Days of the Week

Yumiko has posted some great ideas for teaching Days of the Week.

The best one is to use a TV schedule to illustrate days of the week, e.g. instead of saying “What do you study on Tuesday?” which is really boring, you can ask “Today’s it’s Friday, what’s good on TV?” That’s sure to get the kids interested!

Or if you have to teach Days of the Week & Subjects together, like in the Eigo Note book, it’s not quite as fun as TV but Yumiko had the idea of using the “I like pink fish” game. But instead of colours and noun cards, use Days of the Week & Subjects cards e.g.

1. Put the Days of the Week cards at one side of the class & Subjects cards at the other.
2. Kids get into teams.
3. The front person from each team runs to pick up one Days of the Week card & one Subjects card.
4. They then run back to the front of the class and shout out a sentence using those words.
5. The quickest team gets 2 points.
6. The other teams get 1 point if they can say the sentence correctly.

The only tricky bit is deciding which English to use. In the Eigo Note they recommend “On Monday I study Japanese” which sounds very “textbooky” to my ears. Plus of course you can’t use it with PE, “I study PE” just doesn’t sound right!

In England we’d say “On Tuesday I have French / PE / music etc.” Is that how you’d say it? Or do you think there is a better sentence that fits all subjects?

P.S. One of the requests from yesterday was for a Days of the Week crossword. This one only works in Japan, but enjoy!

Richard Graham

Hello, I'm Richard Graham. When I was a kid I found school to be sooooo boring... So I transformed my way of teaching. I listened to what the kids were really wanting to say and taught it in ways they really wanted to learn. The results were magical. Now I help teachers just like you teach amazing lessons and double your incomes!

6 Responses to “Days of the Week”

  1. sakura

    Hello Yumiko san,

    Thanks for the superb ideas. This month I am scheduled to teach these two themes but I don’t have any ideas how to do it. I rescheduled it next month. The last activity that I did with these themes was a big flop!!! I guess this will do the trick!!

  2. Yumiko Kusunoki

    Hello sakura san,

    I hope my ideas can be of some help to you.
    Ganbatte ne!! (Good luck!!)

  3. Carol

    Hi Yumiko!

    Thank you for the great idea! I haven’t been able to really use the days of the weeks lessons or worksheets because they were for Japanese students and now I have an activity that works for any culture! Wonderful!

    (It would even be possible to later extend this lesson with classroom locations/directions or time. JHS kids might like a schedule for Harry Potter and a “map” of Hogwart’s castle)

    I think you are right on Richard with “On Monday, I have …. ” Actually I can’t think of any other way to say it!

  4. Yumiko Kusunoki

    Hello Carol,

    I’m so glad to hear you like my idea.

    I think elementary kids also love a schedule for Harry Potter and a map of Hogwart’s castle.

    Great idea!

  5. somia

    Hello,
    I’m very happy to have achance to write to you .
    Before i know this activity ,teaching the days of the week was the most difficult ,but now i think i and the children will do well.
    Thank you
    wonderful web site
    somia rajab
    gaza

  6. Micki

    Thank you for the great ideas! I love the idea in the link of using the planet cards, and I really love the idea of using “It’s Sunday! What’s on TV??” (I’m a Chibi-Maruko addict.) (-: Now my only problem is how to combine the different ideas into a good lesson — which is a much better problem than “Oh, no. I’ve got no ideas!”

    BTW, there’s a great song on the They Might Be Giants “Here Come the 1,2,3s!” DVD/CD. The tune is so catchy, and the days of the week are pretty clear. (-: The work ethic leaves a lot to be desired, but the animation is completely charming. It’s called “Seven Days of the Week” aptly enough.

    Thanks again!

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