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Does anybody have any particular lesson plans that they follow based on a daily/weekly/monthly theme? If so, would you mind sharing some of the theme ideas you have?
I am trying to put together a more structured program for my home day care. I will also search the forum for any other ideas that are already on here.
I've searched online and found a few ideas such as
Animals, All about Me, Family, Outdoors, Food, etc.
What do you find have been your easiest themes for the young ones? And do your lessons for your themes always consist of the same thing ...a craft, stories, songs, movies, food ...all in relation to the theme??
(Does this make sense??)
Not as of yet, no. I don't have things set up in my home, etc quite the way I want them. I do, however, have a binder full of ideas for when the time comes! Hahaha. I envision a fairly basic "program", as I am not a qualified teacher. I found most of my ideas online, and through visiting the local education supply stores.
Since I am not running a program, I can't offer advice, really. However, one thing that I plan to keep in mind is "Keep It Simple", in that if I am spending more money than I am making, it's not worth it. Or; if I have a bunch of 12-18 month olds, maybe a list of crafts can be set aside for the next time we do that theme. I would like to do something daily, to tie things in. And most kids love repitition, so I don't see anything wrong with choosing a few fun songs or stories and using them for the week/month as opposed to trying a new song each day.
I don't follow weekly themes etc because I feel that is inappropriate at the level most of our kids are in home daycare. When you think about it, if you did a week of dinosaurs when a child is 18 months old then they would be 2 1/2 years old before all of the dinosaur stuff got hauled back out a year later to do the theme again. What about the months in between when a child is interested in dinosaurs?
I read a book each day and do activities based on the book, we do a lot of seasonal stuff and that helps us with things like colours, shapes etc so the basic academics. Then the learning comes from what we do with the book theme.
A lot of learning is not academic at the toddler level but is skills based and learned in their play. I am more likely to find ways to extend the play than do a formal circletime program. Start by choosing a toy for the day and then play with them, show them new ways to use the toy or add elements to the play to extend it such as a shoebox with a hold cut out as a garage for parking cars and then count and name the colours of the cars as they go in to park. Line up the blocks along the grout lines in the kitchen floor. Then go along and have them name the colour of each block as you point to it. Do it a few times and see how fast they can go.
I have 4 little ones all under 3 and I do monthly themes with them and they all enjoy it. As long as it's done properly, it can be very beneficial and enjoyable for everyone. Children are all about patterning and I try to incorporate themes that allow them to make connections to things around them. For instance, Sept and Oct we are looking at Fall and we'll be examining apples, pumpkins, leaves, color changes. Children learn best through play, so by incorporating these themes throughout your playroom centers you can support child initiated play. For example, book center (books about fall, leaves etc...), science (nature walk, collecting leaves), sensory bin (apples, leaves, pinecones, mini pumpkins), math (counting pumpkins, apples, leaves, acorns), dress up (straw hats, shirts, jeans and we have a scarecrow in the area and when the kids are pointing their clothes on, they look like the scarecrow).
Also even though I do a theme on something, once it's done it's not like the children will never see some of these things again for another year. As playfelt mentioned above, if children are interested in dinosaurs once the theme is done, then they can still play with the dinosaurs during our fall time...the dinosaurs can hide amongst the leaves etc,
I think themes are a great way to engage children at any age. But, I also sing lots of songs, read lots of books, do lots of felt stories that are not related to the theme.
It's also important to allow children be a part of creating the theme...today for instance we're hanging up leaves for our fall theme, and all my little ones took turns helping and they loved it, clapping their hands when a new one was added.
I also just finished a "under the sea" theme for summer and they got such a kick out of it. We talked about water, animals in the sea and my children especially loved it when we focused on fishes. Other fun ones are: all about me, transportation (i have a little boy who is obsessed with this one, so needless to say every day is transportation theme for him), insects & butterflies...all of these are things they can see everyday, which makes it very real for them.
Good luck!