To help us keep track of time, Ioan decided to make a calendar. We used cardboard boxes to make it, and Ioan suggested storing it all in an up-cycled box too.

Method

  • Cardboard boxes
  • Ruler
  • Pencil
  • Scissors
  • Felt tipped pens
  • Velcro coins – hooks and loops

Method

Ioan measured his piece of cardboard and split it in to 7 even sections.

He wrote the days of the week, one in each section, then cut them out. He finished off by going over his writing with felt tips.

Then he moved on to the numbers 1-31. We talked about how every number has a corresponding ordinal number, he made the following suffixes: –st, -nd, -rd, and -th.

Ioan was able to explain that the first three suffixes (-st, -nd, and -rd) correspond to the first three numbers: 1, 2, and 3. They are also applied to any numbers that end in any of these three digits. All the other numbers use the suffix -th.

I asked him to find the three exceptions and he worked out that 11, 12, and 13 are irregular.

Ioan loves rainbow colours so suggested decorating his calendar backboard with craft tape. He stuck it in diagonal stripes, reversing the order when he got to the middle of the board so it looked like a mirror image. He wanted his final corner to be left uncovered, “So people can see that I made it, otherwise they might think we bought it!”

The next step was to attach some velcro stick on hooks on to his colourful backboard. He laid out some of the cardboard date pieces to work out where to position them.

Next he turned over all of the date pieces, and Finn joined him in sticking a velcro loop on the back of each one.

Ioan’s finished calendar box:

I loved the attention to detail. He’d stuck velcro hooks inside the box to secure the suffixes for his ordinal numbers.

Ioan proudly showed me the the calendar backboard and all the date pieces fitted inside the box. Then you could display your calendar on top of the box.

DfES Outcomes for EYFS and National Curriculum (2013)

English Year 1 programme of study

Writing – transcription

Spell:

  • the days of the week

Mathematics Year 1 programme of study

Measurement

  • recognise and use language relating to dates, including days of the week, weeks, months and years

Design and Technology in Key Stage 1

Design

  • design purposeful, functional, appealing products for themselves and other users based on design criteria

Make

  • select from and use a range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks [for example, cutting, shaping, joining and finishing]
  • select from and use a wide range of materials and components, including construction materials, textiles and ingredients, according to their characteristics

Evaluate

  • explore and evaluate a range of existing products
  • evaluate their ideas and products against design criteria

Technical knowledge

  • build structures, exploring how they can be made stronger, stiffer and more stable
  • explore and use mechanisms [for example, levers, sliders, wheels and axles], in their products.