We all know what attracts kindergarten kids to go there are the games that they play including rhymes, poems, riddles, etc. Of course, you can not forget about the days of the week for kindergarten games, right? In school, the teacher gathered your attention through educational games, like the days of the week game. Today, you will get to know about the origin of weekdays. You will also read about the days of the week for kindergarten like teaching their names and the weekday game and helping kids learn about time.
1. Origin of Days and Week
The Babylonian civilization is known for its several contributions to education, science, art, and architecture, and they are believed to be the reason behind the origin of the days and weeks. They use the position and phase of the moon to mark the months in late 1800 BC. Since each change in the moon’s phases takes place after approximately seven days, they consider their week according to this phenomenon. Sometimes, to match their week according to the phase of the moon, their weeks had 8 or 9 days. The first day of the month starts on the new crescent as per the lunar calendar. Also, check out how long is a Decade and a Century?
They have a very keen interest in astrology and heavenly bodies. They think that the incidents of life are affected by the position of the heavenly bodies. Since the Babylonians were able to locate only seven heavenly bodies in space, they named the respective seven days. (Also read When Was Silly Putty Invented?)
2. Naming the Days
The names of the heavenly bodies were associated with the weekdays, as per Hellenistic Astrology. It is in the order of Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. According to Greek and Latin names, the name goes in the further mentioned way.
- Sunday is named after the Sun and is also known as the day of God.
- The moon goes after naming Monday, and this day was, dedicated to worshiping Moon Goddesses.
- Mars, also a name for the God of Wars, goes for Tuesday.
- Mercury was used for Wednesday because mercury was the messenger of God.
- Jupiter was given to Thursday, which means Thor’s day. Thor is the God of Thunder according to German traditions.
- Venus for Friday is the day of an Anglo-Saxon goddess, Frige. Venus was the star of Frige.
- Saturday was named after Saturn. Saturn is the Roman God who is associated with the father of Zeus, titan Cronus. He is the God of Agriculture. (Also read Who Named Our Planet Earth?)
These names have the same meaning in Sanskrit and Hindi languages too. Days of the week for kindergarten include how kids learn the importance of time in a playful way by converting them into a game. (See How Many Days has it been Since June 12th 1857?)
3. Ways to Teach Days of the Week
For a kindergarten-going kid, playing and learning go hand in hand. Being an indispensable learning tool, playing always allows kids to explore their world. So take one step at a time and teach kids the days of the week.
- First, you need to introduce them to the calendar and show the days and months. You need to be as simple as possible so that accordingly kids understand their daily routines and schedules. You can now check out Calendar 2022 and start planning.
- Never rush things because this will make them nervous and lag. Learning days of the week for kindergarten becomes easy if you give them examples.
- Then don’t miss telling the kids the difference between today, tomorrow, and yesterday. This can also be taught by giving examples of what they did on these days. They will grasp it more quickly. (See What is the Time Difference between Australia and USA?)
- You can also rhyme the names of the days with their mythological characters. This will make it easier for them to remember. There are several rhymes available on YouTube to teach your kids the days of the week for kindergarten. One such rhyme is Days of the Week Song-7 Days of the Week by a popular kids channel, ChuChu TV.
There are many kindergarten games like the days of the week game related to the names of the days, let’s read about them in the next segment. (See How Many Number of Days in a Month?)
4. Rules of Days of the Week Game
There are many kindergarten games to enhance creative and social skills which boost confidence in kids. These kindergarten games are made for teaching days of the week. They practice, listen and match spellings of days of the week vocabulary to the correct images or pictures they represent. This is also done with the help of crosswords and puzzles to make it more exciting. Also, check out when was the Unicycle invented?
Another game is learning the days of the week for kindergarten, also called the line elimination game, is one of its popular games and the rules are listed below.
- Stand up in a line.
- The first student says Monday.
- The next student says Tuesday, if says wrong, then he has to sit down.
- If Sunday lands on someone, he will be out of the game.
- In this way, the game continues and the last one standing wins. (Also read Pac Man Ghost Game)
5. Why is it Important for Kids to Learn the Days?
- As a kid, it is not easy to keep track of time and days, and naming the days is important for them too. In childhood, cultivating their creativity and critical thinking is required and that should start with naming the days. This will later give them an advantage in acquiring key math and literacy skills. You might wonder, how to make a Super Ball?
- They can have a proper idea of time and place. Because knowing the names of the days will help them remember their schedules. Kids will be able to relate particular events to their respective days. They will find it easy to tell you about their holidays and that will also make them excited as well. (Also read what is a Baseball made of?)
