Preschool Lesson Planning: Units and Themes

This is one of a few posts about how I plan our preschool lessons.

Thank you, captain obvious.

I am not a "pintrest perfect" kind of person--- I don't have every day meticulously mapped out or our school room decorated perfectly to match the theme. Most days I'm not really sure what *specifically* we're going to do until we do it. This works for us--- I think it's actually a great strategy for toddlers and preschoolers as it is very flexible. So, if you're yearning for this type of existence (hehe), read along.

If you're the kind of person that needs every minute of the day mapped out, I'm telling you this might not be the best post for you. Well, actually, it might, as I have some (I think) good tips for beginning lesson planning, as that's as far as I generally get. So that could be helpful :)

Uno:
Pick a theme.

I have a "school binder" that I write down ideas in--- at some point this was intended to be a schedule and a lesson planner, but that failed miserably. But I keep it by our school stuff and write down themes and ideas as they come to me. Like "Hey, we should do construction vehicles, it'd be cool to build a whole construction site in the playroom." (Whoa now, that IS a good idea. To the binder I go...) So I have a list of themes that I *think* bean and possibly bug will be interested in. Some of them are random (like the construction idea), some spurred by conversations we've had (like if she asks a lot of questions about certain things one week, maybe the human body or seasons, etc.), and some are more methodical (centered around holidays, events, etc).

Some of the themes we have done or plan to do:
Pirates
Clouds/Sky (Creation Day 2)
Plants and Trees (Creation Day 3)
Space/The Universe (Creation Day 4)
Oceans/Fish (Creation Day 5)
Birds (Creation Day 5)
The Human Body (Creation Day 6)
Family
Where I Live
Helpers
Hockey (you knew it was coming--- sadly, probably not coming this season)
Construction (Bean LOVES "snorts"--- or bulldozers, as others call them)
The Farm

For pretty much the whole year our theme has been "The Days of Creation." This worked really well for our first year because it was pretty much tailor made. There are 7-ish set things to study, they go in order, and it gives me a good guideline. It's easy to work in our bible time with little-to-no-reaching (like there was with the pirate theme).

This upcoming unit we are doing Day 5--- Fish and Birds. Actually, we are just doing Fish/Oceans for the first part.

I have been interpreting the "Creation" themes fairly liberally--- for example, we did Day 2 as clouds and sky, based on Genesis 1:6-8 (Then God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which [were] under the firmament from the waters which [were] above the firmament; and it was so.And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.")
Day 4, which we are currently doing, when God created the sun, moon and stars (Genesis 1:14-19), is a general overview of space--- including planets, comets, asteroids, etc.


The reason I like this system of choosing topics is twofold: it's flexible and it's child-led. At Bean's age (a ripe ole 3), she can learn her basics from pretty much any topic. I can teach letters using blocks and construction as easily as using stars and planets. I can do math and patterns with flowers as well as with hockey pucks. I know the basics of where she is and where she needs to go and I have some activities that I can do with any topic that we pick (I think. We'll see if she stumps me one day with something off the wall and nutso).  If her interests change (like she doesn't like snorts in a few weeks) before I get to use a unit--- oh well. I just use a different one. If I can't find and/or get all the books I want for a specific subject (and Bean reads... this kid will go through 10-12 library books, at least, on any given topic, so this has been an issue for us) I just choose something else.

Not sure if that was too helpful except to say this: the great thing about doing preschool at home is that it can be very interest-led, so the sky is the limit!!

Stay tuned: Next post (on this subject, at least) will be about the actual meat of the "curriculum" of each theme. Exciting, eh?