Date output on main page

I am creating my own theme for WordPress. I am wanting to output the date using different css classes for the day, month and year.

I have found the function that outputs the date on the mainpage but wondered how to seperate the date

printf( __( '<span class="%1$s"> %2$s', 'twentyten' ),
		'meta-prep meta-prep-author',
		sprintf( '<a href="%1$s" title="%2$s" rel="bookmark"><span class="entry-date">%3$s</span></a>',
			get_permalink(),
			esc_attr( get_the_time() ),
			get_the_date()
		),