Why do this problem?

This activity will help learners become more familiar with our calendar.  In particular, the task will reinforce the order of months in a year and the number of days in each month.

Possible approach

Introduce the task by telling the story about your cat jumping on to your desk and knocking the calendar onto the floor (or something similar).  You need the class' help to sort out the calendar cards.

It would be a good idea to say little else at this stage.  Give pairs or small groups a copy of the cards and give them plenty of time to have a go. If you have access to tablets or a suite of computers, you could invite learners to use the interactivity. Emphasise that you are particularly keen to understand how they approach the task, not simply to know their answer.

At an appropriate point, you may like to draw everyone back together for a class sharing of ideas (mini plenary). Some learners may be stuck and need some help to see how to move forward. Others may benefit from articulating their emergent ideas.  You can then give them more time to continue with the task. 

Each pair/group could make a poster about the task, outlining the reasoning that has led to the solution. They could stick down the cards to show the completed calendar.

Key questions

How might you start?
What do you know about the number of days in each month?

Possible extension

For an extra challenge, why not give children the cards from these sheets which are the months from a three-year calendar.  This time, they have to sort them into the three consecutive years, month by month.

Possible support

These cards (word, pdf) follow the same idea but with more support. The months are from a different year to the main task, and are colour coded according to the season. Key dates are marked with pictures to provide some starting points for the children.

It might also help to have several current calendars available so children can remind themselves of its structure.