Days of the week lesson plan

“What day is it?”

Lesson 9 Level 3 Age 7-9

Lesson plans for ESL kids teachers

Lesson 9

Days of the week

This lesson plan introduces the days of the week. Students learn to say the days in order and say what they do on different days. They also play fun days-related games, sing a song and read a fun story.

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Age: 7-9 years
Time: 1 hour – 1 hour 20 mins
Objectives: Saying the days of the week, describing weekly routines.
Structures: “What day is it (today)?”, Today is (Thursday)”, “What is [ he / she ] doing?”.
New vocabulary: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, play [basketball], practice [[hide_on_uk]piano[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]the piano[/hide_on_us]], go to [[hide_on_uk]the movie theater[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]the cinema[/hide_on_us]], have [computer] class, watch a DVD, do [ballet], sleep in late, walk my dog, enjoy a big dinner.
Review vocabulary: Weather and clothes vocabulary from previous lessons.

Lesson materials

Flashcards:

Clothes (shirt, t-shirt, [hide_on_uk]pants[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]trousers[/hide_on_us], socks, jacket, shoes, hat, skirt, dress, coat, [hide_on_uk]pajamas[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]pyjamas[/hide_on_us], [hide_on_uk]short pants[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]shorts[/hide_on_us], blouse, sweater, [hide_on_uk]sneakers[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]trainers[/hide_on_us], cap, belt, boots, scarf, gloves, umbrella)

Printables:

Days of the week order worksheet
Days calendar worksheet
Days of the week reader worksheet

Songs:

Days of the week song

Readers:

Days of the week

Supplies:

name tags for each student
board with markers / chalk
empty plastic bottle (for the spin the bottle game)
weather board (from previous class)
7 [hide_on_uk]colored[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]coloured[/hide_on_us] rectangles of card with a day of week written on each card (one set for each pair of students)
black marker pen
Blu-Tack

Notes:

In this lesson students learn to say and read the days of the week. They discuss what they do on a regular basis each week and read a story about two students’ weekly routine.

Lesson procedure:

Warm up and maintenance:

1. Greetings and name tags
Greet the students as they enter the classroom and gesture for them to sit down. Before class prepare some blank name tags (stickers or pin-on tags). Give these out and have everyone write their names and put their tags on. If you use pin-on tags, you can keep and give out every class.

2. Play “Spin the bottle”
Let’s review previous lessons with this fun game. Sit everyone in a circle with a bottle in the middle. Teacher spins the bottle. When it stops spinning the student it is pointing to has to answer a question. If the answer is correct, then that student can spin the bottle. Either the teacher or the student spinning the bottle can ask the questions.

Round 1:
Numbers 1-10 and classroom objects / stationery, e.g. “How many tables are there?”, “There are 6 tables”.

Round 2:
Likes & dislikes for food and drink – “Do you like milk?”, “Yes, I do / No, I don’t”.

Round 3:
Clothes – “What are you wearing?”, “I’m wearing a t-shirt and jeans”.

Round 4:
Clothes and weather – “What do you wear on rainy days?”, “I wear a coat and boots”.

3. Homework check
Check each student’s homework that you set in the last lesson. Ask each student some questions about their homework worksheet (e.g. “What is this?”, “What are these?”), give lots of praise, and then put some kind of mark on the homework sheet (e.g. a sticker, a stamp or draw a smiley face).

Finally, tell your students to put their homework back into their bags.

4. Talk about the weather using the “Weather board”
Use the weather board that you created in the previous class. Ask, “How’s the weather today?” and have students put up their hands. Allow one weather condition per student (e.g. “It’s rainy”) and have each student come up and put a weather picture on the weather board.

Depending on weather conditions, you can introduce more weather words (with pictures … you can get students to draw them), such as:

stormy
misty
showery

freezing
humid
frosty

icy
drizzly

5. Review clothes
You’ll need the clothes flashcards from last lesson. Stick them randomly all over the board. Put students in pairs or small groups – you are going to point at a clothing picture and ask, “What is it?” or “What are they?”.

The first student in the class to put their hand up can answer and try to win a point for his/her team. Make sure the correct singular or plural form is used in their answer (e.g. “It’s a hat”, “They’re shoes”) to win the point. The team with the most points at the end is the winner!

New learning and practice:

1. Introduce the days of the week vocabulary
Start off by looking at a calendar with everyone (an English one, if possible). Have some fun with the calendar first: ask students to point at days such as Christmas and to point out their birthdays. Ask what day their birthdays are on this year and point to the days row at the top of each month.

Start to teach / elicit the English words for the days as you discuss their birthdays. Finally, ask, “What day is it is today?”.

2. Play “Put the days in order”
Before class, prepare some [hide_on_uk]colored[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]coloured[/hide_on_us] rectangles of card and write the days of the week in thick marker pen on each rectangle of card. You’ll be putting students into pairs so make enough sets for each pair. Also, if each day can be written on a different [hide_on_uk]colored[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]coloured[/hide_on_us] card it will help the students to quickly identify each day.

Put your students in pairs and give each pair a set of mixed up cards. By referring to the calendar, have the pairs put the days in order on the floor or table. Then get everyone to touch each card and repeat after you as you chorus the days of the week paying special attention to the first letter of each word (e.g. “Th” for “Thursday”).

Run through a few times, getting faster and faster. Finally, get the pairs to mix up the cards and tell them they are going to race to see which pair can put their cards in order first. Say “Ready, steady, go!” and let the students put the cards in order. The pair that finishes first with the correct order is the winner.

3. Sing the “Days of the week” song
Take one set of day cards from a group and stick the cards around the walls of your classroom, in weekday order, starting with Monday. Students are going to point to these cards in time with the song.

Play the song and have students point to each day as it is sung. Play the song once again, this time encourage everyone to sing along as they point to the cards.

Lyrics for “Days of the week”

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
What day is it today?
What day is it today?

[hide_on_uk]Short sample (members get full-length song):
<br /> [/hide_on_uk]

[hide_on_us]Short sample (members get full-length song):
<br /> [/hide_on_us]

4. Play “Wall touch”
Give each pair some Blu-Tack or something to stick the cards on the wall with. Ask everyone to randomly stick the cards all over the walls around the room. Then bring everyone into the middle of the room.

Shout out “Monday” – everyone has to race over to a Monday card and touch it. Then “Tuesday” and so on (in the correct order) until you make it through all the days.

Play another round, this time faster!

5. Do “Days of the week order” worksheet
Give out a worksheet to each student and tell them to take out their pencils/pens. Model writing the days of the week in the correct order – do a couple of days. Then have students complete their worksheets.

Circulate as everyone is doing their worksheets. Help with vocabulary and spelling, and also give lots of praise and encouragement! At the end, ask some students to read out the days from their worksheets.

6. Read and write time
This segment can be part of all your lessons. Spend 10 to 15 minutes building up your students’ writing and reading skills. You’ll need to assess your students’ reading/writing level and then choose to start at one of the following stages:

Reading and writing activities by level:

1. Beginners: students cannot read or write the alphabet.
Each lesson introduce 3 lower-case letters of the alphabet (first lesson will be a, b, c). Use flashcards to do this. Play alphabet games and do printing worksheets.
» See our ‘Alphabet a-z (lowercase)’ mini-lesson plans for full details.

2. Early starters: students have experience with the alphabet but need phonics practice.
Each lesson introduce 5 lower-case letters of the alphabet (first lesson will be a, b, c, d, e). Use flashcards to do this. Start by working on the sounds of the letters and then move onto letter clusters (e.g. sh, ee, etc).
» See our ‘Alphabet’ and ‘Letter clusters’ mini-lesson plans for full details.

3. Early readers.
Work on reading and writing simple sentences with lots of practice activities.
» See our ‘Early reading’ mini-lesson plans for full details. (click on “Early reading” tab)

4. Elementary readers: students can read and write simple sentences well.
Work on reading and writing short texts and stories.
» See our ‘Reading short texts’ mini-lessons for full details. (click on “Reading short texts” tab)

7. Read classroom reader “Days of the week”
Before class, download and print off the reader “Days of the week”. As you go through each page, point to the different activities each character is doing and ask questions to see if any of your students do these activities on the same day, for example:

Teacher: (pointing on page 3) Look, what is Billy doing?
Students: Playing basketball!
Teacher: Yes, that’s right! (reading) ” I like Mondays because I play basketball after school”. How about you, Kazu, do you play basketball on Mondays?
Student (Kazu): No.
Teacher: No. So, what do you do on Mondays?
Student (Kazu): Um. I watch TV after school.
Teacher: Excellent! Well done Kazu! Does anyone play basketball? … (some students put hands up) … Mari, do you play basketball?
Student (Mari): Yes.
Teacher: Great? Do you play basketball on Mondays?
Student (Mari): No … Wednesdays.
Teacher: Good job Mari! Mari plays basketball on Wednesdays.
etc.

Continue through the reader, eliciting the activities the characters do each day – each time write the phrases on the board (e.g. “I play basketball on Mondays”). Have discussions with your students about who does what on different days.

After reading the story, give out a reader worksheet to each student and read through the story one more time (without stopping for questions, etc.) as students complete the table. Then go through the answers as a class.

Alternatively, watch our video version of the reader (Internet connection required).

8. Talk about your week
Bring everyone’s attention to the phrases you have written on the board from the reader. Chorus each phrase and elicit other ideas, for example:

Teacher: “I play basketball.” – what other ball sports can you think of?
Students: [hide_on_uk]Soccer[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Football[/hide_on_us], tennis, baseball … (teacher writes on the board)

Next, students are going to say what they do on different days, using the phrases on the board as prompts. Model with a student first, for example:

Teacher: On Saturdays, I sleep in late.
Student: On Fridays, I have English class.
etc.

Then have students in pairs take turns in saying sentences. Circulate as they do so, checking and helping with mistakes.

Do a final check by asking students to say one sentence each.

Wrap up:

1. Assign homework: “Days calendar”
You’ll need to spend a few minutes explaining how to do this lesson’s homework. Give out the worksheet to everyone. Hold it up and elicit what day it is for the “Today is” box. Get everyone to write the day. Next, work with your class to fill in the details for today on the table – find the day and elicit what the weather is like and have everyone write the weather into that cell (e.g. hot, sunny, windy, etc.). Move onto the clothes column and help everyone write some clothes they are wearing into the cell (e.g. a red t-shirt, blue short pants, etc.). Finally, move onto the food and drink column. Say what you have eaten/drunk today (e.g. a sandwich and tea) and write it into the cell. Have everyone write what they have eaten today onto their worksheets.

Check that everyone has completed today’s information correctly. Then explain that for homework everyone has to write each day about the weather, their clothes and the food and drink they’ve had. By next week’s lesson, their tables should be complete.

Give out the worksheets and say, “Put your homework in your bags”.

2. Do “Quick check” and say goodbye
Time to leave the class. Make sure everything is put away and the students have gathered their belongings. Have them line up at the door and place yourself between the door and the students.

For each student check a day word by holding up a day card (e.g. Tuesday) and asking, “What day is this?”. Then ask a yes/no question, such as, “Do you do ballet on Tuesdays?” – make sure a full answer is given (e.g. “Yes, I do / No, I don’t.”).

When they give you the correct answer say goodbye and let them leave. If their answer is wrong, have them go back to the end of the line – they will have to try again once they reach the front!