Friday, April 5, 2013

"Preschool" Themes 2012-2013 - Revised

When I first sat down last summer to plan Adrian's mini-units, I knew I'd have to be flexible with my thematics. Sure my themes were based mostly on Adrian's interests (plus a few thematics I felt he should explore to "enlarge his horizons") but I knew I'd have no control over sickness (gulp!), a lack of ideas on my part for a unit (double gulp!) or relatives dropping by for a little while. Overall, I'm proud to announce we stuck to our "curriculum" for the most part. See below what we've gone through so far (plus a clickable link to the first post published on the theme) and what we are planning on covering for the remainder of the school year.


preschoolthemessortingsprinkles

2012-2013 Mini-Unit Thematics

(with link to 1st part of the post published on the theme)

December
Robots
Christmas
(No posts published - 2 weeks)

March
Zoo
St. Patrick's Day
Candy
Easter (two weeks)

May
Dinosaurs
Community Helpers: Dentists
Bugs
Pirates

June

Summer
By the Seashore

Now, I've been debating for a while whether I should hold or not a "summer enrichment" program. I know what you're thinking, "please, do, we'll miss you!" LOL Just kidding. The thing is, in the past, I have used my summers to plan for the school year ahead. I have also used them to recuperate some energy. It might not look like much but putting together one unit per week is very time consuming. Don't get my wrong, I absolutely love putting together all these units. Brainstorming and researching are some of my favorite things but it leaves very little time for other aspects of life when it's due by a certain date and it can get a tad bit stressful at times. I also have to consider that Zahavah did not have much "planned" school at all this year. We played and improvised learning activities as she is only two but comes fall, she will be ready to enter proper Montessori activities too and will be looking forward to "school with mama" as well. I cannot let her down and will most definitely need some time to plan for her work as well (I cannot possibly re-use some of Adrian's as sadly, I started with "A" when he was a 3.5, not 2.5). 

On the other hand, I remember how bored Adrian was last summer. Despite my suggestions, nothing seemed to completely engage him. I knew he missed "school with mama" as he calls it and I, just like him, couldn't wait for it to start, especially for his sake. The little guy can barely make it through a week-end without "school with mama" (yes, I do get requests for school lessons on Saturdays and Sundays!!!) so two months was a LONG time for him (and for me to hear about it...) At this point, I am thinking we'll give it a try at my own rhythm over the summer, with no pressure. I anticipate we'll span a theme over two weeks or so and cancel school completely when friends or family are in town. The units will possibly be "lighter" in content and focus more on "kindergarten" preparedness and outdoorsy activities. I haven't mapped out all our thematic units yet and we'll probably have a week or two on full break but so far, I'm thinking of something along the following lines:

Potential Summer Enrichment Themes 2013


At the fair or  Circus
Space Camp (because Adrian would love another "Outer Space" Week)
Sports
"Legos"
Multicultural World
The 7 Continents
Luau?

There you have it. A summary of our 2012-2013 themes for my 4 year old.
Enjoy!

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~ Your comments make my day!  ~

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If you would like me to link up with you, please don't hesitate to ask, it might take me a week or two, but I generally do!

17 comments:

  1. I can completely understand how you feel. Just this week I was starting to sketch out some ideas for our themes next year. We're taking the summer off (sort of) partly because we'll be gone most of it. And instead of doing full themes I pulled together a list of fun activities that I've been wanting to try but haven't really worked into our themes. We'll see where the summer takes us.

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    1. Next year? Wow! You are way ahead of me! I've been thinking about it but not jotting anything down yet. :) We'll take it slow and see where it goes! :) I like your idea of doing activities instead of a thematic summer. Takes some pressure off and still offers plenty of fun!

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  2. Thank you so much! I am glad you stopped by and enjoyed my post on preschool themes. I tried to pick universal themes for my friends all around the world and hopefully you will be able to use some of them as well! :)

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  3. What a great resource, with all of the links collected in one place! Thank you for sharing this with us at Share It Saturday.
    Colleen at Sugar Aunts

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    1. You're welcome! I'm happy to link up and see what everybody else is doing as well on Share it Saturday! As for my Preschool Themes, I figured it would be neat to revise what I first posted before the beginning of the school year since thematics were moved around a bit and thought it would be nice to add a link to he first post as well. Just gotta keep reminding myself to update this post now! :)

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  4. I love these mini-units. I would like to invite you to link up this post to my Money Saving Monday Link Up. I would love to see your post posted there!

    Thank You,
    Stephanie
    http://lifesallaboutlittleadventures.blogspot.com/2013/04/money-saving-monday-week-2.html

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    1. Sure. I'll check our your blog and linky. Thank you for the invitation Stephanie!

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  5. Looks like you've had a fun packed year!

    Thanks for linking to the Sunday showcase.

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    1. It was a great year indeed. Looking forward to planning the next year for both my toddler and "Kindergartner". :)

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  6. This is an awesome resource for planning and ideas! :) Thanks for sharing over at Stress-Free Sunday with Fun-A-Day!. I know how you feel about planning and all that goes into it. What amazing results, though!

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    1. Thank you Mary Catherine! I've put a lot of work into it so I'm glad it shows and I'm glad to be able to share it with other people so they can enjoy it as well.

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    1. Thank you for visiting Sorting Sprinkles! I am glad you like the blog and found useful information for your play school in India. Starting in September, toddler activities will be included as well so keep visiting! :)

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  8. Hi, there!

    It looks like you have a really wonderful blog here. I'd love to feature some of your crafts. I am the editor of AllFreeKidsCrafts.com. Please feel free to check out our site to get an idea of what we're about, and if you are interested, please contact me at jholtzman@primecp.com.

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    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by and comment Jaclyn. I feel honored by your invitation already. I'll definitely check out All Free Kids Crafts and get back to you.

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  9. O wow, thanks for sharing this information. I have really enjoyed reading your very well written blog posts

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for stopping by and for taking the time to comment. I hope you found some ideas and activities to try in your classroom! :)

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