Themes by Month

[Louise_Oaktree]

Hi folks

I think I am ok with EYFS/Observations and Next Steps (Just completed my NVQ 3 which helped me with this) but I would like to make it more interesting for the children by introducing themes and wondered if there was a site or list which could give me some inspiration.

I know in an ideal world my planning should be child led which it is, but I sometimes need somewhere to start for example, Seasons may lead to ploughing and planting using trays of soil and toy diggers as one is interested in Tractors.

Hope this makes sense! I know it sounds a bit backwards but I have 2 babies and would like to try these themes so they can join in too, e.g. looking at pine cones and leaves etc.

[cara1235]

hi
yeh that is what i tend to do myself and another cm work close together and give each month a theme and plan lots of activities for all different levels of learning, lots of sites we use have loads of ideas for example
dltks
activity village
enchanted learning
loads will come up if you put it into google.
at the moment my months are
jan-birds/winter/chinese new year
feb-people who help us/valentines
march-spring, baby animals, mothersday
april-easter,babies
may-transport
june- undecided!
july-holidays
august-summer seaside
sept-settling in for new starters
oct-autumn, halloween
nov-rememberance day, poppies, bonfires advent calendars
dec- xmas

hope this helps x
dec-

[sarah707]

Some good ideas there from Cara!

The main thing is to show how the things you are planning link in with the chidlren's interests.

So you might be planning to do something for Earth Day this week (it's today). You know that John is interested in cars and tractors so you plan to put some soil outside for him to explore and watch the patterns from the wheels...

Jane is interested in drawing so you might talk to her about recycling paper.

With both of the children your group planning might include visiting the park and collecting daisies to make chains.

Don't over complicate things... it is the activities you are already doing... just write them down to show you are following the children and thinking about how it all links with the Eyfs