Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
All the rest have thirty-one
April, June, and November.
All the rest have thirty-one
Save February, with twenty-eight fine
'til Leap Year makes it twenty-nine!
'til Leap Year makes it twenty-nine!
But really, who can remember that? It's so much easier to just count it out on your knuckles. You might have already seen this. My mother taught it to me, and now this week, as we prepare to make new calendars for 2011, I thought it would be a good time to review it with my children.
Make a fist with your left hand, and point to knuckle of the first finger. Then move from knuckle to space, saying the months in order. The knuckles represent months with 31 days, and the spaces are months with 30 days (except for February, which is 28 or 29).
So, January has 31 days...
February has 28, or 29 days...
March has 31 days...
April has 30 days...
May has 31 days...
June has 30 days...
July has 31 days...
And, starting on the first finger knuckle of the right hand, August has 31 days...
September has 30 days...
October has 31 days...
November has 30 days...
And, December has 31 days...
Still not clear? Click the picture, to enlarge the chart below.
It's great to be a homeschooler.
That's how we learned the number of days as well, since the months are not rhyming quite as well in Russian as they do in English :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this. I learned it as an adult, and I had not considered what an important skill calendaring is for little ones till I saw this post.
ReplyDeleteExcellent chart, Mama! I learned the months that way too- whoever came up with this teaching method is a genius!
ReplyDeleteI did th number of days on my knuckles, but not until college- because it took my until then to remember the names of the months in order.
ReplyDeleteI learned "Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November. All the rest have peanut butter, except Grandma- she has a little red tricycle"
Once you know Feb is odd man out, then all you need to know is which months have 30. everything else is 31.
I am 39 and still have to use my knuckles or the poem each time I have to think which month has how many.
I have never seen this before. I have a confession: I still struggle with the number of days in each month so this is going to rescue me from embarrassment now. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI could always remember the first two lines which rhymed just fine. But it was as you get to the end of it that I start losing the rhyme.
ReplyDeleteThis is how I learned the number of days in each month.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty neat! Karen
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