need help with Theme

**Beenletloose** · 31-08-2011, 08:17 AM

Hi i have only been cm since May, so still trying to find my feet.
i have decided on an Autumn theme for September and i know Ofsted will be coming this month, so i need some help with some really good ideas to get me through all the 6 areas, i have a 3 half year old on 2 days and a 19 month old one day and a 10 month old another day.
i have also decided to do Fruit as a sub theme.

Please please guys help
thanks

**sarah707** · 31-08-2011, 01:31 PM

Use the community - walks, exploring local areas etc to put together an interest basket with the children then add to it with things from each area of learning eg...

Books and comics that relate to autumn

songs and rhymes with autumn / leaf focus

Counting lines or shape puzzles using leaves etc.

Hth

**Helen Dempster** · 08-09-2011, 06:02 PM

when we did an autumn theme, I got a huge piece of white card and we went out and collected lots of conkers, leaves, twigs etc all in the lovely autumn colours. When we got home, out came the glue and paints (still using the colours of autumn) and we made a lovely piece of art work. the mindees flicked the paint at the card rather than just painting it in strokes and stuck the various bits and pieces all over it. Looked great (in fact, I still have it and this was over a year ago now).

**rickysmiths** · 08-09-2011, 06:27 PM

A couple of years ago I go some of the crinkly brown packing paper that you get in parcels. I made a tree trunk and a couple of branches and blu tacked them to a cupboard door.

We then went and collected leaves conkers cones etc and fixed them on the tree. We cut out leaf shapes and coloured them, painted them and I cut up hundreds of squares and they stuck them on. All in autumn shades.

Then we made Spiders and webs for halloween, we had fire works, christmas stars and baubles for christmas. The tree lost its leaves and we blu tac them around the bottom for a bit!

Then we made a snowy tree and a snowman.

Then the blossom with tissue paper and sweet wrappers

Then the new green leaves and it magically turned into a fruit tree over the summer.

It was up for a whoe year and a lot of the extras we child lead ideas it was great fun.

I am going to start one in the next week because I have the right age children to follow it with.

**cherry** · 08-09-2011, 06:53 PM

Collect leaves, laminate and make into a mobile. CD KUW

**Chimps Childminding** · 09-09-2011, 08:30 AM

Originally Posted by rickysmiths

A couple of years ago I go some of the crinkly brown packing paper that you get in parcels. I made a tree trunk and a couple of branches and blu tacked them to a cupboard door.

We then went and collected leaves conkers cones etc and fixed them on the tree. We cut out leaf shapes and coloured them, painted them and I cut up hundreds of squares and they stuck them on. All in autumn shades.

Then we made Spiders and webs for halloween, we had fire works, christmas stars and baubles for christmas. The tree lost its leaves and we blu tac them around the bottom for a bit!

Then we made a snowy tree and a snowman.

Then the blossom with tissue paper and sweet wrappers

Then the new green leaves and it magically turned into a fruit tree over the summer.

It was up for a whoe year and a lot of the extras we child lead ideas it was great fun.

I am going to start one in the next week because I have the right age children to follow it with.

Great ideas Rickysmiths!! I made a palm tree which I had stuck to the wall all summer which I have now taken the palm leaves off and added branches and turned it into a deciduous tree with orange, brown, red and green leaves falling down (all stuck to the wall with blue tack) I was also thinking how to carry this on through the winter and your ideas above are great, hope you don't mind me "borrowing" them!

**Toothfairy** · 09-09-2011, 12:57 PM

This morning we have made Handprint Autumn Trees.

I drew a tree trunk and branches onto a piece of white card for each child and then mixed up yellow, orange and brown paint. The children then used thier hand prints as leaves.

The children were 10m, 22m and 2.5yrs

**Toothfairy** · 09-09-2011, 12:58 PM

Originally Posted by cherry

Collect leaves, laminate and make into a mobile. CD KUW

I like this idea, we are collecting leaves for a collage but may do a mobile now

**rickysmiths** · 09-09-2011, 02:27 PM

Originally Posted by CAROLYN

Great ideas Rickysmiths!! I made a palm tree which I had stuck to the wall all summer which I have now taken the palm leaves off and added branches and turned it into a deciduous tree with orange, brown, red and green leaves falling down (all stuck to the wall with blue tack) I was also thinking how to carry this on through the winter and your ideas above are great, hope you don't mind me "borrowing" them!

Not at all enjoy.

I think I may try the mobile idea as well.

**Chimps Childminding** · 10-09-2011, 07:58 AM

Like the mobile idea too!!!

**hollyberry** · 10-09-2011, 02:41 PM

Originally Posted by rickysmiths

A couple of years ago I go some of the crinkly brown packing paper that you get in parcels. I made a tree trunk and a couple of branches and blu tacked them to a cupboard door.

We then went and collected leaves conkers cones etc and fixed them on the tree. We cut out leaf shapes and coloured them, painted them and I cut up hundreds of squares and they stuck them on. All in autumn shades.

Then we made Spiders and webs for halloween, we had fire works, christmas stars and baubles for christmas. The tree lost its leaves and we blu tac them around the bottom for a bit!

Then we made a snowy tree and a snowman.

Then the blossom with tissue paper and sweet wrappers

Then the new green leaves and it magically turned into a fruit tree over the summer.

It was up for a whoe year and a lot of the extras we child lead ideas it was great fun.

I am going to start one in the next week because I have the right age children to follow it with.

What a FAB idea - that's inspired!!!

**marleymoo** · 11-09-2011, 11:22 AM

we like tree rubbing and leaf printing and collect "treasure" from nature walks which become interactive displays and treasure basket contents. we have magnifying sheets for children to explore things more closely. some children draw the leaves. we print pix of different trees and leaves and go and hunt for them. we then play matching games at home, matching the leaves we've found to the pictures of the trees. we also mix paints to leaf colours and paint large scale onto flipchart paper or backing paper. if we're looking at say the works of jackson pollock then we investigate how each branch of a tree, or each vein in a leaf, separates and separates again and again - it's nature's pattern. we also fill food bags with our paint and tie onto string then pierce the bag so that the paint splatters around. we hang several from a spring loaded shower curtain pole positioned between my fence and side wall and push the bags off and just watch the painting it creates. we also make story sticks where we just take along a ball of string and scissors to the woods and as we walk through we pick up a stick and add interesting things to it by wrapping the string over it until we finish our walk. when we get home, we talk about the route we took, remembering where we found the feather or twig or leaf etc. we also take our digital camera and upload photos to pc at home. older kids join in when they get home from school. some separate what we have found into groups and then do tally charts and then we use this data to create pie charts or graphs. we create ppt presentations with our pix and annotate each pic which we sometimes get around to printing. older kids use their school ict time to look for other activities or resources we could use and bring home books from the school library for us. sorry this was so long but i get so excited about this stuff!!!

**marleymoo** · 11-09-2011, 11:22 AM

we like tree rubbing and leaf printing and collect "treasure" from nature walks which become interactive displays and treasure basket contents. we have magnifying sheets for children to explore things more closely. some children draw the leaves. we print pix of different trees and leaves and go and hunt for them. we then play matching games at home, matching the leaves, acorns, conkers etc we've found to the pictures of the trees. we also mix paints to leaf colours and paint large scale onto flipchart paper or backing paper. if we're looking at say the works of jackson pollock then we investigate how each branch of a tree, or each vein in a leaf, separates and separates again and again - it's nature's pattern. we also fill food bags with our paint and tie onto string then pierce the bag so that the paint splatters around. we hang several from a spring loaded shower curtain pole positioned between my fence and side wall and push the bags off and just watch the painting it creates. we also make story sticks where we just take along a ball of string and scissors to the woods and as we walk through we pick up a stick and add interesting things to it by wrapping the string over it until we finish our walk. when we get home, we talk about the route we took, remembering where we found the feather or twig or leaf etc. we also take our digital camera and upload photos to pc at home. older kids join in when they get home from school. some separate what we have found into groups and then do tally charts and then we use this data to create pie charts or graphs. we create ppt presentations with our pix and annotate each pic which we sometimes get around to printing. older kids use their school ict time to look for other activities or resources we could use and bring home books from the school library for us. sorry this was so long but i get so excited about this stuff!!!