Just one of the many Mother Goose Rhymes which could be used as a starter to learn the days of the week, the months of the year and how to say the date in general.

(More Mother Goose rhymes HERE)

Each pupil should find out what day of the week he was born on, (this site could be of help  http://www.earth.com/calendar), and learn to say his date of birth, (to be used as a model)

25/05/88   or  25th May 1988  = the twenty fifth of May nineteen eighty eight

Once everyone has done the necessary research, the Mother Goose rhyme could provoke some lively discussion!

The Romans gave names to the days of the week based on the sun, the moon, and the names of the five planets known to them:

"Tuesday comes from Tiu or Tiw, the Anglo-Saxon name for Tyr, the Norse god of war. Tyr was one of the sons of Odin, or Woden, the supreme deity after whom Wednesday was named.  Similarly, Thursday originates from Thor's-day, named in homour of Thor, the god of thunder.  Friday was derived from Frigg's-day, Frigg, the wife of Odin, representing love and beauty, in Norse mythology."

When you look at the modern calendar, the months are extremely confusing. One has 28 or 29 days, some have 30 days and the rest have 31 days. According to the "World Book Encyclopedia", here is how we got such a funny calendar:

The Romans started with a 10-month calendar in 738 B.C., borrowing from the Greeks.  The months in the original calendar were Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November and December.  The names Quintilis to December come from the Roman names for five, six, seven eight, nine and ten. This calendar left 60 or so days unaccounted for.

The months Janarius and Februarius were later added to the end of the year to account for the 60 spare days.

In 46 B.C., Julius Caesar changed the calendar.  Ignoring the moon but keeping the twelve month names, the year was divided into twelve months having 30 or 31 days, except February at the end that had 29.  Every fourth year February gained an extra day.  Later he decided to make January the first month instead of Martius, which explains why leap year is at such a funny point in the year.

After Julius' untimely death, the Romans renamed Quintilis in his honour, hence July.

Similarly, Sextilis was renamed to honour Augustus, hence August. Augustus also moved a day from February to August so that it would have the same number of days as July.

(Why "Aprilis"?

Most older books say that the name for the month, which was used in the Latin calendar in the form Aprilis, comes from the word aperire, 'to open', and referred to the springtime budding of trees and flowers. This is no longer thought likely, and the explanation in most dictionaries is that Aprilis probably came into Latin by way of the Etruscan apru from a Greek word that was a shortened form of Aphrodite. So the implication is that in Latin it probably meant "the month of Venus", which still has a strong procreational association, but differently expressed.

And why 7 days in a week?  That comes straight out of the Bible:

"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God"  (Exodus 20:8)
 
 

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