I no longer do planned 'themes' outside of seasonal celebrations that the children show interest and excitement about but rather focus on the children's interests and do little mini projects around anything they are showing desire to learn about.

I do offer a 'tweaked' form of the Jolly Phonics program to the children ... I start in September and cover 2 letters a month each month in the order that the phonics program suggestions so rather than going ABC in order I follow SATIPN and so forth from the phonic program .... so each month I add materials, play invitations, meal time foods, books and so forth to the program than reinforce those letter sounds and through this we also might get into a 'project' about something based on their interests about something I place or something THEY experience .... so for example I had placed out an invitations with 'snakes' one September and the kids were REALLY into exploring this and asking questions and so we 'expanded' on that and we spent time going more in depth with the snakes and I let some of the other 's' ideas I had go to the back up plan that month and followed their natural curiosity and desire to learn about this ... next time around it might be something totally different that 'sparks' their desires to explore deeper and further.

I will admit that my first 15 years I was 'very' theme based and it seemed 'easy' for me to have everything all planned for the whole year cause I am an anal planner by nature ... I had all my little theme based crafts, my circle materials, and so forth all in file folders and wham bam thank you mam it was 'offered' to the kids like it or not cause that was what was on the program 'plan' and we had to follow it as per centre policy .... however since changing to a more emergent child led adult supported focus to programming my crew learns and RETAINS way more meaningful information because the DRIVE comes from them not from me and they 'attend' to learning without behaviour or challenge which is so nice compared to challenges back in my theme based days to get kids to 'sit and learn' about Teddy Bears or Dinosaurs or Community Helper and so forth

So for example with the S offerings ... another year I might have a crew who wants nothing to do with the 'snake invitation' they might be totally gun ho about the 'socks' or concept of 'slippery' or the concept of a 'slinky' or something and we can expand the 'slinky' invitation into a whole project on gravity and experiments on what makes a slinky go faster or slower and so forth .... scaffolding their learning through the things that THEY find interesting and incorporating those 'school readiness' concerns through 'teachable moments' that way.

If we think back to OUR early years experiences because most of us were NOT in organized or structured daycare programs ... we were at home with a family member ~ we KNOW that our moms or grandmas did not sit down at the start of the school year and say 'hmmm ok in September we are going to talk about Our Family and Community Helpers', October will be Thanksgiving and Halloween .... oh nope nope you cannot talk to me about Clowns this month I don't care that you went to the circus with grandpa you have to wait until March that is when we will be learning about 'Circus Animals' .... but this is what you see in daycare and schools ALL the time with 'themes' ~ we miss children's 'readiness' to learn about things because we are so busy planning ~ we miss those 'teachable moments' about the things that really MATTER to kids in the grand scheme of things ~ they have a life time to learn about community helpers and 'theme' lessons in SCHOOL curriculum ... early years is about MAGIC and FUN and cultivating the passion for learning that is natural in every child

My letter of the week this month is W and I had some cool stuff in the 'back of my head' to set out for them to reinforce that today .... however this morning one of my kids came in fresh from a trip to see Thomas the Tank live this weekend ... he is all about the 'trains' today .... so this has been the focus of our play and learning today because his passion and energy spilled over to the others who wanted to 'hear and see' his stories and the meaning and deepness of that play is far deeper than had I approached him with a 'that's nice ~ come see the wiggly worms in water that I have planned' and basically 'dismissed' his interest and stories ... cause MY agenda while fun and inviting is not THEIR agenda and sometimes they are better at teaching each other than we can ever be ~ not that my plan would not have been well received or enjoyed cause hey kids love worms and water but IMO 'ignoring' his desire to share and lead the play in his peers would have robbed him of the social emotional and self confidence he gained in us celebrating his experience ... he is just learning to 'talk/engage' others and to have grasped and gained the interest of the 6 year old in my group who was 'listening to him' with bated breath was NEW as he shared about what Thomas did and so forth and having others accepting his 'expertize' in the play as he assigned them roles to play and so forth as they acted out 'Thomas the train show' ... those are memories and learning that will serve him way better than my 'lesson on wiggly wet worms in water' would ever do

Just my opinion of course .... but we really do not need to invest so much time in 'planning theme based' activities for children cause if we let them they really can lead and engage themselves in play and learning far better than we can ~ my kids all head off to school knowing their ABC, 123 and all their shapes and so much more without us ever doing a 'theme' week on them cause they come up naturally in play each and every day!