Open Discussion Forum

  • 1.  preschool themes

    Posted 05-22-2018 01:19 AM
    What is a good classroom theme for 3 yr old in pre-k???

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    Christine Barletta
    Self
    Saint Louis MO
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  • 2.  RE: preschool themes

    Posted 05-23-2018 09:05 AM
    The choice of a theme depends on the children in your class, the context of your class, etc. I would suggest that rather than asking for themes from others, you listen carefully and observe deeply what the three-year-olds appear to be interested in. Discuss with others what you see - could be captured on video or through anecdotes, or jotting down what you hear children saying as they play and engage in intentionally planned activities. These strategies will guide you in coming up with a "theme" or "investigation" that will appeal to your particular three-year-olds and which can be used to promote their development. Then you will be able to plan activities around their interests, which will engage the three-year-olds and possibly also the 4-year-olds as well.

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    Nora Krieger
    Associate Professor Emerita/ Chair NJEEPRE
    Bloomfield College/ New Jersey Educators Exploring the Practices of Reggio Emilia
    Highland Park NJ
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  • 3.  RE: preschool themes

    Posted 05-23-2018 09:18 AM
    Hi Christine,
    A theme such as "Exploring Nature" can be part of your program's curriculum all year long. It is appropriate for all ages!
    Babies can splash water, smell a flower, feel the wind, taste a fruit, and listen to bird calls. Older children can safely handle natural materials and take walks through whatever nature is easily available--a small lawn, nearby grasses and trees, local gardens and parks, and rocky places where the earth is visible--for daily or weekly observations of seasonal changes. 
    Soil/dirt mixed with a little water makes a kind of paint.
    Planting seeds in a garden or a large pot helps children understand the needs of living organisms.
    Building art sculptures out of sticks and other natural materials is both creative and an engineering design project as children figure out what to use to attach the materials together.
    A class can make a book about nature using drawings or photos they take over time of favorite plants or the sky, and continue adding to it all year. As children read the book and share it with their families they will reflect on their observations.

    Using a theme to connect areas of learning helps us organize the activities we provide so they will support children's growing understanding of important concepts.


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    Peggy Ashbrook
    Early childhood science teacher
    Alexandria, VA
    NSTA The Early Years columnist, Science and Children
    Early Years blogger, www.nsta.org/earlyyears
    Author: Science Learning in the Early Years, and
    Science Is Simple
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  • 4.  RE: preschool themes

    Posted 05-24-2018 12:22 AM
    Thank you all for the input :-)





  • 5.  RE: preschool themes

    Posted 05-23-2018 10:29 AM
    The possibilities are endless.  Please read the NAEYC POSITION STATEMENT 
    Developmentally Appropriate Practice
    in Early Childhood Programs Serving
    Children from Birth through Age 8
    It would not upload for me but I am sure it would be a good start.
    Using an emergent curriculum is a teaching strategy where you plan based on the children's interests.
    3 year old children love dinosaurs!
    They love transportation!
    Seasonal themes are popular.  Take summer, for example.  You could make  a Venn Diagram.  Draw a circle in the center with the word summer inside.  
    Surround that circle with:
    curriculum areas like S T E A M and language arts  or
    different learning centers like blocks, music, manipulatives, etc. This could help you develop your theme.




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    Patricia Jack
    Boulder City NV
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  • 6.  RE: preschool themes

    Posted 05-23-2018 04:37 PM
    Hi Patricia

    Making sure you know the current link the position statement: https://www.naeyc.org/resources/position-statements/dap .

    Please let me know if you continue to have trouble downloading.

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    Michael Coventry
    National Association for the Education of Young Children
    Washington DC
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  • 7.  RE: preschool themes

    Posted 05-23-2018 11:07 AM
    I'm wondering if maybe you don't know the group yet and just what they might enjoy, in which case there are a lot of "Working together" "We are all alike, we are all different", "How to be a friend" type themes and books to get a group started. They might also enjoy visiting each play area in the room and getting a token (a different color bead on a yarn necklace, a stamp in a "passport", a little card etc.) for each area they explore. 
    Planning activities around children's literature is always a good idea, so much to choose from! You can let children chose a favorite book from your library or from home to see where interests lie and overlap.

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    Vicki Knauerhase M.Ed.
    Child Development Specialist (retired)
    Weston OH
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  • 8.  RE: preschool themes

    Posted 05-23-2018 04:32 PM
    There are a thousand and one but I'll suggest a couple of approaches.  1.  Curriculum is what happens every moment in every day, not just lessons that teachers prepare in advance for children.  Conversation at the snack table is curriculum, songs and games during circle is curriculum, talking about missing parents is curriculum.
    2. Observe them and their play.  Do any themes emerge?  Do most of them love trucks? Transportation unit where you infuse trucks into play, building materials, sensory tables, art, songs, etc.  Do some love music?  Music curriculum with instruments and music from all over the world. Write some songs together.  Record children singing songs that they make up.   3.  Look around at what's happening outside.  Kids are fascinated with the natural world.  It's spring and close to summer.  You can study birds (recordings of their songs, looking at photos, taking walks and listening to them and watching them, learning what they eat and how they live, photos of their many kinds and colors of eggs, matching games with pictures of eggs, writing songs and stories about birds, etc.). You can study ocean life in the summer.

    So many possibilities but the approach is to find out what they like and expand on it with them. Have fun!

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    Aren Stone
    Child Development Specialist
    The Early Years Project
    Cambridge, MA
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  • 9.  RE: preschool themes

    Posted 05-24-2018 08:33 AM
    I agree-the possibilities are endless. When I was lead of a Three's class of 20, one thing our little's loved was dinosaurs! They would beg for the Laurie Berkner song, "We Are The Dinosaurs, Marching! Marching!", which was in our music & movement area. My assistant had laminated big, dinosaur feet that the children would put out around the carpet, while many chose instruments to play, as they marched to the song. We also had several dinosaur puzzles, including a large floor one. Sensory/sand had different kinds of dinos & skeletons, and digging tools. We added dinosaurs & mini trees to blocks & "wondered" what kinds of homes dinosaurs lived in? What did they eat?Science had informational books about dinosaurs, archaeologist & paleontologist, museums, maps of dinosaur bone discovery, tools, etc. Dramatic play had dress up scientists, and museum workers and art had provocations of laminated dinosaur cards and bones. My assistant also made salt dough dinosaur eggs (with tiny dinosaurs inside) with the children, which were a huge hit! And I made salt dough fossil prints (which we also used some in the digging) Books were in every center, read daily, and "extinct" became a fascination of one child through a Mo Willems, "Edwina, The Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct". Vocabulary was introduced through all of this and it was amazing to realize because of the interest of the children, the depth of the learning that occurred! 
    P.S.-I didn't do it then, but I wish I would have done a Parent Museum Exhibit so the children could have shown the families everything they had learned, and done a Parade Song March of that catchy Dinosaur March!!

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    Meg Marchese
    Preschool Teacher
    Belmont, NC
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