Paper-Chain Countdown — Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

A paper chain with one link per day makes the days until a looked-forward-to event visible, while a daily one-minute chat practises the words yesterday, today and tomorrow.

  1. Choose an event 5–10 days away — a birthday, a visit, a trip to the pool. Together cut one paper strip for each day and one special-coloured strip for the big day itself.
  2. Loop and tape the strips into a chain, with the special link at the bottom. Hang it where the child can reach.
  3. Every morning the child removes one link. Before tearing it off, say the three sentences together: “Yesterday we… Today we will… Tomorrow we are going to…”
  4. Draw one small picture of yesterday’s best moment on the removed link and lay it in a row on a shelf or tape it to the wall — the row of “days that have happened” grows as the chain of “days to come” shrinks.
  5. On the big day, look back along the row: “Which day came first? What happened just before the party?”

Variation: a seven-link “week snake” with a peg that moves one link each day, or stones moved from a “to come” jar to a “done” jar.

Requirements

  • Space: A wall hook, door handle or shelf edge to hang the chain
  • Surface: A table for cutting and taping
  • Materials: Paper strips in two colours, child-safe scissors, tape or a glue stick, a pencil or crayons
  • Participants: 1 adult + 1 child
  • Supervision: Light — help with scissors on the first day, then one minute each morning

Rationale & Objective

Time words arrive in children’s speech long before they are used accurately. In a parent-report study of 3- to 5-year-olds (Busby Grant & Suddendorf, 2011), words like “yesterday” were being said from a young age, yet using them correctly built up only gradually across the preschool years, and Friedman’s work on children’s knowledge of future events shows that judging how far away something is remains hard at this age. A chain turns invisible time into something countable that changes by one each day: the future shrinks, the past grows, and today is the link in the child’s hand. The daily three-sentence routine gives repeated, meaningful practice with past, present and future forms — a skill named in HighScope KDI 57 (History), the EYFS Past and Present goal and the Polish preschool curriculum (concepts of time sequence such as yesterday, today, tomorrow). Counting down to a real event also helps with waiting.

Progress Indicators

  • Early: uses “yesterday” for anything in the past and “tomorrow” for anything to come; asks “is it today?” each morning; needs the adult to say the three sentences
  • Developing: understands that one link is one sleep; fills in a sentence the adult starts (“Yesterday we…”); sometimes swaps yesterday and tomorrow
  • Proficient: says all three sentences with the correct word and tense; counts remaining links and says “three more sleeps”; puts three of the removed day-pictures back in order
  • Advanced: uses wider terms correctly (the day before yesterday, last week, next week); works out answers from the chain (“if there are two left, the party is the day after tomorrow”); starts to use the names of the days

Safety Notes

  • Use child-safe scissors and hang the chain where the child can reach it without climbing
  • A long chain is a loop of paper, not a toy to wear — keep it off necks and away from babies who may chew it
  • Choose an event that is certain to happen; a cancelled treat at the end of a ten-day countdown is hard for a five-year-old
  • For anxious children, counting down to something worrying (a jab, a first day) can build dread — use the chain for happy or neutral events and keep worrying ones short

Hints

  • Playfulness: let the child decorate the special last link in secret, and give the morning tear-off a drum roll or a silly ripping sound
  • Sustain interest: start a fresh chain for each new event, vary the format (chain, jar of stones, sticker path), and let the child pick what to count down to
  • Common mistake: making the chain too long. Thirty links is meaningless at five; five to ten days keeps the end in sight
  • Limited space: draw a row of boxes on one sheet of paper stuck to the fridge and cross one off each morning — the three sentences are what matter
  • Cross-domain: count links forwards and backwards (numeracy); cutting and looping strips (fine motor); retelling yesterday (memory and narrative); naming the weekday on each link (calendar knowledge)
  • Progression: three-day chain with adult-led sentences → seven to ten days with the child saying the sentences → ordering the removed day-pictures → adding weekday names → “last week” and “next week” → a monthly calendar

Sources

  • Busby Grant, J. & Suddendorf, T. (2011), “Production of temporal terms by 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children,” Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 26(1)
  • Friedman, W.J. (2000), “The development of children’s knowledge of the times of future events,” Child Development, 71(4)
  • HighScope Preschool Curriculum — Key Developmental Indicator 57, History (understanding past, present and future)
  • UK EYFS Statutory Framework — Understanding the World, ELG Past and Present
  • Polish preschool core curriculum (Podstawa programowa wychowania przedszkolnego, 2017) — uses concepts of time sequence such as yesterday, today, tomorrow
  • Teaching Strategies GOLD — Objective 31, explores change related to familiar people or places