Themes

[Nikki Edwards]

I work with under 2's and we are being told we can do themes what's the best theme to do that you can link a few things with EYFS and my brain is overloaded with rubbish lol.

How long do you think a theme should run i.e a few weeks 1 months or a term etc?

[AnnieM]

I loosely plan themes, usually with the intention of doing them for a month, if they are not very popular or the children don't seem that interested I will ditch it for something else, or spin it in a slightly different direction, if they are enjoying it I will continue it until either I run out of ideas or the children start to get fed up with it.

You could really do lots of topics with children of that age, transport if they like cars, trains etc., nursery rhymes, colours, animals, all about me, senses etc. I would keep themes quite simple at such a young age though. :thumbsup:

[sweets]

i don't do themes, i particulaly wouldnt do with them with under 2's.

ofsted dont like them and i have to agree.

with pre school children we should just go with the flo with whats round and about at the time e.g planting in the spring and looking at autumn trees etc.

we should also just be following there own interests, i have a 20mnth old at the mo that loves the hungry caterpillar book so we have made a egg box caterpillar and looked for them in the garden, but i wouldnt go and do a whole theme on caterpillars as there interest flit from one thing to another.

im not saying we should 'only' go with their interests, we need to introduce new things and look at different subjects etc but not do whole weekly, monthly or termly themes on them.

only my opinion tho!! lol

[snufflepuff]

I have all one year olds and dont do themes. I used to run the 2 year olds room at a nursery and had to use themes, chaging monthly- i found it too restricting and hard to follow childrens interests. Plus i find some themes have loads of activity ideas while others are very limited.

[sandy64]

hi i have 2 2yr olds and a 1yrold and do very loose planning around themes and childrens interests ie this month nursery rhymmes as my 2 2yrolds love singing and are learning new rhymmes so thought i would do very basic planning:) .

[Monkey26]

I have a yearly plan that 'focuses' on a topic each month ie this month - transport. Like others have said this is very very loose and one day we might do something related to it, and then we might not look at it again (in a specific activity i am talking about here)

The main reason i have this yearly plan is because i have a small property and the majority of my toys/resources are stored outside in a shed, therefore it makes sense to rotate them on a regular basis and bring in toys related to specific themes.

HTH xx

[Nikki Edwards]

Thank you for you advice,

i'm not keen on themes myself with this young age but the boss wants to do it but will hopefully see it doesn't work with this age and will change her mind.:)