January Themes

[Cozy_Kids_Childcare]

Do you ladies do a monthly theme and then smaller ones for the weeks within that month?

I'm planning to do a penguin/polar bear theme the week of 5th to 9th with obviously P being the letter of the week.
Then snow/snowmen the 12th to 16th with S being the letter of the week.
Followed up with winter clothes (mittens/hats) with W being the letter. The last would be Moose theme with obviously letter M.

Should I just make the monthly theme WINTER and then break it down into these things? Should I do more than one letter a week and then just work on them all during the month? I've ordered crafts for each week theme off Oriental trading.

[racemom]

I would do a winter theme and then break it down to the weekly theme. Do winter decorations which are added to each week so that the last week you have a whole winter scene.

[Josiegirl]

I am so art and crafted out. But my home looks pretty bare after sending all their Christmas decorations home. I've got SA dcks this week too so have put off any thought of 'getting back into things' until next week. Tomorrow and this weekend will be spent organizing and writing up some kind of a seasonal oriented activity schedule(hesitate to call it a curriculum or themes)

I like the PP's idea about doing the different themes each week, all under winter, and ending up with the area winterly decorated. And I like doing the one letter a week, with a review at the end of the month.

Sounds like some fun themes you have in mind! I want to start with snow and snowmen but right now our theme would be ice. We have little snow left.

[daycare]

I do similar to what you are doing. I have a monthly theme and each week we break it down into sections.

However, I base my whole lesson off of a book. For example the first week of Jan we will read every day for 5 days One Snowy Day, By ezera jack keats.

The lessons for that week will be on the letter S and D. We will see those letters a lot in our book. I try to use the letters in the title of our book because normally they will be mentioned a lot during our reading. I chose not to use the letter O in One, because you can not sound it out phonetically.

So first week letter are S and D numbers I would just choose ones that we have not gone over, then I would add a shape, which would be circle, because snow balls are round.

If you look on pinterest there are often GREAT add ons to book lessons. this is one we will do with the book http://www.pinterest.com/pin/60024607503203617/

the next week I will pick a new book, which will carry over one of the letters. I have chosen Sadie and the Snowman by Allen Morgan . Again we will do the same exact thing as before. I found this for sadie and the snowman book....http://reggiokids.blogspot.com/2011/...ting-ways.html

Over the years I have found songs and so we have a really funny song with tons of movement about snowmen, a super cool felt board story about melting snowmen and then of course a huge bucket of white dough to build our own snow-people. we decided its not politically correct to say snowMEN, BECUASE it might be a GIRL.....

During the 5 day read out loud we find new and exciting ways to read the book. Every day we discover new things we didn't notice the day before. We write down and look up words we don't understand and add them to our word wall.

I have all of the way until June ready to go. I save everything and file it away until the next year. If the kids didn't like it, I just throw it out.

[daycarediva]

I am on the artic theme.

Penguin- waddling with balloons between our knees, carrying plastic eggs on our feet, sliding on our bellies in the snow. Ice fishing for letters, feed the penguin game. P/penguin craft.
Polar Bears, 1-10 polar bear feet jumping, science experiment about how fat insulates, a mask craft, measuring craft with polar bear feet
Igloo- I am making an igloo out of CPVC pipe and a white bedsheet, we are making igloos with mini marshallows and Styrofoam cups, I is for igloo craft, and I got more snow block makers to make an igloo outside.
artic fox- We are making fluffy paws with some clearance gloves and faux fur...and that's all I have so far.

I have some cute wall art with letters and our secret letters/words are the animals. All from teacherspayteachers for a few dollars.

Sensory bin is white conditioner+baking soda and the artic/polar toob from Michaels.

Library is all artic/winter theme books from Scholastic.

[daycarediva]

I do similar to what you are doing. I have a monthly theme and each week we break it down into sections.

However, I base my whole lesson off of a book. For example the first week of Jan we will read every day for 5 days One Snowy Day, By ezera jack keats.

The lessons for that week will be on the letter S and D. We will see those letters a lot in our book. I try to use the letters in the title of our book because normally they will be mentioned a lot during our reading. I chose not to use the letter O in One, because you can not sound it out phonetically.

So first week letter are S and D numbers I would just choose ones that we have not gone over, then I would add a shape, which would be circle, because snow balls are round.

If you look on pinterest there are often GREAT add ons to book lessons. this is one we will do with the book http://www.pinterest.com/pin/60024607503203617/

the next week I will pick a new book, which will carry over one of the letters. I have chosen Sadie and the Snowman by Allen Morgan . Again we will do the same exact thing as before. I found this for sadie and the snowman book....http://reggiokids.blogspot.com/2011/...ting-ways.html

Over the years I have found songs and so we have a really funny song with tons of movement about snowmen, a super cool felt board story about melting snowmen and then of course a huge bucket of white dough to build our own snow-people. we decided its not politically correct to say snowMEN, BECUASE it might be a GIRL.....

During the 5 day read out loud we find new and exciting ways to read the book. Every day we discover new things we didn't notice the day before. We write down and look up words we don't understand and add them to our word wall.

I have all of the way until June ready to go. I save everything and file it away until the next year. If the kids didn't like it, I just throw it out.

We did a melting snowman craft after our snow melted and the kids were so sad. We read 'a snowman's heart' and then used white puffy paint and white glitter, painted a snowman puddle, then cut out a carrot nose, fabric scraps for scarves, little sticks for hands, and black button eyes. They came out SO CUTE and even the littlest could do it independently.

[SignMeUp]

The year that we had penguins in our winter curriculum, the preschoolers cut out tagboard shoe covers to look like webbed feet. They did all penguin songs and games wearing them - so funny ::

I'm a little penguin black and white,
I waddle to the left and I waddle to the right.
I cannot fly but I can swim,
So I waddle to the water and jump right in!

(to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot)

[daycare]

The year that we had penguins in our winter curriculum, the preschoolers cut out tagboard shoe covers to look like webbed feet. They did all penguin songs and games wearing them - so funny ::

I'm a little penguin black and white,
I waddle to the left and I waddle to the right.
I cannot fly but I can swim,
So I waddle to the water and jump right in!

(to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot)

ah that is so cute I am sooooo stealing it. We will do the penguin theme in feb. We did like diva the waddle egg walk challenge it was the funniest thing in the world to watch.

we also had them squeeze a balloon between their legs to give them the feel of how penguins waddle.

there is a really cute video on you tube that the kids love. it's penguins falling into the ice. just type in funny penguin vidoes.....my kids laugh their pants off.

[SignMeUp]

I'm writing curriculum today for the next few months. I was planning a series of animal themes for my animal-crazy preschoolers, so now I'm all inspired too
And steal away When people ask me where I get my ideas, I tell them that I steal most of them

[Cozy_Kids_Childcare]

Oh man cute ideas ladies. I think I'm gonna take your suggestion and add them in. This will be my first time doing an actual curriculum type thing.