Days of the Week, Months of the Year

Last week we learned how the days of the week were named.  Pretty interesting stuff!  The first two days were named after the sun and the moon.  The rest were named after  planets.  At the time, people associated certain planets with certain Gods.  So Tuesday, named for Mars, was named Tiw’s Day, after the Germanic God of war.  Wednesday, named for Mercury, was named Woden’s Day after the Germanic God who was known as the ‘bringer of victories’.  Thursday, named for Jupiter, was named Thunnor’s Day, after the Germanic God known for thunderbolts.  Friday, named for Venus, was named Friga Day, after the Germanic God of love and affection.

Looking at the months of the year was equally interesting.  For this I grouped the students and sent them off to research each month.  Here is a video of two groups in that process.

The next video shows the same two groups sharing their findings.  I found it very interesting that the group studying the month October determined that the word sum was <oct> + <o> + <ber>, but then later referred to the base as <octo>.   In the same way, they determined <oct> to be a base meaning eight, but then in another word decided it was a prefix.  I think we need to review how one proves whether a morpheme is a prefix or a base.  Perhaps the students are not expecting things to be ordered and consistent in orthography.  Their experiences with spelling prior to this were full of inconsistencies and exceptions.  With orthography they will learn that there is structure in our language that we can count on!

The next groups present information on the months January and February.

2 thoughts on “Days of the Week, Months of the Year

  1. Hi Mrs. Steven. My dad wants to know how much homework I had today. I told him, but he wants to be sure. I couldn’t find out how to just comment.

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