# Day 12 — Which date means what?

**Purpose/codes:** Distinguish event, publication and actual check dates; K01/S02/S03. **Prepare:** O12 card and three date labels. **Child start:** “A date can tell us different things. Which thing does this one tell us?”

1. **Invite:** Read O12: “INVENTED notice published 5 June 2024: The Pine Room changed its entrance sign on 18 March 2022.” No actual check date is supplied. Ask which date goes with the sign change.
2. **Model:** Put 18 March 2022 beside EVENT and 5 June 2024 beside NOTICE. Explain that if an adult checks this model today, today's check is a check of a model, not the day the sign changed. The teacher's real checking note is separate and never prefilled as a historical fact.
3. **Guide:** Children place the two supplied dates and an empty check-date space. Read F2's 3 August 2018 publication and announced 11 August opening; distinguish an invitation for a future event from evidence of its completion. Do not request any current visit.
4. **Choose:** Use one date mechanism. Children may use month/year rather than numerals if reading dates needs support; the association is the target, not handwriting speed.
5. **Check:** “Which date tells when the source was written? What date tells when the sign changed? What is missing?” Retain source-bound distinctions.
6. **Next:** If dates swap, use a new invented 2020 event/2023 leaflet and colour-free labelled envelopes. If a future invitation is treated as completed, compare “will open” with an unrelated “opened” report, then reread a new sentence.

**Routes:** (a) **Date envelopes:** deliver each date token to EVENT or WRITTEN; leave CHECKED empty until actually checked. (b) **Radio reader:** read/dictate the two sentences in different order while a partner identifies each date's job; no recording. (c) **Notice editor:** add two plain date captions to an unlabelled model notice and mark the missing check date with an open question rather than guess.

**Observation:** Meaning attached to date, with uncertainty preserved. Calendar arithmetic is not being assessed.

[Short child start](../child/day-12.html) · [Ordinary note](../ordinary/O12.html) · [Home start](../home/H12.html) · [Extra project](../projects/X12.html).

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