Theme based programs

[Spixie33]

I have done daily and weekly themes/programming based on books. It is great and ties the whole day together. It does take some prep time though

So you pick a book. Ie. The Very Hungry caterpillar

You then think of how you tie that into the menu for that day...do you pick some of the foods that the caterpillar eats for snacks and mealtime or ??

Then I made large caterpillars from a piece of Bristol Board. I think one large Bristol board made about 5 caterpillars. I then gave the children red, green and yellow paint so they could paint the caterpillar with similar colours to the one in the book. The following week we painted butterflies and talked about how caterpillars go into a coccoon and become butterflies.

I know some providers have done themes based on The Kissing Hand, I You Give a Pig a Pancake and books about fall, etc to program off on.

[playfelt]

The problem with prepackaged theme units is that by the time you adapt them to your group you end up doing a lot of the work anyways. It is hard to find anything that can be used properly with the age range we deal with in home daycare. Months where I have mostly younger kids I do things differently than months where they are mostly older and a combination on months inbetween.

[angelina]

Thank you for all of your thoughts!
If there was a site that offered a mini theme:
Ex. Story book, felt story, booklet with songs,art ideas, and science etc, magnetic story, and small toys for visuals at circle????? (All in one mini kit) for $50??
Would you buy them??

no, OEYC give some hints and tips for free, and you can borrow them. if you got " snow and winter theme" this next two weeks, you can borrow books, felt, props, toys from them. Just make up your own theme and borrow resources.

CCPRN felt story kits are like $10 only.

[Momof4]

I've been running themes for several years now and love them. I'm planting little seeds in the minds of the children by focusing on a different theme every week or two. But I don't spend lots of money, I get the books from the library and google for crafts and songs and games to play to match the theme.

[KellysChildCare]

Check your local library they might have theme bins you can sign out for a wk with a few books on the theme and props etc! Although if you make your own I think that's a great idea I might do too at 1st might take a while but make them so you can reuse them kids learn through repetition so have a bin for each season > only 4 then make a few with basic themes like farm zoo space and rotate them 1 wk winter next farm then back to winter then zoo then winter for variety have a colour and a # or letter of the wk and change those ... dollarama or your local dollar store is great for supplies for the bins
Just make sure if you're going to spend your time on these things that you can reuse them so in the long run you have more time with family.