Days of the Week Flashcards

Days of the week flashcard memory games

Instructions for teachers

This game can be played with any set of flashcards but the flashcards below are designed to go with (fairly) realistic questions like “What do you study on Mondays?”, “When do you study maths?” and “Do you study maths on Fridays?”

Choose one set of cards below or make or find cards with the vocabulary that you want to revise or introduce. If students might have problems reading the words or knowing what the words on the cards mean, add pictures or replace the word flashcards with pictures. When you photocopy, make sure that the words and/ or pictures can’t be seen through the back of the cards by using thick paper, making paler photocopies and/ or playing the game on a dark surface such as a dark brown table. Cut up one set of flashcards per class, or one set per group of two to four students if you want to do it as groupwork.

Drill the names of the days of the week as you lay seven cards face up in a line on the table. Drill the vocabulary on the cards once as you point at each word. Then drill the days of the week and the vocabulary on the cards together as you turn the cards over so that they are face down on the table, perhaps as a sentence like “I study … on …days”. Test students on their memory of which card is where with the questions at the top of the relevant page below (“How was the weather on Monday?” etc). Turn over the card to check. If they are correct, it stays in the same place face up. You could also give points for correct answers, but the game is usually fun enough without points. If they are wrong, the card is turned face down again. Continue until all the cards are face up, moving to them asking each other similar questions whenever they are ready to do so.

You can then play more games where they test each other with the same kinds of questions, either in groups or still as a class. You could then perhaps get them to make similar cards with other vocabulary to get other students to play the same game with.

Perhaps after playing the game a few times, it can also be a good idea to play the game with students saying “Today” in the place of the name of the day that it is on that day, e.g. saying “Sunday. Monday. Today. Wednesday” if it is Tuesday on the day of the class, to make sure that students don’t forget about what the words actually mean. You can also do the same with “Yesterday” and “Tomorrow”, especially if you are using Past Simple or future questions.

The game can also be played with any other set of seven flashcards, e.g. seven toys, seven household chores, or seven jobs. With some of these it might still be useful question formation practice for students to ask each other “Do you do the washing up on Wednesday?” etc, despite these being questions they will never come across in real life. The other possibility is just to avoid the questions and answers and to have simple exchanges such as “Monday” “Postman” and “Toy car” “Saturday”.

 

School subjects practice

Suggested questions

“What do you study on…?”         “When do you study…?”                           “Do you study… on…?”

 

Cards to cut up

maths

history

English

geography

science

PE

music

 

 

Kinds of television programme practice

Suggested questions

“What do you watch on…?”       

“When do you watch…?”           

“Do you watch… on…?”

 

Cards to cut up

the news

a quiz show

the weather

documentaries

live soccer

movies

cartoons

 

 

After-school activities practice

Suggested questions

“Where do you go on…?”                         “When do you go to…?”                            “Do you go to… on…?”

 

Cards to cut up

cram school

karate

scouts

English school

football club

church

a climbing gym

 

Places around town practice

Suggested questions

“Where do you go on…?”           “When do you go to…?”                            “Do you go to… on…?”

 

Cards to cut up

the pool

the park

the supermarket

a restaurant

my gran’s house

a department store

the town centre

 

Household chores vocabulary practice

Suggested questions

“What do you do on…?”                            “When do you…?”                        “Do you … on …day(s)?

 

take the laundry to the drycleaner’s

change the bedding

do the shopping

mop the floor

take out the recyclable rubbish

vacuum clean the house

do the gardening

 

Weather vocabulary practice

Suggested questions

“How was the weather on…?”/ “What was the weather like on…?”         

“When was it…?”                                                                                “Was it… on…?”

“How will the weather be on…?”/ “What will the weather be like on…?”

“When will it be…?”                                                              “Will it be… on…?”

Cards to cut up

rainy

cloudy

sunny

hot

cold

windy

snowy