What day is it? How to teach children the days of the week

My preschooler was always asking “What day is it?” and “What are we doing today?” To help answer her questions and let her see what she’ll be doing each day of the week, I made a simple calendar for her and taped it to our kitchen door.

To make the calendar I bought a piece of poster board, multi-colored index cards, velcro and stickers.

First, I used a marker and divided the poster board vertically into seven equal rectangles. Then on the left side of each rectangle I put a velcro circle, where my daughter could attach an index card reading “Today is…” She moves this index card down the calendar each day.

To the right of the velcro circle I wrote the day of the week inside each rectangle. To the right of the day, I put two more velcro circles. Then on the index cards I wrote each of my daughter’s activities and used stickers or drawings to help her identify each activity. For example, I put a ballerina sticker on the index card for her dance class and a book sticker on the index card for a visit to the library. I put velcro circles on the back of each index card so they can be attached next to any day on her calendar.

Every Sunday night, I go to her calendar and attach the cards to plan her week. We have index cards for school, dance class, play dates, trips to the museum, trips to the library, holidays, birthday parties, etc. We also have index cards to represent each of my daughter’s grandparents, relatives and babysitters so she always knows who is coming over  and can looking forward to their visit all week.

This calendar is easy to make and can be customized for any child and his/her activities. In addition to helping my daughter understand the days of the week, this calendar has also taught her letter and word recognition. When she asks me which day is Monday, I say that it starts with an “M” and she looks for it that way. It has also helped her to recognize words like “school” and “dance,” which are on her calendar every week.