How to Theme a Lesson Plan

Setting themes to weekly lesson plans makes life and planning SO much easier. I can keep all of my major learning centers the same, but change the characters or specific details of the project. It also simplifies my organization system and storing system by allowing me to store each week's theme bundled together, and yes, you'll read about that eventually. If you've ever had brain blocks or complications trying to create themed plans, let me break it down into my crazy thought process, which unfortunate for you will not be broken down. :-P

All right, let's start planning. It all begins with a book, any book, your favorite book, my favorite book, literally any book.

Step 1. Choose a book.

Next, I make a list of my developmental milestones I want my kiddos to accomplish throughout their time with me. Occasionally, these lists vary from child to child, so I try to strategically plan for pairs. 

Step 2. Make list of milestones

• Alphabet: capital/lowercase and letter sounds
• Numbers: symbols, point to count, verbal 1-20, greater/less than
• Patterns: colors, numbers, shapes
• Writing: pencil holding, name, 13 letters, tracing, copying words 
• Scissors: proper etiquette, straight lines, safety
• Glue: why, when, amount
• Cognitive: puzzles, memory, story telling, comprehension
• Decoding: sounding out letters to make words

Your mind is spinning and I know you're thinking, "That's a lot for three year olds. It's not possible. They aren't capable." Surprisingly, they are capable of these things because they're learning positive self-esteem and pride! They think they can and I think they can, so they can. It's not about perfection, it's about practice.

After you've made your list of milestones, choose your centers that focus on these.

Step  3. List of centers

• Word wall
• Word writing
• Puzzle
• Scissor/Glue practice
• Tracing
• Number matching
• Alphabet matching
• Patterns and colors
• Lacing cards

Now, remember that book you chose from step 1? Here's where it comes into play. Choose X number of centers, tailor them to the ideas of the book, and voila planned lesson plans.

Step 4: Choose centers of the week and specify them to the book.

Just because I love that each and every one of you reads this, I'll provide an example.
Centers for the week

1. Word wall
2. Word writing
3. Puzzle
4. Tracing
5. Number matching

Book for Theme
Cat in the Hat

Putting it all together
1. Word wall

• cat
• hat
• fish
• bowl
• plate
• trick
• one
• two
• red
• blue
• ring
• pink

2. Word writing

• cat
• hat
• fish
• bowl
• one
• two

3. Dr. Seuss Puzzle

• I happened to order one from scholastic, but if you don't have the option:I'll be making a post about what to do, so DON'T PANIC!

4. Tracing

• Find and print various pictures or line tracing sheets.
• Laminate and attach to clipboard with dry erase marker

5. Number matching

• Draw, color, cut, and laminate a large fish bowl.
• Make small cards with various numbers
• Buy gold fish crackers or make your own little fish
• Draw a card and count out the number of fish to put into the bowl!

 Hopefully you get the idea about how I change my centers weekly and theme them for holidays, books, and projects! It makes organization a snap and I can always quickly insert a fallback in case I'm short on certain supplies. I like to pull out my book Monday morning, show the cover, and ask if they can guess the theme. They're awesome at context clues and inferences based on pictures and story themes! Happy Planning!