How to Plan Awesome Lessons Around a Theme

Are you wondering how to plan lessons around a theme? Thematic plans help me to organize my curriculum to build vocabulary and a depth of knowledge for my students on a specific topic. They also help me stay super organized throughout the entire year. Today I’m going to show you exactly how I do my thematic planning!

Choosing a Theme

I choose all of my themes before the school year has even started. I match up my themes to holidays, seasons, etc., and look for topics that I know my students will be interested in.

Check out my giant list of themes that will help you come up with ideas for your own class. This list will also help narrow down the topics that you love to teach!

Gather Your Materials

Once you have settled on a theme for the week, check your classroom for materials related to that theme. Some places to check:

School bought curriculum
TPT curriculum or supplemental materials
Books in your library
Pinterest ideas
Current art supplies
Manipulatives
Science experiment materials

If you’re just starting out, this list might be small, but it will grow each year! I usually make a wish list at this time as well. I look to see if any of the subjects need a little more material to beef up the topic like new books or science equipment.

Standards

My next step is to check the standards that I am currently working on with the class and match my thematic lesson to the theme.

For example, if we are working on procedural writing, and my theme is plants, we would do a procedural writing activity on how to plant a seed.

This is also a great time to incorporate the NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards). Using the example of plants, I could work on the kindergarten NGSS standards of shade structures to protect plants that can’t be exposed to full sun.

Plan Your Subjects by Theme

Here is an example of resources I would use for my plants theme:

Language Arts

I would probably be doing this theme in Spring, so we would be working on building our vocabulary and taking a deep dive into non-fiction text features. Here are a couple of books I would use during the week:

You can find a link to these books on my science book recommendation page. I also have lots of social studies book recommendations for you!

Math

When planning themes in math I don’t make many changes to my regular math curriculum. I incorporate my themes for math during center time, with manipulatives (like Target erasers), and with my early finisher work.

Science and Social Studies

Science – There are obviously a ton of plant-related topics in science so I choose a couple from our interactive notebook to use during this theme week. If you are having a hard time correlating a science topic, try and find a STEM activity to match the theme.

For example, if you are working on fairy tales you could have the students build a structure that would withstand the wolf coming to blow your house down (the wolf being a hairdryer in this scenario : )

Social Studies – I also choose a topic out of our Social Studies Notebook to work on for this week. For plants, I’m looking more for conservation topics and ways to take care of our planet.

Art

For the art portion I always travel to the faithful Pinterest. I saw this fun Plant Art on the Natural Beach Living blog. I’m also a HUGE fan of directed drawing in class!

Curriculum Planning

To help me make these cross-curricular thematic plans I use this simple curriculum planning calendar. During the summertime, I plan out all of my themes for the year and write notes on what I will cover for each subject.

I don’t actually write out the lesson plans for each week (I’m a crazy planner, but not that crazy!) When it’s time to write lesson plans I love being able to grab this filled-out resource. It makes my planning happen sooooo much quicker! This planner comes in both PowerPoint and Google Drive form all in the same resource!