to theme or not to theme...

[butterfly]

..that is the question!

I've been on a course today and we discussed whether you should have themes to hang your planning on or not and now i'm totally confused and can't decide what to do!

So far i have been using themes each month - i have to say that yes i am following the guidance and my themes are based around the children's lives and interests although ofcourse not all children have the same interest. for example this term we are doing 'new beginnings' which is covering new year, chinese new year, starting school (as one mindee is), and new babies (as one mindee is having a baby sibling in feb)

However, i understand how all my objectives can be covered solely by following the children's interests on a week to week basis. on my course today i was told def not do theme for under 3s as its irrelevant to them. that's left me thinking is all the work i do planning a theme worth it for the one eyfs child that i have over 3 and the couple of older after schoolies?

i do do alot of planning around my theme and although i'm willing to ditch planning if a child has a different interest it is heart wrenching to through out planing that's taken a lot of thought!!

i'm kind of thinking ditch the themes and go with the flow of the children totally BUT 2 things are holding me back

1. i'm due an inspection in the next 2 months or so and don't want to have to change all my documents like parent handbook and sef to accomodate
2. i still believe some things eg chinese new year will never be experienced by a child if we don't introduce it

what does everyone think? do you use themes?

[PixiePetal]

I have a monthly list of themes with a list of possible activities.

We may or may not use them, depends on the children ( who are aged between 1 and 4) After free pay I suggest an activity from the list and we may follow it up another day - if the kids run with the idea.

Over the month I try and do something from each area of learning and development for each child.

I find it useful to have a list of activities on hand if I need them and fun for me too! :thumbsup:

[Mollymop]

Yes and no
So I voted No. Yes I do have themes but not consistant enough to vote yes!

[PixiePetal]

Yes and no
So I voted No. Yes I do have themes but not consistant enough to vote yes!


maybe I should have voted 'no' then too !!

I think a lot of us are somewhere inbetween :D

[Chatterbox Childcare]

I have a theme for the month and 2 activities a week planned around these. 90% of the time they are changed to accomodate the interests of the children. I do not link them to anything within the EYFS until we have done them.

I think if you theme it makes you think about what you are providing and I then have to look and see which area it covers and whether I need to incorporate anything else.

[Blaze]

I use themes... over the hours of the week I allow plenty of time for free play & what i call activity space...that way if we have gone off on a tangent following the children's interest in something else then there is still time over the week to do the activities planned, but not always at the time originally intended!!!!...It is very rare that we don't do the activities I have planned for that week. (That way i am ensuring a varied learning experience, making sure that I'm covering all of the eyfs and my planning doesn't go to waste, but I'm still following the children's interests by allowing for child led activities. I find it really useful to have themes in place as quite often a child's interest will co-inside with planning for another theme, so i just use that planning & add it to their folder and my notes IYSWIM! I followed this system before the EYFS & have just tweaked it so I know what themes & what activities corrispond to what part of the EYFS. I think the trick is not to try and cram too much in the space of a week. Hth! :)

[sarah707]

..is all the work i do planning a theme worth it for the one eyfs child that i have over 3 and the couple of older after schoolies?


Maybe you need to be thinking in terms of streamlining the paperwork and planning you do rather than changing something that clearly works for you and the children!

Themes play a very big part in ensuring children receive access to a balanced curriculum. Without them, children would not learn about things they don't already know about... and they would not find out about the wider world, celebrations, festivals etc.

I sometimes think it's more about the word 'themes' that this new breed of 'ditch themes' brigade object to... call them 'child led learning opportunties' or 'group planning ideas' instead but do not take away a child's opportunity to be excited about new things that happen around them.

I've been in education most of my life and I have seen educational theories come and go. The dedicated advocates for not allowing deaf children to use sign language were replaced by professionals who bang the 'children must be allowed to communicate' drum... my children's high school now has themed planning lessons!

Go with what you know the children enjoy.

Hth :D

[madasahatter]

I plan using themes and I will freely admit that it is more for me than the kids. Researching and finding out new ideas stops me from getting bored with my job. I know I would still do a good job if I didn't use themes but it gives me a focus for both adult led activities and what I make available for child-led activities. It also ensures that my planning is cross curricular and covers all learning areas.

[Hannahlg]

we have thems most of them are to do with the childrens intrest

at the moment where doing letters and colours the 3 older boys who are startign fulltime school in setpmber we are starting to leran them the letters etc but the other boy who is a year younger where doing colours with him

but doing obsavations and doing what the children wont to do allways comes first and themes second

[Andrea08]

If you haven't tried ice-scating how do you know if you like it or not? if a child didnt try building bricks how do you know if they like it or giving children opportunities to try new things and by this we use planned themes, eg winter and go off with what child likes ,,winter duck pond, flags in the wind etc, i think its easier for me to use a theme so i pick adult led activities to one subject and then im not all over the place with different subjects,
as we made flags it did go off to windmills but it stayed within the theme,
ofsted might not like the word, but we still should do SOME adult led activities ,,, the word is just like a ubject matter and it makes it easier for me to pick new experiances to do,
im getting a little wordy hope i made sence x

[flora]

We use a theme as a spring board for other things.

As long as it is not too regimented then I think you will be ok.

Like Sarah I have seen fad come annd go.

If it aint broken buttefly don't fix it :thumbsup:

[Schnakes]

I plan using themes and I will freely admit that it is more for me than the kids. Researching and finding out new ideas stops me from getting bored with my job. I know I would still do a good job if I didn't use themes but it gives me a focus for both adult led activities and what I make available for child-led activities. It also ensures that my planning is cross curricular and covers all learning areas.

Thats EXACTLY what I was going to say, except my post was going to be a lot more waffley!! You're lucky Madas posted first! Lol!! :thumbsup:

Sx