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Chronological order

Part of MathsTimeYear 1

A calendar of September and an alarm clock

Using chronological order

Chronological means the order in which things happen.

By knowing what has happened in the past, present, and future, you can put things in 'chronological order'.

This could be activities in a day, days of the week, or even months of the year.

A calendar of September and an alarm clock
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Activity: What is chronological order?

Complete this activity to see how much you know about this topic already. Then complete the rest of the guide and see if you can beat your score.

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Putting things in order

Chronological order is the order that things happen.

You can use words like 'first' and 'next' to describe this order.

'First you mix the ingredients and next you bake the cake.'

Flour, butter and bowl

The order can involve things that take a short amount of time:

'I put my socks on before I put on my shoes.'

A show, sock and foot

Or things that take a longer amount of time.

'I eat an apple after an apple tree has grown tall.'

a small and large apple tree

There is an order for things that happen in a day:

First is the morning, then the afternoon, next is the evening and finally night time.

A morning, afternoon, evening and night scene.

The 7 days of the week also have an order.

The words 'yesterday', 'today' and 'tomorrow' can help you describe which days you are talking about.

If today is Monday, tomorrow is Tuesday.

A list of the days of the week
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Example 1

Do you get up 'before' or 'after' you have breakfast?

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Example 2

A sunrise labelled morning a school bell labelled afternoon a character brushing her teeth labelled evening and a moon labelled night

Which part of the day comes 'before' night?

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Example 3

A calendar of the days of the week with Tuesday circled

If today is Tuesday, what day will it be tomorrow?

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