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Time words

Measurement · level 1, lesson 5 of 6

A question to start

Here is a riddle that sounds impossible.

"Today is the day that, yesterday, you called tomorrow."

Is that true? Think about it. Yesterday, you were looking ahead to the next day, and you called it "tomorrow". Then you went to sleep, woke up, and that day came. Now you call it "today"! The day did not change. The word changed, because you moved along in time.

Time is strange. You cannot see it, hold it, or put it on a balance. But you can still measure it and compare it. In this lesson you will learn the words we use for time, and how to tell which things take longer.

The idea

The parts of a day

Every day has the same parts, in the same order.

morningafternooneveningnight
  • Morning: the Sun comes up. You wake up, eat breakfast, and go to school.
  • Afternoon: after lunch. The Sun has been high in the sky.
  • Evening: the Sun goes down. You eat supper and get ready for bed.
  • Night: it is dark. You sleep.

Then morning comes again, and a new day starts. Why does this happen every day? The Earth is a huge ball that spins, slowly, all the time. As it turns, the place where you live turns to face the Sun (morning), then faces it fully (the middle of the day), then turns away from it (evening and night). One whole spin of the Earth takes one day.

Before, after, first, next, last

Time words help us say the order things happen in.

  • First I put on my socks, next I put on my shoes, last I tie the laces.
  • I eat breakfast before school. I play after school.

The order matters! Shoes before socks does not work. Many things in life have to happen in the right order, and time words are how we talk about it.

Yesterday, today, tomorrow

  • Today is the day it is right now.
  • Yesterday was the day just before today.
  • Tomorrow is the day just after today.
yesterdaytodaytomorrow time moves this way

These words are like a little window that slides along. Every morning, the window moves one box to the right. What was "tomorrow" becomes "today", and what was "today" becomes "yesterday". That is why the riddle at the top is true.

The seven days of the week

Days have names. There are 7 of them, and they always come in the same order.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 7 days, round and round

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Then Monday again! The days go round and round like a circle, which is why the picture is a circle. Seven days make one week. Saturday and Sunday (the green ones) are called the weekend. On many calendars in Canada the week is drawn starting on Sunday, and on others it starts on Monday, but the order round the circle is always the same.

This is a repeating pattern, just like red, blue, red, blue. After Sunday comes Monday; the pattern starts again. So if today is Friday, tomorrow is Saturday, and yesterday was Thursday.

Which takes longer?

Some things take a short time and some take a long time.

  • Short: blinking, clapping once, a sneeze, jumping once.
  • A bit longer: brushing your teeth (about as long as singing a short song twice), putting on your shoes.
  • Long: a night's sleep, a car trip to another city, a whole school day.

To compare two things that happen at the same time, start them together and see which one finishes first. Two children start building towers when you say "go". The one who finishes first took a shorter time. This is like lining up the ends of two pencils: the start is the starting line!

To compare things that happen at different times, count while they happen. Clap slowly and steadily, or count "one elephant, two elephants...". Brushing your teeth might take about 100 slow counts. Putting on shoes might take about 20. The bigger count took longer. Just like hand spans, counts are fair only if you count at the same speed each time.

A day on Mars

Mars spins too, so Mars also has mornings, afternoons, evenings and nights. A day on Mars is called a sol. Mars spins a little more slowly than Earth, so a sol is a bit longer than our day: about 40 minutes longer. That is about as long as a short cartoon film. If you lived on Mars, your bedtime would slip later and later compared with Earth clocks!

Worked examples

Example 1. Put the day in order. Put these in order: eat lunch, wake up, go to bed, eat breakfast.

  1. Which happens first in the morning? Wake up.
  2. Next comes eat breakfast, still in the morning.
  3. Then, in the middle of the day, eat lunch.
  4. Last, at night, go to bed.

Example 2. Days of the week. Today is Wednesday. What day was yesterday? What day will it be tomorrow? What about the day after tomorrow?

  1. Find Wednesday on the circle.
  2. One step back is Tuesday: that was yesterday.
  3. One step forward is Thursday: that is tomorrow.
  4. Two steps forward is Friday: the day after tomorrow.

Example 3. Which took longer? Mia and Leo start a jigsaw puzzle each at the same moment. Mia finishes while Leo still has 5 pieces left. Who took longer?

  1. They started at the same time, so the start is fair, like lining up two pencils.
  2. Mia finished first. Leo was still working.
  3. So Leo took longer, and Mia took a shorter time.

Try it

  1. Do you eat breakfast in the morning, the afternoon or the night?
  2. Which takes longer: a sneeze or a night's sleep? Eating an apple or blinking?
  3. Today is Saturday. What day was yesterday? What day is tomorrow?
  4. Say the days of the week starting from Thursday, all the way round to Wednesday.
  5. Put in order: put on a coat, go outside, open the door.
  6. Sam says, "I clapped 20 times while my sister tied her shoes, and 30 times while I tied mine. So I am faster." Is he right?
  7. Today is Monday. In 7 days, what day will it be? Why?
  8. How many days are there from Friday to the next Friday?
Answers
  1. In the morning (breakfast is the first meal of the day).
  2. A night's sleep takes much longer than a sneeze. Eating an apple takes longer than a blink.
  3. Yesterday was Friday. Tomorrow is Sunday.
  4. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. That is all 7 days.
  5. Put on a coat, open the door, go outside. (You could also open the door first, then put on the coat, but you must open the door before you go outside.)
  6. No. More claps means more time, so Sam took longer. His sister was faster. (And the claps must be the same speed both times for the test to be fair.)
  7. Monday again. There are 7 days in a week, so 7 steps around the circle bring you all the way back to where you started.
  8. 7 days. Count the steps: Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. That is one whole week.

Common mistake

Mixing up yesterday and tomorrow. "Yester" goes back; "tomorrow" goes forward. A trick: tomorrow is the day you are waiting for. Yesterday is already gone.

Thinking more counts means faster. If you count while something happens, a bigger count means it took longer, not shorter.

Where it leads