Idea for monthly themes?

[Lady Haha]

Hi, I have had a look over the site in case there is something like this, but couldn't find anything, so sorry in advance if it's there and I'm being stupid!

I am running out of ideas for the monthly themes! We have done health, people who help us, feelings, modes of transport, along with the Xmas, Halloween, Easter, other cultures celebrations, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter ones! I can't repeat them as the children I look after are old enough to remember doing them last year and a couple remembr things we did the year before that! Just wondered if there was a section on the site where everyone can add/get ideas for themes from? I was so desperate that this month our theme was Birthdays as three of the kids all had a birthday this month! I have to come up with something better than that though! I would like a set of 24 themes that I could run two yearly, that would be nice!

[Pipsqueak]

How about stretching your themes over a longer period ie a month?

Ask the children what they want to do - after all EYFS is all about being child initiated, reflect/assess on the kids interests where can that take you. We should be moving away from "themes" a little and going with childs interests
Use the EYFS to give you some guidance (presume the kdis you look after are EYFS age group)

Take the lead from school and build on what they are covering.

Spring is coming - so all things to do with spring, new life, seasons, animals, colours, warmth, plant some sunflowers etc

Water and Sand are two never ending "themes"

[Lady Haha]

Thanks for you reply! I do stretch the themes, they are already monthly! Its just that after nearly two years (approx 20 themes), I am running out of ideas! I have tried asking the children, but as usual, they all come up with something different and no one can agree! The themes I have done have usually been inspired by one or more of the children anyway, for instance People who help us was particularly fun for one mindee as her mum is a midwife. Modes of Transport fantastic fun for one of the car/plane/train mad boys I care for! I suppose it's possible to repeat Spring as I can do different activities to those I did last year.

Its just that I was told in my training to have an annual plan of your monthly themes then split into weeks of different ways of covering that theme. Also, I tell the parents via the newsletter 'This months theme is......', so it would be nice to have something that sounds interesting to them too!

Oh, and the other thing about 'obvious' themes like Spring and Autumn is the school ARE already doing it and I end up not doing any of the activities I had planned cos they have already 'made a grass head' or already 'made a nest to put their stuffed toys in to hibernate' or already 'planted a sunflower seed'

So, Spring for March then! Any ideas for April's theme?

[Chanelle]

Here are a few ideas , hope you havent already covered them already

March / New Life / Animals/Farm / Families / Mothers Day !

April - Easter !! / Where we live / Under the Sea

May - Countries ? / Food around the world / Clothes

June - Holidays / Going to school

July - Summer / Transport / Outdoor

August - Colours / Creative Play / By the Seaside

September - Autumn / Weather / All about Me

[Andrea08]

April...my mother n fathers birthdays???

i feel the same when i joined the forum i ended up in tears as my network co-ordinator slated my 24month planning as it involved themes, and i had to bin it infront of her ,,it was hrs of work but she said ofsted do no want to see themes,,

well she should read the forum as lots of us who have had ofsted inspections state the inspector said " WHERE ARE YOUR THEMED PLANS OR WHERE ARE YOUR YEARLY PLANS" if we are to work to the planning of each individual child why do we need monthly plans..what i now call topics? my answer is continual provision is not enough to stimulate children and we need to introduce new experiances so with people that help us a visit to the fire station could then lead on to child led activities of dress up etc but we still needed to plan the theme of "PEOPLE THAT HELP US" to get the child to lead on from,,

sarah did explain it but i did something silly and listened to my network co,, and now im stuck with 3 files of activity sheets and planns and dont know what to do with them,,,then we have to link with the 6areas of learning!!! i wanted to be a childminder NOT A TEACHER and i feel my job has been taken from me and x100 jobs added to my life,

sorry yes eyfs IS good in some areas and for the cm that is accredited i agree there are not many changes but to the cm that just catered to the individual needs of each child and family has changed and for us that NEVER worked with the foundation stage its become more difficult with differing ideas and training that seen to differ in ideas of how to implament the EYFS,

ohh sorry a long one got carried away x x x

[Lady Haha]

Thank you, that s what I needed! A couple more ideas!!! Will write those down now!

I had to laugh at Food around the world It's hard enough to get them to eat chicken that doesn't look like a mcnugget, let alone introducing some chinese food or something! Will give it a go though, could incorporate it in with learning about that particular country that week.

Thanks again!

Andrea, hope you feel better after that!!!

[Chanelle]

If they are fussy eaters, get them to prepare it and even better have noodle play in the water tray or wool noodles and chopsticks before hand in the role play area lol .... also do these before you plan to try chinese food for example and then ask them if they would lke to try to pick up 'real' noodles ... work at nursery and had loads of children coming back for more lol

[sarah707]

I find that by the time I have planned in weekly celebrations and festivals, I just need a broad outline of something themed plus linking to the children's interests and what they are doing at home / in other settings and my planning is overflowing.

Plus after 2 years you can start repeating things just give them a slightly different slant.

Hope this helps

Andrea, I hope you took your files out of the bin!!

[Chatterbox Childcare]

I can send you my 2 year plan if you pm me your email as I cannot attach it. I find that I don't need 24 themese as a lot overlap over the two years, easter/xmas/halloween etc and I leave August both years to be decided by the children.

[karenandsmile]

found a really good book in asda yesterday called Lets grow there is 18 activities indoor and out door , step by step photos and wipe clean pages all for those of you who doing a growing gardening theme and all for £3.00 i think is a bargin especially the strawberry wellies where you cut holes in the wellies and plant straberries into them

[huggableshelly]

I seem to just repeat every year but thats mainly due to having new children, the past 3 years in a row I've had preschoolers who leave me when they go fulltime school.

I'm that filler in thing between fulltime private nursery and fulltime school to help out with the part time school time hours.

Wow I've called myself a thingy ... time for a cuppa before morning school run.

[mabel]

perhaps some weeks, even though you have themes, diverse from them
a bit.

Hence this week, pancakes so we have gone into cirlcles (maths)
and will now continue with shape work etc
trying hard to make a daffodil (St Davids day) out of triangles.

Some activities like this just emerge !

[Chell]

What about looking at awareness weeks such as Learn to Sign Week (5-11th Oct 09) and Deaf Awareness week (4th -10th May 09)?

World Book Day - 5th (?) March, Comic Relief, etc.

Some ideas for March here:
http://www.countmeincalendar.info/sh...e_month=2009-3

Never heard of 'World Theatre day' but it could be a good one to use.

[Lady Haha]

What about looking at awareness weeks such as Learn to Sign Week (5-11th Oct 09) and Deaf Awareness week (4th -10th May 09)?

World Book Day - 5th (?) March, Comic Relief, etc.

Some ideas for March here:
http://www.countmeincalendar.info/sh...e_month=2009-3

Never heard of 'World Theatre day' but it could be a good one to use.

Wow, I really like those ideas! As my mindees are all quite 'old', this is so much more within their ability and really relevant! I did a small thing on teaching them about how pedestrian crossings help deaf or blind people, I have one just along from my house, so we went out (annoying the traffic lol) and closed our eyes to see if we knew when it was okay to cross (beeping noise) and then covered our ears and saw the green man so knew it was okay to cross........then one of the little bright sparks said, 'what if you were deaf AND blind?'

Thanks everyone got some fantastic ideas here and will not have a problem now! Love the Strawberry Wellies, that will go down well! And Debbie, thanks I will pm you for that!

[PixiePetal]

Wow, I really like those ideas! As my mindees are all quite 'old', this is so much more within their ability and really relevant! I did a small thing on teaching them about how pedestrian crossings help deaf or blind people, I have one just along from my house, so we went out (annoying the traffic lol) and closed our eyes to see if we knew when it was okay to cross (beeping noise) and then covered our ears and saw the green man so knew it was okay to cross........then one of the little bright sparks said, 'what if you were deaf AND blind?'

Thanks everyone got some fantastic ideas here and will not have a problem now! Love the Strawberry Wellies, that will go down well! And Debbie, thanks I will pm you for that!

I think there is a little knob under the bit where you press the button on the crossing ( sorry sounds confusing ), which goes round when it is safe to cross - or something like that. We had a blind couple living near us and he told me. Have a feel when you next go to the crossing

[Jules27]

Up til now i've not really had themes mainly coz I only had 2 very parttimers so basically went with the flow as to what they wanted to do. I now have a full timer but she is only 14 months so again its really a day to day thing as to what she wants to do. I do get the paints out, play doh, moon sand, colouring, gloop over the course of each week. Did cover chinese new year and valentines, will be doing something for Easter and mothers day but she is really too little to understand themes as yet.

I've 2 new mindees starting next week not many hours term time but almost full time in school hols so will now be doing monthly planning/themes/topics whatever you want to call them!!!

[Juddster]

These are from the bromley site
Animals
Autumn
Patterns
Winter
Spring
Summer
Stories
Health
Safety
Carnival
Holidays
o Summer
o Winter skiing
Beach
Insects
Sport
Homes
About me covering the sences
Transport
o Trams
o Trains
o Buses
o Cars
o Planes
Flowers
Plants
Christmas
Easter
Religious Festivals
Countries
Harvest
Fruit
Vegetables
Clothes
Shopping
Journeys
Gardens
Families





Opposites
o Hot/cold
o Big/small
o Light/heavy
o Light/Dark

Feelings
Pets
Our community
Super heroes
Favourite rhymes/songs
Similar/different
Colours
Friends
Emergency services
o Ambulance
o Fire
o Police
TV Characters
Famous People
Famous events in history
Olympics
Food
Puppets
Life cycles
Farm
Countryside Life
Town Life
Road Safety
Pirates
Sea
Construction/building
Babies

you could have books and the environment (recycling etc)

[Happy Feet]

I can send you my 2 year plan if you pm me your email as I cannot attach it. I find that I don't need 24 themese as a lot overlap over the two years, easter/xmas/halloween etc and I leave August both years to be decided by the children.

Debbie, is there any chance I could take a peek at your 2 year plan? I'm about to make a start on long term planning so any pointers would be helpful xx

[emitchell285]

Would it be possible for you to email me the 2 year planner to just to give me an idea. I have just started out so would be really helpful to see

[Hayley G]

Debbie, is there any chance I could take a peek at your 2 year plan? I'm about to make a start on long term planning so any pointers would be helpful xx

Its from an old post but you mentioned about sending your 2 year planning - my e-mail is hayley@littleadventurers.co.uk