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Teaching using Preschool Themes

Preschool themes are an essential part of early childhood education. One effective teaching technique that preschool teachers can use is teaching using themes. There are a variety of themes that can be used in a preschool setting, including animals, transportation, and seasons. Each theme offers unique opportunities for learning and exploration, and provide a framework for teaching young children important skills and concepts.

Here at Pre-K Printable Fun, we love to help you save time planning your preschool themes!
Below you can find everything you need to know about Preschool Themes, and information about the resources we've set up on our site to support you in planning your themed activities and lessons.

Table of Contents

What is a Preschool Theme?
What are the Benefits of using Themes?
Selecting Preschool Themes
Thematic Activities
Learning Objectives and Standards
Selecting Materials
Creating a Thematic Lesson Plan
Organizing Thematic Materials
End of Lesson Assessment

What is a Preschool Theme?

A Preschool theme (also known as a Theme Unit), is a broad topic or subject that serves as the basis for a set of lesson plans and activities. Examples of preschool themes might include "transportation," "community helpers," or "weather." The theme can be selected by the Educator, in collaboration with their students, or based on students interests from observation. If you are new to thematic teaching you may want to start here!

What are the benefits of using themes to teach Preschoolers?

Themed lessons help young children to make deep learning connections. Learning is an integrated process and thematic units support how the brain works. Theme based units allow children to benefit from connections made across the lesson plans, in different learning domains.

Thematic units serve as a jumping off point to expose children to a variety of new topics, and concepts. Using a theme as a base for your curriculum also makes it easier for you to pick and choose a variety of activities that will work well for multiple age groups, or children at different learning stages.

Selecting Preschool Themes

A good Preschool Theme allows for a wide range of activities and materials to be incorporated into lesson plans. For example, a "community helpers" theme could include lessons on police officers, firefighters, doctors, and more. This can help to keep children engaged and interested in learning, as they get to explore a variety of different topics within the broader theme that are most interesting to them. On our site we have 50+ free theme planning pages dedicated to popular preschool themes.

Learning Objectives and Standards

As an early childhood educator you may already be familiar with early learning standards. It's important to select activities that developmentally appropriate for early learners. After you have determined the skills your students are working on developing (through assessments) you can plan almost any activity to align with your featured theme.

Thematic Activities

Once you have picked out your theme, and have decided your standards and objectives, it's time to plan your activities.

Thanks to the technological advancements and information-age we live in, you'll be able to find an over-abundance of ideas and resources. Here are Pre-K Printable Fun, you'll find tons of thematic activity ideas all just a search and click away on our free theme planning pages.

You can plan activities across all domains including: Art & Creativity, Language and Literacy, Math, Science and Discovery, Physical Development, and Social Emotional Development.

Get more bang for your buck by planning activities that build skills in multiple domains. For example setting up a fine motor activity that engages children in color matching pom poms will not only build important physical development skills, but also important early math skills as well.

Selecting Materials

Creating a Thematic Lesson Plan

Some teachers struggle with making sense of all of the resources and formulating day-to-day lesson plans.
Here at Pre-K Printable Fun we have developed a free set of thematic plans that you can use as a jumping off point, as sub plans, or when you need a break from planning. If you are homeschooling, we recommend you follow our "SIMPLE" approach to planning pre-k at home lessons.

Here are some tips to keep in mind:
Before drafting your thematic plans, decide how long you want the thematic unit to last. Most teachers find that a week to two weeks is a good starting point. Some themes can be stretched over the course of an entire month. The choice is yours, but also pay attention to your student's cues. If they are really enjoying a particular theme, consider keeping it going. Create a theme calendar as pacing guide for your year or use ours for free!

Consider subjects and developmental domains. In other words, map out your lessons plans according to important subjects and milestones, such as: literacy, math, gross/fine motor skills, dramatic play, science and discovery, and so on. Use a lesson planning template similar to these, to take notes.

Align your Activities to Standards and Objectives

​Include a variety of educational activities and learning materials. With your subject areas in mind, you can begin plugging in educational and developmental activities. These can be theme-related books for story time (and the literacy area), games, puzzles, art activities, field trips, and the like. Be sure to plan activities throughout the week that can be done independently, in small groups, and as a whole group. The idea is to give your students plenty of opportunity to engage, explore, and learn.

Organizing Thematic Materials

The key to easily implementing your lesson plans is to be organized. Take some time to gather, order, download, print, and/or assemble the things you'll need for your chosen theme.

Consider decorating your classroom or learning spaces to coincide with the theme. Set aside some time to change out books, dramatic play items, puzzles, and games, etc. You can find suggested materials to add to your learning centers on our free theme planning pages.

To keep your curriculum, and printable resources organized, consider using some of the following storage solutions:
  • file folders (to store daily/weekly lesson plans)
  • accordion folder or file folder storage box (to keep all lesson plans in one place)
  • bins (of all sizes)
  • baskets (small to medium)
  • bookshelf or filing cabinet (for keeping unused thematic resources together)
  • A Binder for keeping your plans together

For Books
For Toys and Games

​In addition to these, it's also a great idea to get labels and label EVERYTHING. Color-coded labels work great for keeping things visually appealing and easier to locate.

End of Lesson Assessments

After completing your thematic lesson it's important to reflect on your week, and assess your plan with an end of lesson assessment. Although the building blocks of each lesson can remain unchanged year after year, it's important to assess each lesson based on the needs of your current learners. How effective was it? What would you change? What do you need to adjust for your upcoming lesson.

Free Preschool Theme Planning Guide


Our Big List of Preschool Themes

Check out the theme we are featuring this week on our Free Theme Planning calendar!

Preschool Themes A-Z

Amphibians-See Pond Animals
Animals
Animal Habitats
Ants-See Picnics or Insects

Apples

Arbor Day-See Leaves and Trees

Australia

Authors

Arctic Animals

Around the World

Art
Babies

Back to School

Baseball-See Sports
Baking
Balloons-See Birthday or Circus
Bats-See Nocturnal Animals
Beach-See Fun in the Sun
Bears

Bees

Bicycles-See Transportation

Birds

Birthdays
Boats-See Transportation

Bubbles

Bugs-See Insects
Bunnies-See Easter or Pets

Butterflies

Camping

Canada Day
Cards

Careers

Cars and Trucks

Castles-See Medieval Fantasy and Fairy Tales
Caterpillars
Cats-See Pets
Chickens-See Farm

Chinese New Year

Christmas

Christmas Around the World

Cinco de Mayo

Circus

Clouds

Colors

Community Helpers

Construction

Cooking

Cookies
Corn
Costumes

Cowboys

Cows
Crickets

Day & Night

Dance

Dental Health Theme

Desert Theme

Dinosaurs Theme

Dirt

Diversity

Dogs
Dolphins
Dragons
Ducks

E-K

Earth

Earth Day

Earthquakes

Easter

Elections

Elephants

Emotions and Feelings

Emotions

Energy

Environment

Fairy Tales

Fall

Family

Farm

Father's Day

Fire Safety

Five Senses

Flowers

Food

Forest

Fourth of July

Friendship

Frogs

Fruit

Gardening

Gingerbread

Geography

Germs

Global Warming

Grandparents
Grass
Groundhog Day

Habitats

Halloween

Hands

Hats

Hanukkah

Harvest

Health & Fitness

Hermit Crabs

Hibernation

History

Holidays

Homes
Honey
Horses

Humpty Dumpty

Hurricanes

Ice

Ice Cream

Ice Skating

Insects

Inventions

Islands

Jobs

Johnny Appleseed

Jokes

Jumping

Jungle

Kangaroos

Kindness

Kites
Koalas
Kwanzaa

L-R

Ladybugs

Leaves

Letter Sounds

Life Cycles
Light & Shadows
Lions
Living Things

Magic

Magnets

Magnifying Glasses

Make Believe

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Mammals

Manners

Maps

Marine Life

Martin Luther King Jr.

Math

May Day

Medieval Fantasy

Memorial Day
Mice
Mittens

Money

Monkeys

Monsters

Mother's Day

Mother Goose

Movies
Mud

Music

My Body

My Community

My School

Native Americans

Nature

Neighborhood

New Years Eve

New Years Day
Night Sky

Nocturnal Animals

Numbers

Nursery Rhymes

Nutrition

Ocean

Olympics

Opposites

Outer Space Theme

Owls

Pajama Day

Pancakes

Penguins

Pets

Picnic

Pigs 

Pirates

Pizza
Plants

Poetry

Polar Animals

Police

Pond Life

Popcorn

Post Office

Presidents Day
Puddles

Pumpkins

Quilts
Rain

Rainbows

Rain forest

Rocks Dirt & Mud

Recycling

Reptiles

Restaurants
Rivers

Robots

Robots
Rocks

S-Z

Safari

Safety

Santa and His Helpers

Scarecrows

Science

Sea Life

Seasons

Seeds

Sensory

Shapes
Sharks
Sheep
Shells
Shoes
Shopping

Siblings

Sink or Float

Snails

Snakes

Snow

Snowflakes

Snowmen

Spaceships

Spiders

Sports

Spring

 Spring Cleaning
Squirrels

St. Patrick's Day

Strawberries
STEM
Summer
Sun
Sunflowers

Superheroes

Swimming
Teddy Bears
Teeth
Thanksgiving

Time

Tools and Machines
Toys
Trains

Transportation

Treasure

Trees

Turkeys
Turtles
Umbrellas

Under the Sea

Up Up and Away

Unicorns
Vacations

Valentine's Day

Vegetables

Veterans Day

Water
Watermelon
Weather
Whales
Wheels
Wind
Winter
Winter Clothes
Winter Animals-See Arctic Animals or Penguins
Winter Weather-See Snow and Snowmen, or Arctic Animals & Ice

Worms

Zoo Animals

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  • Home
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    • Pre-K Printable Fun >
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    • Preschool Winter Themes and Activities
    • Preschool Spring Themes and Activities
    • Preschool Summer Themes and Activities
    • Preschool Fall Themes and Activities
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    • Dramatic Play
    • Language & Literacy
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