Engaging Activities for Learning the Days of the Week
Learning the days of the week is a foundational skill for young learners. It helps them understand time, sequence events, and develop essential calendar skills. This article explores a variety of engaging activities and resources designed to help preschool, kindergarten, and elementary students master the days of the week in both English and Spanish.
The Importance of Learning the Days of the Week
Learning the days of the week is one of the first memorization skills young toddlers and preschoolers can accomplish. Children begin to get acquainted with time concepts during their early childhood, but in elementary school, it is important for them to master the knowledge about the days of the week. This is because they’ve likely already been exposed to the concept of days with naming structure and order in their daily lives. However, they might not have a complete concept map with all the names in the correct order. This is where you want to add to their previous knowledge with strong visual and auditory cues.
Free Printable Resources
Many free printable resources are available to help teach the days of the week. These include charts, flashcards, worksheets, and activity pages.
Days of the Week Charts and Posters
A colorful days of the week chart is a great visual aid for the classroom or home. This chart typically features each day of the week, starting with Sunday or Monday, depending on the cultural convention. Print the chart in full color and point to each day while singing a days of the week song. Here is another printable Days of the Week Poster you can use as a helpful reference tool or bulletin board classroom display. This chart features each day of the week in order.
Calendar Skills and Word Wall Cards
To build calendar skills, use a calendar morning board with placements for Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. Learning the days of the week is simple with free printable Days of the week Calendar word wall cards. Print these on cardstock and use during your morning circle time. Swap the day of the week each morning.
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Flashcards and Learning Center Mats
A set of smaller Days of the Week flashcards can be used by students to practice placing the days of the week in order. Pair this free printable learning center mat with our Days of the Week flashcards. Your students can practice reading, writing, and typing the days of the week.
Activities and Games
There are numerous activities and games that can make learning the days of the week fun and interactive.
Incorporating into Daily Routines
Incorporate the days of the week into your daily routine. Start each morning with a visual chart of the days of the week. Print our Days of the Week Wordwall Cards. Swap the cards in and out of your pocket chart each morning. If you are using a morning time board, simply laminate the cards, and put velcro on the back of the card and on your board.Now, this part is important for recall. You must revisit the day of the week later in the day in normal conversation. This can be done with simple prompts asking students, “What day is it again?” “What are we doing today? (allow them to answer) Oh, that’s right…. it’s Tuesday, so we are going to…..” Adding these quick no-pressure recall prompts within your daily conversation will help your students develop important internal concept maps.
Songs and Rhymes
Many children love to sing, and singing helps them remember things better. Circle time is a great place to sing these songs. If your students have difficulty remembering the Days of the Week in order, try singing the Days of the Week song! This is a simple song that is sung to the tune of “Clementine,” the old folk tune that is 100% sure to stick in your head! The YouTube Video is a complete lesson you can use in your classroom. Easily follow along with the video and then have students practice on worksheets and with games using the flashcards. In this song I’m using a different movement for each day of the week. Ask the children to say the day and choose a movement for each day of the week. This is our Thursday song!
Gumball Themed Printables
Make learning the days of the week for kids FUN with these gumball themed Days of the Week Printables. Use this printable days of the week with preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten, and first grade students to learn the days of the week. There are 3 different activities in this days of the week free printable to help kids really grasp the concept and learn the days.
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Cut and Paste Activities
Engage students with cut and paste activities that reinforce the order of the days of the week. The cut & paste Caterpillar Week Worm is just one of our fun Days of the Week activities. In this activity, let your student practice their fine motor skills to cut out the circles of their caterpillar. Help them put the days of the week in order as they paste it onto a large sheet of construction paper. Try gluing some googly eyes on the face or add some grass around the caterpillar. It is always fun to see what your child will draw and color to create a caterpillar scene. Days of the Week Cut & Paste Activity is a perfect activity for kindergarten to 2nd-grade students. This printable Days of the Week Activity ends up being over 20 inches tall! It is essentially 2 pages taped together. A great refrigerator display piece! Not only does this activity encourage fine motor skills, but ends up being a school decoration. To begin, cut the 1st sheet out vertically on the gray dotted line in the middle & on the top right side. Then glue or tape the paper on the right over the slip on the left side so that the length of the paper doubles. Next, cut out the days of the week below and use them to paste in the correct order above.
Hands-on Craft
There are plenty of methods for learning the days of the week, but this craft gives your kids a hands-on method for keeping track of the weekdays. Depending on your kids’ ages and skill levels, they can help to write out the days of the week and cut out the pieces of paper. We’re using cardstock paper for the base pieces (the 2 round bases, one of which will be larger than the other) and colored craft paper for the 7 “slices” or days of the week. Use a different colored paper for each slice. Trace and cut out the provided template patterns from the selected papers. Take the small base cutout and start attaching the slice cutouts to the small base with glue. Glue all seven slices on the small base. Make sure to keep the order of days correct while attaching them to the slices. If you are doing this activity with your kids, give them the days of the week in the right order as you work on the craft. Attach the “yesterday,” “today,” and “tomorrow” paper cutouts on the big base, one after the other, far enough apart so that each of them is placed above a separate day of the small base. While doing this part of the craft with your child, you can talk about time together.
Themed Activities
Plan themed activities or crafts for each day of the week.
Storytelling
Tell short stories or create simple scenarios that involve the days of the week. Reading together can be a great way to reinforce learning. Here are some children’s books that feature the days of the week as part of the story.
Calendar Marking
Allow your child to mark off each day on a physical calendar as it passes.
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Weekend Planning
Involve your child in planning weekend activities.
Use Everyday Situations
Point out the days of the week in everyday life.
Roulette Game
Draw a roulette with the names of the days of the week on cardboard. With this game, kids should focus on learning the idea of “yesterday” and “tomorrow“. We should then proceed to ask the kid: What day is today? What day will be tomorrow? And what day was yesterday? Through this game, your child will be able to learn and become familiar with the concepts of time in English and to learn the different days of the week in relation to each other.
Train Activity
Draw or print out a train like the one shown here. On each wagon, the little ones should write the days of the week in chronological order.
Calendar Placement
To help your child become familiar with the days of the week, you can get a calendar in English and place it in their room. Then, make sure to spend some time every day with your little ones and talk about which day is it and also talk about the different activities that you do on specific days, for example, laundry on Thursdays.
Interactive Calendar Game
Master the calendar with our Days of the Week game. This interactive activity is designed to help ESL students learn the names and order of the days in English while practicing essential sentence structures. Step 1: Ordering the Days - Drag and drop the jumbled days into the correct chronological order. This game practices 42 different sentences to help students master the Present Simple and Prepositions of Time. Teachers recommend this ESL calendar game because it provides meaningful context for the Present Simple tense. Instead of just memorizing the names of the days, students learn how to use them in functional sentences with third-person singular and plural subjects. Use the "Review" screen to preview the spelling and pronunciation of each day before starting the game. After playing, have students create their own "Weekly Schedule" using the same "On [Day] I [Action]" structure.
Addressing Common Challenges
Children can learn to identify the letters in the days of the week many ways. Try pausing the video and reading the letters aloud and have the children echo you. Keep on using a variety of days of the weeks activities over time. Alphabet Letter ABC Activities: Read-Say-Move to Music (St.
Preschool is the perfect time to start teaching children about the days of the week. It can be difficult at first because some children at preschool age, still don’t totally understand the concept of time. If your child is asking, ‘what day is it?’, this is one clue that they may be ready to learn about weeks. Activities just like this days of the week printable set are perfect.
Over the years, I always noticed that my students confused Tuesday and Thursday because all they are paying attention to is the “T” at the beginning of the word. This is an excellent opportunity to keep pushing the digraph sound, “th.”
Additional Activities
Handwriting Practice
Free printable handwriting practice pages are available for students to trace, write, and spell the days of the week. This set includes seven individual pages for students to practice letter formation. For older students, we have many free printable cursive alphabet worksheets available for students learning to read and write in cursive. Below, we’ve also designed simple cursive tracing practice worksheets that will help your students learn to link cursive letters together to write words. Starting with familiar words that students know how to spell is helpful when learning a new skill like cursive. Older students in second grade and up can practice cursive handwriting skills by writing the days of the week in cursive. These cursive practice pages include tracing guides that slowly fade providing students will independent writing practice.
Days of the Week Practice Sheets
These practice sheets are ideal for students who need days of the week practice. Included in this packet: Tracing page, Cut and paste matching pages, and Ordering page.
Coloring Sheet
Need a fun, educational coloring sheet for your kiddos or students, look no further! Check out our printable Days of the Week coloring sheet! All images are hand-illustrated and designed to make you smile! Includes an easy-to-print PDF file for quick and convenient use! Features: -Makes 1 printable coloring sheet -Educational Days of the Week Print Ready PDF File -Hand-illustrated Icons. All Original Art. -Subjects/Icons: Days of the Week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
Fine Motor Skills Activity
FREE Days of the Week Activity • Practice fine motor skills with your students each day, as they cut and paste, then trace and write how to spell the days of the week. It is an important skill for students to learn! Print and go, no-prep activities are a great way to accommodate and modify curriculum for a variety of ability levels - and not just in a special needs classroom! Great for service provider sessions (Speech and OT), homeschool, outside therapies, or in a regular ed classroom setting
Cut & Paste Reader
Days of the Week Cut & Paste reader {FREE}About this book. This unit contains 2 sets of cut and paste Days of the Week readers. The first displays a sentence and picture support, and the second with writing lines and no pictures. Directions for use. To Assemble: Print the pages from the booklet you wish to use, stack them on top of each other and cut in half on the dotted lines. Staple them on the left side where indicated. Make sure to tag me in any pictures if you use this product! ~ColourStart the day off right with this no- prep independent activity that will have students cutting, pasting, tracing, and writing out the days of the week. This fine motor resource includes leveled activities to accommodate a variety of ability levels…perfect for special education or classrooms with diverse learners! This is a sample of my full product, Days of the Week Fine Motor OT Activities. Save money and get all of the Days of the Week and Months of the Year activities in my Days of the W
Flashcards
Enjoy these free printable Days of the Week Flashcards that you can laminate and use in your classroom or at home. Perfect for those early ages when learning about days and time. This document comes in a printable PDF form that is easy to use. Also Includes the following labels or flashcards: "Today is" "Tomorrow will be" "Yesterday was"
Worksheet
Free Worksheet: Days of the Week. This worksheet is designed to help children learn and remember the days of the week in English. It includes cute illustrations and easy-to-understand vocabulary. Teachers and parents can easily print and use this worksheet to teach children in a fun and engaging way. What Children Will Learn from This Worksheet: 1. The names of the days of the week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday) 2. The spelling of each day in English 3. How to p
Tracing Worksheet
Interesting and engaging days of the week tracing free worksheet for kids. Page is displayed on US letter size paper. What will students learn:Students will learn about the days of the week by tracing. This worksheet can be used as a back-to-school winter resource, and you can use on other occasions to keep students busy positively. This resource is great for kids who can trace and learn. What is included:You will receive pdf file. Print and use. This product is copyrighted and only for educati
Valentine's Day Theme Flashcards
Valentine's Day Theme: Days of the Week Flashcards Ready To Print. This resource is a printable and digital set of valentine's day theme flashcards of days of the week from Monday to Sunday. To use, parents or teachers may print, cut and laminate for longer keeping. Follow my store, Learn with Jhaleen so that you'll be updated whenever I upload new products like this one! So cute for your classroom decor!
Days of the week labels
This product contains seven FREE bright and colorful days of the week labels. The perfect size for labeling bins and drawers!
Spanish Language Resources
Teach your students to read and say the days of the week in Spanish! You’ll find free teaching resources including Spanish days of the week charts, Worksheets, flashcards and more. Ready to learn the Spanish days of the week? You’ll find free teaching resources including Spanish days of the week charts, Worksheets, flashcards, activity pages, crosswords, word search puzzles and more! Everything you need to learn the days of the week in Spanish.
This freebie is perfect for practicing the days of the week in Spanish. No prep needed, just print and go! Includes Spanish instructions only.Este recurso gratis es perfecto para practicar los días de la semana en español. No se necesita preparación, ¡solo imprime y listo! Incluye instrucciones en español únicamente.
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