Section 1
📘 Months and Years, Calendars
New Concept
An ordinal number names a position or an order.
What’s next
Next, you’ll apply this concept by using calendars to count days and identify dates, which are practical uses of ordering numbers.
In this Grade 3 Saxon Math lesson from Chapter 1, students learn to read and use calendars by identifying the months of the year, the number of days in each month, common years versus leap years, and ordinal numbers for naming dates. Students also practice writing dates in multiple formats, such as month/day/year, and solve problems involving counting days and weeks on a calendar. The hands-on activity has students construct their own monthly calendar using rows and columns to organize days of the week.
Section 1
📘 Months and Years, Calendars
An ordinal number names a position or an order.
Next, you’ll apply this concept by using calendars to count days and identify dates, which are practical uses of ordering numbers.
Section 2
Example Card: Counting Days Between Dates
Let's see how careful counting is key to solving problems about time on a calendar. This first example will show you how to count days between two dates.
How many days are there from the 8th of the month to the 19th of the month?
Section 3
Example Card: Finding a Date Weeks Later
Using a calendar's grid makes jumping forward or backward in time surprisingly easy. The next example shows how to use the calendar structure to find a future date.
What date is two weeks after the 5th of the month?
Section 4
Common and Leap Years
A common year is 365 days long. A leap year is 366 days long. The extra day in a leap year is always added to February, giving it 29 days instead of the usual 28.
Think of a common year as the standard, but about every four years we get a 'bonus' day! This leap day keeps our calendar aligned with Earth's orbit around the sun, so our seasons don't drift away over time. It's a cosmic correction!
The year 2023 was a common year with 365 days.
The year 2024 is a leap year with 366 days, so February had 29 days.
Use the rhyme to remember 30-day months: 'Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November.'
Section 5
Ordinal Number
An ordinal number names a position or an order. When we read a date like July 4, 1776, we say, 'July fourth, seventeen seventy-six.' The word fourth is an ordinal number.
Ordinal numbers are all about ranking and order! Instead of just counting items (one, two, three), they tell you what place something is in (first, second, third). Think of it as knowing your spot in a long line for concert tickets.
We write a date as 10/1/2025, but we read it as 'October first, twenty twenty-five.'
If you are the 7th person in line, six people are standing in front of you.
The first five ordinal numbers are: first, second, third, fourth, and fifth.
Section 6
Calendar
A monthly calendar is a chart that relates the days of the month to the days of the week. It has seven columns, one for each day of the week, and five rows for the weeks.
A calendar is your ultimate guide to the month! It organizes all the days into a neat grid so you can quickly see what day of the week your birthday is on or when a holiday is coming up. It's time, but organized visually.
To find the date one week after the 6th, look directly below the 6 on the calendar to find the 13th.
To find the date two weeks after the 10th, look two rows below the 10 on the calendar to find the 24th.
The number of days from the 4th of the month to the 12th is days.
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Section 1
📘 Months and Years, Calendars
An ordinal number names a position or an order.
Next, you’ll apply this concept by using calendars to count days and identify dates, which are practical uses of ordering numbers.
Section 2
Example Card: Counting Days Between Dates
Let's see how careful counting is key to solving problems about time on a calendar. This first example will show you how to count days between two dates.
How many days are there from the 8th of the month to the 19th of the month?
Section 3
Example Card: Finding a Date Weeks Later
Using a calendar's grid makes jumping forward or backward in time surprisingly easy. The next example shows how to use the calendar structure to find a future date.
What date is two weeks after the 5th of the month?
Section 4
Common and Leap Years
A common year is 365 days long. A leap year is 366 days long. The extra day in a leap year is always added to February, giving it 29 days instead of the usual 28.
Think of a common year as the standard, but about every four years we get a 'bonus' day! This leap day keeps our calendar aligned with Earth's orbit around the sun, so our seasons don't drift away over time. It's a cosmic correction!
The year 2023 was a common year with 365 days.
The year 2024 is a leap year with 366 days, so February had 29 days.
Use the rhyme to remember 30-day months: 'Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November.'
Section 5
Ordinal Number
An ordinal number names a position or an order. When we read a date like July 4, 1776, we say, 'July fourth, seventeen seventy-six.' The word fourth is an ordinal number.
Ordinal numbers are all about ranking and order! Instead of just counting items (one, two, three), they tell you what place something is in (first, second, third). Think of it as knowing your spot in a long line for concert tickets.
We write a date as 10/1/2025, but we read it as 'October first, twenty twenty-five.'
If you are the 7th person in line, six people are standing in front of you.
The first five ordinal numbers are: first, second, third, fourth, and fifth.
Section 6
Calendar
A monthly calendar is a chart that relates the days of the month to the days of the week. It has seven columns, one for each day of the week, and five rows for the weeks.
A calendar is your ultimate guide to the month! It organizes all the days into a neat grid so you can quickly see what day of the week your birthday is on or when a holiday is coming up. It's time, but organized visually.
To find the date one week after the 6th, look directly below the 6 on the calendar to find the 13th.
To find the date two weeks after the 10th, look two rows below the 10 on the calendar to find the 24th.
The number of days from the 4th of the month to the 12th is days.
Book overview
Jump across lessons in the current chapter without opening the full course modal.
Continue this chapter