Time, Work and Money
Primary 2 · Social and Religious Studies
Time, Work and Money
Lesson 1 of 3
12 min
Let's begin
Mutesi wakes up early and asks her grandmother one question: “Grandmother, is today the day we go to the market?”
Her grandmother smiles. “Not today, Mutesi. Today is Tuesday. We go on Saturday.”
Mutesi wonders how her grandmother always knows. Today you will learn her secret: the days, the months and the seasons.
Think about your own week. You go to school. You go again. Again. Again. Again. Then you stay at home for two days. Then it all starts over.
Those days have names. Here they are, in order:
Count them: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. A week has 7 days.
Most children in Rwanda go to school on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Saturday and Sunday are the rest days. On the last Saturday of every month, families go out together for umuganda and work to make the village better.
Question: Today is Tuesday. What day is tomorrow?
Step 1 Find Tuesday in the list. It is number 2.
Step 2 Tomorrow is the next one down. That is number 3.
Step 3 Number 3 is Wednesday.
Answer: Tomorrow is Wednesday.
Now try a tricky one. Question: Today is Sunday. What day is tomorrow?
Sunday is number 7. There is no number 8! So we go back to the very start of the list.
Answer: Tomorrow is Monday. The week goes round and round, like a wheel that never stops.
Weeks are small. Put about four weeks together and you get a month. Put twelve months together and you get a year.
Here are the months, in order:
Count them. There are 12 months in one year. January is the first. December is the last. After December, a brand new year begins with January again.
Question: Uwase was born in the month right after April. In which month was she born?
Step 1 Find April. It is number 4.
Step 2 “Right after” means the next one. That is number 5.
Step 3 Number 5 is May.
Answer: Uwase was born in May.
Look at the sky in April. Big grey clouds. Rain drums on the roof and the paths turn to mud. Now look at the sky in July. The sun is hot, the ground is dry, and dust puffs up behind the cars.
April and July are not the same. That is because Rwanda has seasons. A season is a time of the year with its own kind of weather.
Rwanda has rainy seasons and dry seasons. They come back in the same order every single year:
| Months | Season | What it feels like |
|---|---|---|
| March, April, May | The big rains | Rain almost every day. Farmers plant. The hills turn green. |
| June, July, August | The big dry season | Sunny and dusty. Very little rain. Farmers harvest and dry their beans. |
| September, October, November | The short rains | The rain comes back. Farmers plant again. |
| December, January, February | The short dry season | Warm and mostly sunny, with only a few showers. |
Rain is a gift. Without rain, the beans and the maize would not grow. The dry season is a gift too — the sun dries the harvest so it does not go bad.
Question: It is July. Habimana is walking to school. Does he need his umbrella?
Step 1 Which season has July in it? Look at the table. July is in the big dry season.
Step 2 What is the weather like then? Sunny, with very little rain.
Answer: Habimana probably does not need his umbrella. He may want a hat instead!
Tip
A trick to remember the seasons: say it out loud — “Rain in April, dust in July.”
April sits in the big rains. July sits in the big dry season. Hold just those two months in your head, and you can work out all the others by counting forwards or backwards.
Try each one first, then tap Show answer to check.
How many days are there in one week?
Answer: 7 — Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Today is Friday. What day was yesterday?
Answer: Thursday. “Yesterday” means one step back in the list. Friday is number 5, so go back to number 4 — Thursday.
Which month comes right before September?
Answer: August. September is number 9, so the month before it is number 8 — August.
Keza's family is planting beans and the rain falls almost every day. Is it more likely to be April or July?
Answer: April. April is in the big rains, when farmers plant. July is dry.
Put these months in order, from first to last: December, March, August.
Answer: March (month 3), August (month 8), December (month 12).
What you learned today
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