Preschool Theme Lesson Plans
Why use thematic lesson plans?
Preschool themes are not essential to a successful preschool lesson, but they do help tie everything together and keep students engaged in learning. For that reason, it is strongly recommended that preschool themes help teachers save time and energy in their planning.
preschool themes Also help teachers show students how different things can be interrelated. It allows them to delve into the topic and explore it from different angles.
How to use themes
Once a teacher has chosen a topic, the next requirement is to determine how to fit a lesson within the constraints of the topic. There should be multiple components to a topic lesson. The first would be the main objectives, whether to teach geography or animals or new vocabulary. These objectives should relate to the topic. For example, if the topic is animals, the learning objective could be to teach about the animals of the rainforest and why they are colored.
Next, the lesson should have a physical activity to get students moving and engaged. This activity could be a song, a dance, a scavenger hunt, or a game of follow the leader. Again, the activity should relate to the topic and allow students to explore it further. If the topic is animals, students could imitate animals and ask them to guess the correct animal.
Finally, the lesson should include a craft project. This project should engage students creatively, encouraging them to use art to express themselves and learn more about the subject.
Sample Topics
Because preschoolers are interested in the world around them, good themes relate to things they see every day. The following list is a good starting point for preschool teachers who need the ease of flexibility and a way to tie it all together.
or automobiles
or world geography
o Mountains and volcanoes
or in the kitchen
or farts
or at the zoo
or the weather
oFlowers
or vacations
o Winter activities
or vacations
or seasons
Daily vs. Long Term Themes
Teachers using preschool themes have a few options when it comes to the length of the theme. They can choose a theme for one day or one for more time. Less than one day is not enough for students to understand the connection of the activities.
If teachers want to extend preschool themes for a week or more, they should choose a theme that is broad enough that all days can be linked in some way. For example, if the topic is weather, Monday could be the basic elemental movements that make up the weather, Tuesday natural disasters, Wednesday the water cycle, Thursday clouds, and Friday can tie it all together.
Final Thoughts on Preschool Topics
Preschool themes can help teachers tie together lessons and explore ideas in deeper ways than they could with less time. Topics should be no less than a day long, but can be much longer, like a week or even longer. Topics should be broad enough that teachers can touch on many different topics, but focused enough that students can see the connection of ideas.