I teach my second graders this active rhyme / chant / cheer. It teaches the proper order of the days of the week from the European calendar, beginning with Monday and ending with Sunday, along with zeroing in on the difference between similar-sounding seis and siete with which children have initial difficulty
Children hold out right hand.
"¡ Lunes (put up index finger), martes (continue holding up index finger and add middle finger), miércoles (continue holding up index and middle fingers and add ring finger), tres (move hand quickly away from body)!"
Children now hold up left hand and continue to hold up right hand with the three “middle fingers” held up.
“¡Jueves (hold up index finger of left hand), viernes (continue to hold up index finger, add middle finger of left hand), sábado (continue to hold up index and middle fingers and add ring finger of left hand), seis (move both hands quickly away from body)!”
“Y domingo (pause and wiggle and hold up pinkie, along with the three “middle fingers” of left hand and right hand) – siete (move both hands quickly away from body)!”
“¡Qué semana es!” (Children smile and jump up like cheerleaders with both hands and arms held upward).
Also, when I introduce the exact day. "Today is ________." I then immediately dance to the calendar that the primary level teacher usually has on display and point to the correct date and repeat in the target language. Eventually, certainly by fourth grade, they solidly get the connection that lunes = Monday. I also make the connection between "luna" = moon and the word "Monday (Moonday)" in fourth grade.
I also use a neat chant with my fourth graders that came to mind from the past posting from Lana Harman about this great calendar generator site --
Notice that the days of the week appear as syllables. We chant "lu-ma-mi-ju-vi-sa-do" as a reminder as to the order. With that in mind, I have created a calendar booklet for my fourth graders. We write class-generated sentences ("Language Experience") to record important school happenings in proper Spanish date format order as well as class birthdays. We then circle each exact date on the calendar that appears at the top of the page to reinforce the differences.
The majority of children will grasp the concept of the different order with lots of exposure in the target language in different contexts.
Also, here are brand new stickers for children who learn the days of the week in Spanish:
Copy them on 8-/12x11" adhesive labels and then cut out. (Yes, they do come in that size!)
Here is a stick puppet show by children about the days of the week in Spanish:
And lastly, here are some favorite "calendar" songs:
6 charts: Spanish alphabet, number words 1-1,000, days of the week, months of the year, colors and shapes, and common phrases (each 17” x 22”), plus 24 reproducible activity pages
