How much time are you leaving to teach this unit?
One approach I used with students on the date challenge is the “Julian Date” concept: 01/01 is day 1, 12/31 is day 365 (adjusted for leap years, etc.).
To help explain this to the students, I revisited the 4-bit message max at decimal 15, then showed the maximums for 5, 6, and 7 bits - the connection is that each number of bits handles the next highest decimal number minus one.
This seemed to click with the kids more easily.
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