Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Six rows, each with a day name printed in the middle and two dashed writing boxes either side, make up this first-grade page from the days-and-months set. Three headings across the top, yesterday, today, tomorrow, tell the child what each column means, and small orange arrows point left and right out of the middle box. The given days are scrambled: Wednesday, Monday, Sunday, Tuesday, Friday, Thursday. For each row the child writes the day that came before on the left and the day that comes next on the right, twelve names in all, with no word bank to copy from.

The move from ordering the week to naming a day's neighbors is the move from a list to a cycle, and the rows that include Sunday and Saturday are where it shows. Yesterday for Sunday is Saturday, and tomorrow for Saturday is Sunday, which a child who pictures the week as a straight line cannot answer. The page deliberately puts Sunday in the middle of a row so that the wrap has to happen at least once. Spelling twelve day names from memory is the second demand, and the teacher should decide in advance whether spelling counts.

It prints as a single portrait sheet with three-line guides in every box. A calendar on the wall, or the missing days page done first, gives a child who stalls a place to look. The month before and after page uses the same three-column layout on the twelve months, and the abbreviations page returns to the days with a much lighter writing load. This is the last of the three day pages in the family; the seasons pages take the year from here.