"Heckedy Peg" and "One Monday Morning"

Heckedy Peg
By Audrey Wood
Illustrated by Don Wood
Heckedy Peg is a richly illustrated story about a mother and her seven children, named after the days of the week, and an old hag who turns out to be a witch. When their mother goes to market one day, she promises each child his or her special request. While she is gone, the children are persuaded by a witch to disregard their mother's warnings not to let strangers into the house or to touch fire. The witch turns the children into various types of food and takes it home with her. When the mother confronts the witch, the witch sets up an impossible task: only when the mother can figure out which food was which child will they be freed. She matches the requests that the children made to her to each kind of food and gets her children back. The illustrations are beautifully detailed and extremely effective. The names of the children, Sunday through Saturday, are repeated often enough to make this a good story to introduce, practice or review the names of the days of the week. Characters in this book are the mother, the seven children, and the witch, who looks like an old woman.

One Monday Morning
By Uri Shulivetz
On a gloomy rainy Monday, a queen and a prince drop by to visit a young boy, but he isn't home. Each day they visit again with another member of the royal party then leave when they don't find him at home. Finally, on Sunday the boy opens the door to the queen, prince and their entourage, and they come in for a lovely visit. The royal party are drawn in bright colors like playing cards. They contrast with the backdrop of a dark and drab city scene, illustrated in much detail. This book lends itself to learning story sequence and the days of the week. Characters are the boy, the queen, the prince, the king, a knight, a guard, a cook, a barber, a jester and a dog.

Story Props for "Heckedy Peg" and "One Monday Morning"

"Seven Blind Mice" , "The Hungry Caterpillar" and "Cookie's Week"

Seven Blind Mice
by Ed Young
This is a wonderful story in which seven blind mice relate their experiences with a strange "something". Each day one mouse goes to explore the mysterious object and returns to describe it. Together they try to determine what it is, but since each has experienced a different part, they are stumped. Each mouse is a different color and goes out on a different day of the week, which provides some nice opportunities to help children recreate the story sequence. The last mouse is able to put together the pieces and help his friends understand how they fit together.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar
by Eric Carle
A caterpillar hatches from an egg and begins to eat. It eats its way through the days of the week with a different food on each day until it is time to build its cocoon. Each picture of what the caterpillar eats has an actual hole through the paper. On the last page, a butterfly emerges to the delight of all the young children listening to this classic story. Story sequence and the days of the week can be studied using this book as a springboard, and children will want to hear it and view the captivating illustrations over and over again.


Cookie's Week
by Cindy Ward
Illustrated by Tomie dePaola
A simple story about a kitten's antics is organized by the days of the week. Each day Cookie has another cheerful mishap, illustrated with charming pictures by the well-loved Tomie dePaola. At the end of the story, This is an easy reader that can be used to teach days of the week.


Story Props for Seven Blind Mice, The Hungry Caterpillar and Cookie's Week

I was unable to find inexpensive colored mice for Seven Blind Mice, so am suggesting a pom-pom animal book with materials to make your own .