How to incorporate your weekly theme into your day!

Hello All, I was recently asked by a new pre-k teacher how I found time in the day to fit in "themes." Now those of us who have been in a pre-k/K classroom know that incorporating our weekly themes needs to go across the curriculum not just in an activity or two. At my school we use the weekly reader series and Christian Holidays to decide on our weekly themes. Once we know our themes for the year we can begin to plan. This is also how I got started with teacherspayteachers.com. Here is my process, 1. Write my themes and any quick ideas that come to me in my plan book. 2. I label my plan book by subject. (reading, vocabulary, numbers, art,centers, library, circle, science, other) 3. I then go through each theme writing down what I already know and what I need. 4. If I am short on ideas for a specific theme I hit the internet. By going through this process a few weeks before the theme week I can make a list of supplies needed and locate everything I need (if you've seen the post on my cabinet disorganization you will understand why I need WEEKS to find everything! HaHa!)Below is a sample of a weeks worth of activities for a theme unit; compiling all of the ideas into one unit not only allows me not to do the work again in a year but has also turned into a second income for my family. You can find all of the math activities in my sports unit on teacherspayteachers.com Sports Week Theme: Math/ Numbers/ Circle: Sports pattern calendar, sports graph, number finds in sports balls and word problems, I have/Who has 1-50, journal prompts.

Vocabulary: Sports ball read the room, word wall sports words, Art: roll tennis balls or golf balls in paint and roll across board paper, draw or watercolor and journal about sports Centers: sports words and picture matching cards, counting team members center, sports memory game,sports ball sorting center Library: books about sports, teamwork and character ( I would love to give you specific titles but I am not in my classroom to list them, sorry!) Science: do balls float or sink?, which sports ball is the heaviest/lightest, discuss shape and material of balls (5 senses).

Everything I do in my day includes a piece of my theme making incorporation seemless. I hope this can encourage you to find ways to teach your curriculum and include the theme without extra effort. Click the link below to see the math activities on TpT:

Till next time, Christine

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