Thematic Learning

The Nessie English Preschool educational programme is developed around topics. Topics and themes focus the child's interest to people, places and things which are familiar to them, and extends their vocabulary to new words which have some relevance in their lives. A specific topic may be planned to run for two weeks, a month, or however long is thought appropriate to sustain interest and learning opportunities.

Examples of such topics are 'Ourselves', 'Under the Sea', and 'The Seasons'. A topic is often completed with an outing such as a visit to the aquarium or a nature trip.

One topic involves a number of different activities to cover all areas of development. We regularly post photos of activities and examples of the children's work onto the school website so that parents can see what the children have created, and how they have been involved in learning experiences.

Here is an example from the topic programme 'Ourselves', which shows how activities for learning and development are linked to all areas of the curriculum.

 

First Week:  

Curriculum Area	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Personal, Social and Emotional	Settling In	Introduction to Circle Time	Explanation of daily routines	Name Games My Name, Your Name)	Co-operative Game (small groups)
Communication Language & Literacy	Name Game	Picture book story	Introduction to recognising name cards (My Name)	Pencil grip activity	Family photos - talking & listening
Math Development	Counting number of children, new song	How Tall am I? (using blocks)	Number Hats Activity	Storyboard  1 - 5	Big and Little in my Family
Knowledge & Understanding	A walk around our environment, using senses	Explore construction resources	Transport - How Do I Come to School?	Construction small world resources - vehicles,etc.	Build a house with construction resources
Physical Development	Introduction to safe use of physical resources	Up and Down music and movement	Introduce signals for STOP and GO	Pushing, pulling activities	Finger / hand grip activity
Creative Development	Painting corner exploration	Playdough exploration	Create a family storyboard together	Musical instruments exploration	Role play - family corner

 

Second Week:

Curriculum Area	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Personal, Social & Emotional	Separating from main caregiver with support	Tidy Up Time - How Can I Help?	Using "Please" and "Thank You"	Co_Operative Games (small groups)	Circle passing one-on-other
Communication, Language & Literacy	Naming body parts - My Face	New song about "Me"	Sharing a story book (repetitive responses)	Naming body parts	Circle passing with verbal response
Math Development	One mouth, one nose, two eyes	Sorting activities at tidy up time	Magnetic board activity 1-5 and 5-1	Puzzles	Constructing use math size/positional language
Knowledge & Undestranding	Activities using senses - touch	Activities using senses - sight	Activities using senses - taste	Activities using senses - sound	Activities using senses - smell
Physical Development	What I Can Do- hand/eye co-ordination activity	Balloon games	Obstacle course	What I Can Do- whole body movements	Action song - "Heads, Shoulders, Knees&Toes"
Creative Development	Face collage	Window drawing	Fruit & vegetables faces	Creating sounds from things in our environment	Wax crayons and watercolour