven. There’s a clue at the top of our
calendar. Can you see the seven things that
are written there? There are seven squares in each row
because each square represents a different day of the week. There are seven days of the week,
aren’t there? Now, we know what these letters
refer to. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Now we can give even more
information about the date. Let’s imagine that this girl has
planned a trip to a museum. She’s so excited she’s put a big
ring around the date on her calendar. And we ask her, when is it that you
are going to the museum? Let’s read the date on the calendar
to help her answer the question.
Our calendar shows us the names of
the days of the week. And we can see that the number that
the girl has circled is level with Saturday. We know the month of the year
because it’s in big letters at the top of the calendar. And we can tell which day of the
month it is by reading the number in the square. The girl can say she’s going to the
museum on Saturday the 24th of April.
Let’s put into practice what we’ve
learned now. We’re gonna try answering some
questions where we have to read information from calendars.
Let’s take a look at the
calendar. What month is it? What day is the first of the
month? What day is the last of the
month?
We can see a picture of one page of
a calendar. Calendars are what we use to tell
the time. Not what time of the day it is in
hours and minutes. We use clocks and watches for
things like that. But this tells us what time of the
year it is, in months and days. And if we were to flip over this
page of the calendar, we’d find a new month underneath.
Our first question has got the word
“month” in it. What month is it? If we look carefully at the page of
the calendar that we’re shown, we can only see one month on there. Can you find where it is? It’s here, isn’t it? We can see that the month of the
year that the calendar shows is November. If you know your months of the
year, you’ll know this is the month before the last month of the year.
Our second question has got a
different time word in it. It asks us for a day. What day is the first of the
month? We can see that the calendar is
split up into lots of little rectangles. And most of them have got numbers
in. These numbers are a way of showing
us all the different days in November. So where do you think the first day
of November will be?
The first day of November is shown
by a rectangle with the number one in it. It’s November the first. Now, our question asks us, what day
is the first of the month? In other words, what day of the
week? If we look carefully at the top, we
can see the days of the week if we go across the calendar. And if we put our finger on the
first and move it upwards, we can see it’s level with this day of the week here.
Now, unfortunately, that blue ring
we drew is covering over some of the word. But we can see that Wednesday is
the day before it. So we can use our brains and think
to ourselves what the day might be. The day after Wednesday is
Thursday. On this calendar, the first day of
November, which is November the first, happens on a Thursday.
Finally, we’ve got another “what
day” question to answer. What day is the last of the
month? To find the answer, we can use
exactly the same skills as we used when we found the first day of the month. The last rectangle with a number in
it is this one. So we know there must be 30 days in
November. And if we put our finger on 30 and
go all the way up to the top, we can see the day of the week. On this calendar, the last day of
the month, which is the 30th of November, will happen on a Friday.
We’ve read our calendar to find out
some facts. We know that the month of the year
is November. The first day of November will be
on a Thursday. And the last day of November will
be on a Friday.
The Wednesday which follows the
date shown will be the what of August.
In the picture, we can see an
object which has the date written on it. Do you know the name for an object
like this? It’s a calendar. But you might say, “Wait a
minute! I thought a calendar was a page
that showed a month on it and it showed all the different days of the month.” This calendar seems to just show
one day, Sunday, August the 19th. What about the next day or the next
day?
Well, the picture does show a
calendar, but it’s a different sort of calendar than the one you might be used
to. This one is a really thick calendar
because it shows one day of the year at a time. We’re only shown one page of this
calendar. So we need to try to think about
what the rest of the calendar might look like, because the question asks us to think
about days which follow the date shown. What do you think the next day
after this day might look like?
Well, the day after Sunday will be
Monday. There are 31 days in August. So the month isn’t going to
change. It’s still going to be August. The day that follows the date shown
will be Monday the 20th of August. If we read our question carefully,
it doesn’t ask us for the day that follows the date shown. It asked us for the next Wednesday
that follows the date shown.
You might be able to work the
answer out in your head here. Or we could keep sketching calendar
pages like this. But it’s always good to practice
using the other sort of calendar. So let’s make a sketch of one of
those.
First, we’ll start with the days of
the week. We’ll start from Sunday because the
day we’re looking at is a Sunday. We know all the days are in August,
and the day we’re counting from is Sunday the 19th of August. So we don’t need to write all the
other days from one to 18, we’re just starting from 19. This means that Monday will be the
20th of August. The Tuesday that follows the date
shown will be the 21st of August. And the Wednesday that follows the
date shown will be the 22nd of August.
We don’t need to do anything
else. We don’t need to write all the
numbers to the end of the month. We don’t even need to carry on to
the end of the week. It’s only three days from Sunday to
Wednesday, and that’s all we had to count on. The Wednesday which follows Sunday
the 19th of August will be the 22nd of August.
If the 14th of November is a
Monday, what day of the week is the 16th of November?
In this question, we’re given some
information about a day of the year. And we need to use this to find
some information about another day of the year. The day of the year we’re first
told about is the 14th of November. And we’re told that this is a
Monday. We need to use this information to
help us find the day of the week that the 16th of November falls on.
Now, there are one or two ways we
could find the answer to this. We could start on 14 and count on
to 16, just see how many days that is. Another way to find the answer
might be to think about what the calendar for November might look like. Let’s draw a quick sketch to help
us. We know that calendars are split
into rows of seven squares, one square for each day of the week.
Now, if we were sketching the whole
month of November, we’d start with the number one. But our question talks about the
14th and then the 16th of November. So we only need to quickly sketch
part of the calendar. We’re told that the 14th of
November is a Monday, so we can write the number 14 in this square here. It’s level with Monday on our
calendar. Now, let’s carry on writing some
more numbers, and we’ve got the 14th, then the 15th, then the 16th. Do we need to carry on? We don’t, do we? We’ve got all the information we
need.
If the 14th of November is a
Monday, then the 15th of November must be the next day of the week, which is a
Tuesday. And so the 16th of November must be
a Wednesday. To get from 14 to 16, we count on
two. And if we count on two days from
Monday, we get to Wednesday. If the 14th of November is a
Monday, the 16th of November will be on a Wednesday.
What have we learned in this
video? We’ve learned how to use a calendar
to tell the day and the month and to write the date.
