Calendars, Days and Months

What you will learn

• Name the days of the week and the months of the year in order.
• Say how many days are in each month.
• Read a calendar page and find a date a week or more later.

Before you start: you should be able to count to $31$. Skip Counting in 2s, 5s and 10s can help with counting in sevens too.

The idea

A calendar is a chart of days. It helps us plan birthdays, holidays and school terms. A day is one turn of the Earth. We group days into weeks, weeks into months and months into a year.

Days of the week

There are $7$ days in a week, always in the same order: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. After Sunday the week starts again with Monday. Different countries start the week on different days, and the calendars on this site start on Monday.

Months of the year

There are $12$ months in a year: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.

Months have different numbers of days.

A year has $365$ days. Roughly every four years, February gets an extra day, $29$ February, and that year has $366$ days. It is called a leap year. The year $2028$ is a leap year.

Reading a calendar page

A calendar page shows one month. Each row is a week, and each column is a day of the week. The number in each box is the date.

To find the day of a date, look at which column its box is in.

Counting forward

Dates in the same column are exactly $7$ days apart, because a week is $7$ days. So the same weekday comes round every $7$ days. On the calendar above, the $1$st, $8$th, $15$th, $22$nd and $29$th are all Sundays.

To find a date a week later, add $7$. To find a date two weeks later, add $14$.

Worked examples

Example 1: What day is it?

On the calendar for November $2026$, what day of the week is the $15$th?

1. The $1$st is a Sunday.
2. $15 - 1 = 14$ days later is exactly two weeks later.
3. Two weeks later is the same day of the week.

Answer: Sunday.

Example 2: Date a week later

A school trip is on Wednesday $12$ March. What is the date of the same day the next week?

1. A week is $7$ days.
2. $12 + 7 = 19$.

Answer: Wednesday $19$ March.

Example 3: Crossing into the next month

Today is the $28$th of April. What is the date $5$ days later?

1. Count on from $28$: $29$, $30$.
2. April has $30$ days, so the next day is $1$ May.
3. Count the remaining days: $1$, $2$, $3$ May.
4. That is $2$ days in April and $3$ in May: $5$ days.

Answer: $3$ May.

“Thirty days has September, April, June and November” is a rhyme that helps you remember which months have $30$ days. All the others have $31$, except February.

Why it matters

Calendars help us plan ahead and work out how long until something. How many days until your birthday? What day is the party? Which month comes after next? Being able to count days and weeks is the first step towards working out durations and timetables, which you will meet in Time and Clocks.