Using Calendars

A calendar is a special chart that helps us keep track of days, weeks, and months in a year. Knowing how to read a calendar helps you find out what day your birthday is on or how many days are left until a fun holiday!

Finding the Day of the Week

Every calendar has columns with the days of the week at the top: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

To find out what day of the week a certain date falls on:

1. Find the month on the calendar.
2. Look for the number of the date you want.
3. Look straight up to the top of that column to see the day of the week.

Example: What day of the week is March 15? Find the number $15$ in the March calendar. If you trace your finger up to the top of that column and it says "Tuesday", then March 15 is a Tuesday!

Counting Days Between Dates

You can use a calendar to find out how many days are between two dates. You can count the daily boxes one by one, or you can use math!

Example: How many days are there from March 3 to March 20? You can simply subtract the smaller date from the larger date: $20 - 3 = 17$ There are $17$ days between March 3 and March 20.

Jumping by Weeks

Did you know that moving exactly one row down on a calendar is exactly one week (or $7$ days) later?

Example: What is the date 2 weeks after April 5? Instead of counting boxes one by one, find the number $5$ on the calendar and jump straight down two rows!

You can also use addition. Two weeks is $7 + 7 = 14$ days. $5 + 14 = 19$ So, the date 2 weeks after April 5 is April 19.