Does anyone have any ideas for thematic teaching ?

Question

Does anyone have any ideas for thematic teaching ?

Answer 1

as someone who is going into the field...i was tought not to base curriculum on themes....its just a nice easy way out to give us ideas....ya some things are nice but dont have the theme be dinosaurs for a month if there is NO interest!! start off with something simple but observe the children, learn their interests im sure you will find out some interesting things

Answer 2

Check out www.glef.org or tolerance.org for some free ideas/materials.  Ernest Boyer's book, The Basic School, can also give you basis from which to start.

Answer 3

Yes: don't do it if you mean you sit down at the beginning of the year or even month and decide what the children will be doing. Emergent curriculum is more appropriate.

"the quiet one" is so right - don't force themes on children. Let themes develop from your observations of children. Extend their play. That said, if you're teaching, say, preschool and start in September, you need something to start that first week. I chose to talk about them and their families and homes, just getting to know each other. We did that the first couple of weeks which gave me time to observe their interests.

Here's one way I came up with a theme. The children were building in the block area. They said they were building an airplane, so I asked where they were going. They said Africa. So, I planned an African safari. I put pictures of African animals on the classroom walls. In the art center, children made binoculars and cameras for the safari (strictly a photo safari, of course!).  We put chairs together to make our LandRover that took us on safari. I checked out books from the library on Africa. I went to my friend who is from Ghana and she lent me some items from her country. We looked at Africa on a globe and a map of Africa on the wall. I also had a family who had lived in South Africa for awhile. She brought in photos and items and showed them to the children. We ended up doing some drumming as well. This was a 2 1/2 hr/3 day a week program, so this theme lasted us nearly a month!

If you are new to creating themes with emergent curriculum, you will want to try webbing. The links I've provided have some information, but google emergent curriculum and you will learn more about how to develop themes for children.

Answer 4

As a teacher, you really should learn how to use the internet.

http://lessonplanz.com/Lesson_Plans/Them...