Seven days and twelve months make 19 words, and no child memorises 19 words in one sitting. But this topic comes with a tool no other topic has: the calendar moves itself forward every single day. Build one routine at the start of every lesson, What day is it today? It is Wednesday, and the words come round again and again on their own. Your class will know them within a term without ever feeling they sat down to learn them.
The Advantage Thai Children Have: A Colour for Every Day
Thailand's colour of the day tradition is a memory aid children elsewhere simply don't have. Monday is yellow, Tuesday is pink. Have your class make a card for each day in that day's colour. The new word attaches itself to a colour system they have known cold since kindergarten, and you revise the colour vocabulary at the same time.
For the months, hook each one to something that belongs to the child: their birthday month, the month the holidays start, the month of Songkran. The first sentence they should be able to produce is My birthday is in June, because it's the one they most want to say.
Two Mistakes Children Make Every Time
Worksheets that suit this topic: putting jumbled days back in order, filling in the missing day, and matching months to festivals.
- Always a capital letter: Monday, never monday. Tell your class that days and months are proper names, just like a person's name, so they get a capital out of respect.
- Tuesday and Thursday are the pair children confuse most. Use length as the clue: the shorter word, Tuesday, comes first in the week, and the longer one, Thursday, comes later. The Thai names happen to run the same way round.