Months of the Year in Order

Twelve month names, scrambled and laid out in two columns of six, fill this first-grade page: September, August, January, May, July, April, June, March, October, February, December, November. Each name has a dashed square to its left, and the square beside January already holds a 1 in a shaded box. The child numbers the other eleven months 2 to 12 in calendar order. It is the same numbering act as the days-and-months base page, moved from a seven-name cycle to a twelve-name one, with the extra demand that the numbers now run into two digits.

Month order is learned later and more slowly than day order, because months are rarely said as a chant in the classroom and the names carry no built-in clue. Numbering rather than writing keeps the load on sequence alone: the child does not have to spell February to place it. The two-column layout also means the eye cannot drift down one column, so each month must be located from memory. The teacher listens for the strategy: many children say the months quietly from January and count on their fingers, which is exactly the strategy the page rewards.

One sheet, portrait, no color required. It sits well next to a classroom calendar and works as a quick warm-up at the turn of any month. The month before and after page follows directly, asking the child to write a month's two neighbors, and the months and seasons page groups the same twelve names by season. The days of the week in order page is the kindergarten version of this act.