Year 3 explorers use the calendar like a tool. They learn which months have 30 or 31 days, change between units of time — weeks and days, hours and minutes, years and months — and work out how many minutes a lesson or a show lasts.
What your child will learn
- Know how many days each month has
- Know there are 365 days in a year, 366 in a leap year and 52 weeks in a year
- Change bigger units of time into smaller ones, such as 3 weeks into days
- Work out how many minutes something lasts, even across the hour
30 or 31?
April, June, September and November have 30 days. February has 28, or 29 in a leap year. All the other months have 31. The knuckle trick helps: count the months across your knuckles and the dips between them — every knuckle month has 31 days.
Changing units
To change a bigger unit into a smaller one, multiply. One week is 7 days, so 3 weeks is 3 × 7 = 21 days. One hour is 60 minutes, so 2 hours is 2 × 60 = 120 minutes.
Crossing the hour
From 3:40 to 4:15, first count up to the next hour — 20 minutes to 4:00 — then add the rest: 20 + 15 = 35 minutes.
Example questions
Here are a few questions like the ones in the first quest. Can you solve them?
1. How many days are there in November?
- 28
- 30
- 31
Show answer
Answer: 30. “30 days has September, April, June and November. All the rest have 31, except February, which has 28 — or 29 in a leap year.” So November has 30 days.
2. How many seconds are there in a minute?
- 60
- 100
- 10
- 30
Show answer
Answer: 60. A minute is 60 seconds.
3. How many weeks are there in a year?
- 12
- 365
- 48
- 52
Show answer
Answer: 52. A year is 52 weeks and 1 day.
Tips for grown-ups
- Count down to a holiday in weeks, then change it into days.
- Use a TV guide or bus timetable to work out how long things last.
- Find 29 February on a leap-year calendar and talk about why it is special.