Themes & Activity ideas for January

[Cariad]

Hi all,

I found Autumn and Winter soo easy to plan for but now I'm at a bit of a loss wondering where to go to TIA:)

[Maza]

How old are your children? We are still in Winter so you could do other aspects of Winter, such as animals in winter. We are going to make some birdseed cake. What are your children into? I specifically remember doing butterflies straight after Christmas last year because mindee was obsessed with them! I would never have thought of that otherwise at that time of year! This year the older ones got interested in maps/globes after tracking Santa and so we are going to look at some cold countries on the map and create some small world scenes using polar bears, penguins etc. One also got interested in time and so I have bought an egg timer and we will investigate how long it takes us to do little jobs. 18 month old is into filling and emptying and so I have been collecting different containers for him to use with his current interest.

[SYLVIA]

As already said, it's still Winter so we will look at snow and ice. We made ice decorations for the garden last year and we will make ice tea light holders this year. Nature Detectives website usually has some nice ideas

[karensmart4]

Don't forget Chinese new year, food tasting/using chopsticks/your name in Chinese/look for China in the atlas/look on the internet/colouring sheets/dressing up/make lucky red envelopes/use wok, chopsticks in role-play.

Weather.

How we stay healthy and warm.

How animals stay warm.

Try to match things up to individual children's interests while expanding their knowledge in fun ways :thumbsup:

[TAZ]

I often look at all different types of weather at this time of year as it can be different every day / week!
Also like the others we look at 'winter' and animals that live in cold places.
Along with that we focus on fire safety (again) and keep going with numbers, shapes & colours.

[mushpea]

we generally go along with childrens interests, i have given up planning weeks in advance as I spend all my time crossing stuff out and re writing as the children arrive and ask to do stuff or show interest in somthing so we go with that. I do have in mind stuff like the festivals and winter for January and Feburary incase we get stuck but normaly its just do what they want then write it up after.

[Cariad]

Thanks for your replies. (even though alf my orignal post was missing - note to self, must read before posting!)

[sarah707]

We are starting winter next week - the little ones are fascinated by snowflakes so we have lots of ideas already :D

[loocyloo]

i'm carrying on with winter as got rather sidetracked by christmas ;) am planning to make some bird feeders using pine cones/fat & seeds. i like the ice decorations too. last year when it snowed we squirted coloured water all over the snow & made pretty patterns!

although i often do healthy eating in january !!!! ( and chinese new year! )


but i am wondering about changing from monthly themes per se and 'do' books! i only really use my 'themes' as a fall back if there isn't anything particular the children want to do, or are majorly interested in. i've read about other people doing 'favourite books' and using a different book as the basis for each month ( or so's might do one every few weeks ) activities as you can take the activities anywhere you like connected to each book!

i've already got several story sacs to start with and can then go with the childrens favourite books or where ever/how ever the books take us.

[VeggieSausage]

We are going to do stuff about China and Chinese New Year

Months of the year/ days of the week/ counting months etc/ letters in January.....

Not sure what else - bit bleak the weather isn't it for outside stuff.....

[Chimps Childminding]

We usually do winter after christmas, include weather, animals, etc December is mostly taken up with Christmas etc. then we add things like Chinese new year or any other festivals/celebrations (ie my birthday) that happen to fall in January!!!!

[Helen Dempster]

We're doing World Religion Day, Chinese New Year and St Dwynwen's Day (Welsh festival of friendship and love). Also doing the ice craft (I think someone else mentioned it?) :)

[bunyip]

We'll be doing snow/winter-themed things and generally plenty of indoor crafts and games if the opportunities to do much outdoors will be rather limited.

The website ProjectBritain.com - A resource of British Life and Culture in the UK by Woodlands Junior (http://www.projectbritain.com) has a page of various calendars. Some reflect multi-faith festivals, and others commemorate events that happened on each day of the month, and all have facts and further links. These might be useful to provide a starting point for some inspiration. :)

[Toothfairy]

Chinese New Year in on the 10th February this year, it's the year of the snake.
HTH :thumbsup: