Teaching Days of the Week to Preschoolers
Do you want your child to understand time? Know its value? That’s where teaching days of the week is required. He will understand the importance of time. Imagine your little one asking you about when you will take him to the park and you say “Sunday”, what if he not knows how far is Saturday. Assume your own self in the situation, you’ll be annoyed and that’s why a child not knowing the days of the week asks again and again when the time shall come. When a child is young, it’s more of use if we teach him anything by incorporating activities and games. Kids are more attracted towards game play activities and tend to learn and remember things more rapidly for a long period of time.
1) Using Calendar:
Even if your child is unable to read, he still can learn through calendar. He will also learn the names of the week by looking at the calendar. You can use colors and paints to grab the attention of young children and to teach days of the week for preschoolers more efficiently. You can teach them by differentiating between weekdays and weekends. Tell them there are two weekends and 5 weekdays. Tell him how they are interrelated to each other. You can paint the week ends red and the rest with different colors using some fun calendar worksheets.
2) Devote Time To Make Things Clear:
Try devoting 5-10 minutes of your daily routine and sit with your child. Whenever you get time, make a calendar part of your routine. You can get it fixed and set time after the dinner or snack time. It is important to understand that repetition is the key. You need to repeat things more often if you want to keep that learning rhythm right.
3) Sing Songs:
Music is always fun and children love music. How about putting the days of the week into a song and sing along with your little one. Gradually you will see him singing on his own and understanding about each day and the connection. You can use a calendar for this purpose too and let him do it on the basis of his observation. If you pay a close attention, you might notice that if you repeatedly sing a poem or any song in front of your children, they tend to pick it up very easily and quick. That’s how you can implement how to teach days of the week to preschoolers
4) Flip Chart:
Hand over seven cards to your child, write the name of each day and have him colour each page. Have two holes punch at the top of each card, have them in order and place the yarn between each hole and hold them altogether. Now observe and instruct your child to flip front the correct one after coming back from school.
5) Ask Questions Related To Important Dates:
Children are attracted towards when a holiday is expected or when he will be going out for a picnic or to meet his friends. You can direct his attentions by using colour paints or stickers and direct him about how close he is to the day, how many days are left and what day will it be.
6) The Difference Between Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday:
The most important things to mention while teaching days of the week to the child is the clarity between today, tomorrow and yesterday. Use a pointer and say what day of the week is today, what will it be tomorrow and what was yesterday. You start doing this and when your child gets used to it, hand him the pointer and ask him about it.
7) Order The Cards:
Write down the days of the week on individual cards (you can decorate and style if you want to make it attractive). Jumble it and mix them before you start. You can follow this activity daily and ask your child to arrange them according to the correct order and it will be a fun activity for kids too.
8) Days Of The Week Seating:
This can particularly be followed in a classroom where each table can have a paper stick to it with the name of a day. Now each day let each child switch to the next. If this becomes a routine, they would be able to remember the days like, “The child sitting at the front table labelled Monday gets to leave the classroom first at the recess time”. This way children will look up to what day it is and wait for their turn. You can be creative your own way recognizing what it takes to catch your child’s attention since each individual is different. You can refer to the SUN while making him memorize “Sunday”. Similarly you can refer to the word “ON” while teaching about Monday. Everyone can be creative his own ways and it varies from person to person and the personality of a child. You can also use converting time worksheets to help kids better understand the days of the week.
Teaching days of the week is generally taught at an early stage. Initially you talk to them and make them teach verbally in day to day conversations and very often more than half the children will learn that way and you won’t need to put much effort into it.
