Understanding periods of time

Why is this important?
Understanding milestones of time (e.g. days of the week, months of the year, seasons) provides structure and routine and helps children analyse what is a complex concept.

What to do

• Start with the days of the week: there are rhymes and songs to help remember the days.
• Make a chart putting the days at the top.
• Talk about what happens on the different days. Use the school-day and children’s home-life experiences to pinpoint key events (e.g. there may be PE on a Monday, music on a Thursday, etc. At home there may be swimming on a Tuesday and a visit to Grandma on Sunday).
• Talk about Monday–Friday being ‘school’ days and Saturday–Sunday as ‘home’ days.
• Use an arrow to point to what day it is and talk about key things that happened yesterday and events that are going to happen tomorrow.
• Use photographs of the child engaging in activities to help him/her remember.
• Days Of The Week Chart