Lesson Theme In A Lesson Plan
Ortiz Ullery
Writing preschool themes and lesson plans is by far my favorite thing to do! As preschool teachers, we use traditional and not so traditional preschool themes or topics. Themes are used to develop our curriculum based on the interests of our children. We take a topic of interest and build from there!
These themes will get you started planning for your week. You will find age appropriate activities for your Interest Learning Centers including art, science, math, dramatic play, writing, reading/library, easel, cooking and more!
The 9/11 Memorial & Museum offers interactive lesson plans for students in grades 3 to 12 that address the 9/11 attacks, their ongoing repercussions, and the history of the World Trade Center. Lessons plans are divided by grade level and theme below.
Preschool is a crucial time in a child's development, and incorporating themes into their learning experiences can have a profound impact. From fostering creativity and engagement to enhancing critical thinking skills, preschool themes provide a structured yet flexible approach to education.
You can plan a theme to last for any amount of time that works best for your program. Themes can change monthly or weekly, or can center on a larger theme such as the alphabet and be broken down into smaller themes, such as focusing on each letter of the alphabet for one week at a time. You can even revisit any themes that your children really love and use new resources and activities to keep the material fresh.
With brightwheel's daily scheduling feature, you can organize your thematic units with schedules that are simple to design, update, and communicate. Use the built-in calendar feature to manage your daily, weekly, and monthly schedule and events, and tailor event information for specific rooms or age groups.
Theme-based learning follows a thematic calendar approach where children learn concepts under broad themes. The theme-based approach helps children connect academic content to real-world experiences and builds on their prior knowledge of a topic.
Theme-based learning exposes children to various activities that cater to different learning styles. This variety provides support to all children as they learn differently. For example, while one child may learn better through visuals like pictures and illustrations, another may prefer hands-on learning, where they can touch and manipulate objects.
Themes can help you create focused, engaging lessons that teach your preschoolers new skills. Using themes in your curriculum can make lessons more memorable for your children and make it easier to teach them new concepts.
This popular preschool classroom theme is great to introduce at the start of a new school year as a way for everyone to get to know a little bit more about each other. Children love sharing about themselves, and giving them the opportunity will create a sense of openness and curiosity in your classroom. With this theme, children can display their special and unique personalities.
This preschool theme can be taught through preschool songs and rhymes. For example, children can sing as they find their way through an alphabet maze, either by walking through it or with a toy. You can also have children stack up blocks labeled with the letters in order from A-Z.
Getting children to match uppercase and lowercase letters will also go a long way in reinforcing what they are learning. You can get printable road letters and ask children to drive their toy cars on each letter. This is a fun activity for children who love cars.
Autumn is a great September preschool theme as the seasons begin to change from the heat of summer. You can incorporate pumpkins, leaves, apple picking, and lots of outdoor activities to celebrate the fall season.
You can also collect as many leaves as possible and ask children to arrange and stick them on paper. This activity will develop their fine motor skills. Songs and autumn-themed picture books will also help children learn more about the season.
Children get intrigued by the world around them and like to learn how it works. They get particularly fascinated by the birds as they begin nesting during the spring season. This theme helps children learn more about different types of birds, their migration patterns, what they feed on, egg-laying, and other aspects of a bird's life.
Draw a bird on paper, cut it out, and provide different colored feathers that children can stick on. This activity incorporates different shapes, textures, and colors. During circle time, read bird-themed books and also sing songs.
A clothes theme can be done any time of the year. This theme helps preschoolers learn about matching, sorting, and textures. It also helps them develop color recognition and the ability to pick out their own clothes. The book Mary Wore Her Red Dress and Henry Wore His Green Sneakers, by Merle Peek, is an adaptation of a folk song. It focuses on clothes and color, with brilliant pictures and repetitive verses.
For a craft activity, help the children create clothing from paper bags (cut out armholes in advance). Let them decorate by coloring with markers. You can help them develop their matching skills by laying out several different pairs of socks and letting them match them.
Give children objects such as building blocks and ask them to match them by color. You can also ask parents to dress their children in a particular color and make it the focus of study throughout the day or week, depending on how long you want to study the color theme.
This theme helps children understand and appreciate the different roles that people within their community play. For example, the police ensure that children are safe at home and garbage collectors pick up their trash and keep the community clean.
This theme is excellent for teaching children about the importance of caring for the environment. For Earth Day, typically observed on April 22, you can plan activities like planting flowers in the garden and picking up litter. With this theme, children can learn about the importance of recycling and reducing waste to protect the living space of humans and animals.
You can play feelings charades by having the children act out feelings using facial expressions and body gestures. As each child acts out a feeling, whoever correctly guesses the feeling first is next to act out an emotion for the others to guess.
Friendship skills are essential for social growth, and the earlier a child learns these life-long skills, the better. You can even devote a week or month to teaching children how to get along with others.
Read friendship books with your children, sing friendship songs that encourage being friendly to one another, or do crafts. You can also teach your children the importance of kindness, make friendship bracelets, or try an ice cream sharing activity.
Gardening is a relevant theme for spring and summer months. Explore the art of gardening and caring for plants with simple, collaborative activities. Indulge your children in a creative activity of sorting and counting different flowers, fruits, vegetables, or seeds by color, size, or shape. This is a fun activity that will help them to practice their concentration and math skills.
This theme helps preschoolers learn about different living environments and broadens their world knowledge. Show the children pictures of houses, like apartment buildings, mansions, igloos, cottages, tents, and huts. Ask them what makes the houses similar and what makes them different.
For a craft activity, cut colored paper into several shapes and sizes: triangles, squares, circles, and rectangles. Then, show the children how to glue the shapes on a plain sheet of paper to make a house and ask them to make their own.
This preschool theme involves many hands-on activities to teach children about science. They will have fun exploring and experimenting with different sources of light and how shadows form in different ways. Have children trace the shadows of various objects or even trace their own shadow outside using sidewalk chalk.
The beauty of this theme is that it can be taught any time of the year, using whatever nature you have access to. Encourage sensory exploration, such as creating a sensory ocean bin if you live near the coast or plant seeds and watch them grow!
Children who learn how to make healthy food choices early in life most likely stick with this habit into adulthood. Nutrition books like Eating the Alphabet, by Lois Elhert, and Eat More Colors, by Breon Williams, have colorful and vibrant illustrations with lessons on the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables.
Turn your dramatic play area into a grocery store with toy fruits and vegetables. Make sure you have a blank shopping list (ask the children to tell you what items to write) and a shopping cart. You can also combine sensory and sorting nutrition activities. For example, fill a sensory bin with dyed rice (in various colors) and place several toy food items in the bin. Next, have the children pick a food item from the bin and place it on matching colored construction paper.
As seasons change, children get the opportunity to learn and explore the environment around them. Since the temperatures are mild in spring, take children outdoors as much as possible. In most cases, this theme revolves around plants, flowers, and growing, but there are other springtime activities you can explore with your children.
Ask your children to create flowers using play dough. They can practice counting the petals and learn about the different parts of the flower. Or follow this tutorial to engage your children in a flower painting activity.
This theme helps children understand the importance of the sun, why we need it to survive, and what activities we can enjoy under the sun. Plan a beach day in your dramatic play area. Set up beach towels, floats, pretend sunscreen bottles, and sunglasses. This foundational understanding of the sun sets the stage for additional lessons about the wonders of our solar system, including solar eclipses.
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