Learning the Days of the Week

Here’s 3 fun activities to help your kids learn the order of the days of the week. These are interactive, multi-step, challenging activities that help kids practice several skills at once while solving puzzles and weaving their own Days of the Week mat. This set includes four different images for each activity.

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Step 1: Sequencing Strips

I’ve been seeing a lot of these sequencing activities lately, and I love the idea of helping kids learn how to sequence things by piecing together a self-correcting visual picture. I also like how endlessly this idea can be adapted. You could sequence numbers, or days of the week, or months of the year, or presidents, or planets, or historical events … the learning potential here with this simple activity makes my teacher-brain a little bit giddy ;). I have plans to make more of these activities in the near future for other sequencing topics – I’d love to hear from you if there’s anything specific you’d like to see!

I decided to make up a simple activity to help my own preschoolers learn the order for the days of the week, since it’s been a recent topic of conversation. I used clipart from Krista Wallden – Creative Clips and made up a sequencing activity. Then I made 3 other similar images so they could do this activity a few times through and it wouldn’t feel too repetitive. If you print these out smaller, you can glue each strip to a craft stick (Popsicle stick) to provide a bit more durability.

FREE PRINTABLE

You can download this activity with four different images for free at my TPT store. (If you’d like to leave feedback after you download and use it, that would be lovely too!)

Free Download: Days of the Week Sequencing Strips

Step 2: Weaving the Days of the Week

I wanted to take this up a notch to make it a more challenging activity that would result in a durable “masterpiece.” After consulting an elementary school teacher, we came up with the idea of turning this into a weaving activity.

For each of the four different images, I made a weaving mat (you’ll cut horizontal strips on the page) and 7 strips for the days of the week. Kids will cut out the strips and weave them — in the correct order — into the mat to complete the picture.

These take a bit more time and dexterity to finish; when kids have successfully completed this, they will have a piece of artwork they can laminate (or put in a plastic page protector) to remind them both of the order of the weekdays as well as their newfound artistic talent. 🙂

For a full description and preview, see the product in my store here: Days of the Week Weaving Mats.

Step 3: Spin a Picture

To make this even more unique and interactive, I then put all four images together creating one large, 3-dimensional “spin-a-picture” game.

Each piece of this puzzle is a tall four-sided square prism. (Throwing in some Geometry vocab for good measure!) Each side is one slice of one of the four images, with a different day of the week written at the bottom. Kids will cut out each 4 sided piece (including an additional tab), fold the strips, and glue the tab to the back of the first strip. They will make 7 of these.

Kids will complete the picture by putting the days of the week in order. The trick here is that only one of the picture combinations works! (Spoiler alert – the answer is pictured below.)  

Tip: You could hold the pieces together with paper clips to make this project easy to disassemble and store for later use.

BONUS ACTIVITY

As I did this activity with my 5 year old, my 3 year old wanted to join the party as well. I realized that this would work very well for him as a sequencing activity if we focused on the numbers on the top (1-7) and ignored the days of the week.

This turned out to be a fun, and a bit challenging, activity for him; in this version, you not only try to place the numbers in the right sequence (a project in itself for young kids!) but you also try to make a cohesive picture. You can create all four images this way (ignoring the days of the week!); it’s like a 4-in-1 puzzle for a preschooler :).

Once they finish, you can spin one piece to a different side and ask your child to turn all the other pieces around so that they create a whole new image matching that piece. You just might find yourself with a very busy, focused child for the next several minutes – always a win! 🙂 <Disclaimer: they also might get very frustrated. Results not guaranteed!>

For a full description and preview, see the product in my store here: Days of the Week Spin A Picture.

3-in-1 Sequencing Bundle: Learning the Days of the Week

I’ve combined these 3 products into one bundle for a discounted price ($2.00 at the time of this writing, but prices might change). You can check it out here: Days of the Week Bundle.

Would you like these types of hands-on learning products for FREE?

I am sending out a large free sample of this product to my email subscribers. If you’re currently a subscriber, check your inbox! (Update: I will be sending out the free sample in one of my upcoming newsletters, so keep an eye out for this. I have some other freebies lined up for you in the meantime!) If you’re not a subscriber but would like to receive updates and free products (or samples of products or discounts on products) as I release them, please join us by subscribing to our newsletter using the form below. I’m constantly creating more and would love to share them with you so you can help your children or students love learning!

You may also be interested in these hands-on, interactive learning activities:

• Combinations of 10 and 5
• 8 Math Game Boards for Addition through Division

Math Curriculum Recommendation

Are you looking for a Math curriculum that is built around hands-on activities designed to help your children or students discover the Why behind Math and enjoy the learning process?

We use, love, and highly recommend RightStart Mathematics! You can read more about our experience with the RightStart Math curriculum here:

• Developing Number Sense
• Eliminate Math Anxiety

Or check out their sight directly here (by clicking on the image below):

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