The following are ideas for using
Today Is Monday in the classroom.

• Submitted by Louise Smith

  Today Is Monday is a wonderful book to rewrite emphasizing phonemic awareness. For each day of the week, have the children list foods that begin with the same letter as that particular day: Monday, meatballs, macaroni, mashed potatoes; Tuesday, tacos, tomatoes, tuna; etc. Children can work in small groups to illustrate the various pages.

• Submitted by Suzanne Martin

  I used Today Is Monday in an Autistic Pre-K class. I made picture cards of the animals and of the food and the days of the week, laminated them, and put velcro on the back. Then, after reading the story, I would use the felt board, and have the children match the animal to the food. I would switch it the second week. We also ate the foods for snack. We sang the song everyday. For a lower functioning group, I had toys to represent the animals in the story. They needed to identify the animals, and put them into a box or take them out.

• Submitted by Barbara

  Show children the calendar for the month. Point out the days of the week. Have them say them with you as you point to the different days. Say, “Let ’s pretend that today is Monday. What do you think would be a good food for supper? ” (Write down their answers.) Go through the whole week and write down each item. Then read Today Is Monday. After reading the book, have children illustrate their own version of the story.

• Submitted by C. Mason

  Our first grade class spotlights the work of one author each month and reads as many books by that author as possible. We also learn about the author’s life and writing or illustrating style. I try to provide at least one literature extension for each book we read. After reading Today Is Monday and singing the song, we rewrite the song as a class. Rather than use food, we use our special classes: art, music, phys. ed., library, computer lab. The children love having the song be about them and they quickly learn it. In addition to reinforcing the days of the week, we also learn our weekly schedule and it eliminates the question, “Do we have art today?”

• Submitted by Carole Wood

  Haven’t challenged myself to think of creative ideas linked to literature since retiring two years ago...but thought of this while reading through the others. How about making a booklet for each child that has the words for each day of the week on a separate page and a blank for them to fill in the food THEY would like...illustrations could be drawn, painted, or cut from magazine pictures. Encourage them to SPELL the food they like, then the picture will help other readers figure it out.

• Submitted by Kim Gregg

  In my Kindergarten class we read Today Is Monday and sing the song. On following Mondays during the school year we read it again and then make a chart using the days of the week, pairing them with foods beginning with the letter of the week. For example: “Monday-plums, Tuesday-pasta, Wednesday-popcorn, Thursday-peanut butter, Friday-potato chips, Saturday-pumpkin pie, Sunday-popsicles, All you hungry children come and eat it up!” This is a good way to learn the days of the week and also reinforce the letter sounds.

• Submitted by Linda Da Ponte

  Eric Carle’s literature is wonderful to add to all aspects of your curriculum. I am a Librarian in the Providence, RI school district. I teach in a school with a 60% bilingual population. I used Today Is Monday in the beginning of the school year with my first grade groups. The students took turns reciting one of the days of the week and what was eaten on that particular day. They would line up in the order of the days of the week format and they really enjoyed reciting the book. We also sang the songs from Today Is Monday. This helped the bilingual students to recite the days of the week in English and also learn some foods in English as well. We had a blast!

• Submitted by Addie Gaines

  On the last page of Today Is Monday, there is an illustration of a child in a wheelchair. One of my children commented that she felt sorry for that child. We engaged in a good discussion about how people in wheelchairs were just like everyone else and that the wheelchair was a good thing for that child, so that he could be mobile. We read an excellent book called My Teacher is in a Wheelchair that explained to the children that, yes, sometimes people feel sorry about their disabilities, but most of the time they find ways to overcome them and sometimes there are even some advantages. We discussed handicapped parking places and how many people can drive even if they are in a wheelchair.

• Submitted by Jenna Thorsland

  While reading Today Is Monday, I put felt pieces of each food onto a felt board. This helps the children recall the various foods when we sing the song later. I also typed up all of the words from the book onto separate pages so that each child could illustrate their own book.

• Submitted by Karen Donahue

  Today Is Monday is an excellent book to use around Thanksgiving. We study the days of the week and food groups while using this book. The children decide which Thanksgiving foods will be used to make a class book. The artwork is done just like Eric Carle’s (with tissue paper). After the children create their own version of the book, they record it by singing the same tune as Today Is Monday. The children perform the song for their parents as they eat Thanksgiving dinner they have prepared. NOTE: The foods at the dinner are the same as in the class version of the book. It will take a few days to complete these activities.

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