The Month Before and After

The headings before and after sit at the top of this first-grade page, and under them run six rows from the days-and-months family. In the middle of each row one month is printed: August, July, December, March, June, February. On both sides is a dashed box with a three-line writing guide, and orange arrows point away from the printed name. The child writes the month that comes before on the left and the month that comes after on the right, twelve month names in total, with no bank to copy from and no calendar on the page.

Naming a month's neighbors is harder than numbering the months, because the child has to enter the cycle at an arbitrary point and move one step in each direction. The row with December is the one that matters most: the month after December is January, and a child who cannot answer that still thinks of the year as a line with an end. Spelling is the second load, and February and August are long words for this age, so a teacher may accept a good phonetic attempt and correct it afterwards rather than treat it as wrong.

It prints on one portrait sheet. Have the child say the months aloud from January before starting, and keep the months of the year in order page nearby as a reference the first time. The yesterday, today, tomorrow page is the identical layout on the days of the week, and the months and seasons page follows with a coloring task on the same twelve names. Month grids and date questions belong to the calendar family at grade 2.