Kindergarten thematic units
Tips for choosing themes
Quality kindergarten thematic units have lots of interesting content, use real objects for multi-sensory learning, and extend the students' vocabulary.
Read to find out how to choose age appropriate themes and for suggestions for yearly themes.
For great content, choose kindergarten thematic units based on:
- Science and social studies learning outcomes
- Your local environment
- Author studies
Depending on where you live, check what the local parks offer before choosing your themes. Here on the west coast of BC, parks offer inexpensive field trips about slugs, bats, squirrels, tide pools, salmon and more to local schools and home schooling families.
Suggestions for yearly kindergarten thematic units
The following kindergarten thematic units have worked well with the children and are categorized according to the seasons. They are not all taught every year and the time spent on each one depends on class interest.
I have only listed the highlights of the themes. Each theme lends itself to a rich array of literature, science experiments, math activities and art, music and drama.
Kindergarten Thematic Units In a Nutshell
BEGINNING OF AUTUMN
Making Friends - everyone needs friends; how families differ; graphing the number of pets and family members; use literature to reinforce friendship building skills
Sunflowers tall and impressive; provide lots of opportunities for measurement and begin sight words with the color "yellow"
AUTUMN general seasonal changes; weather study; autumn vegetables
Apples counting, sequencing; graphing and more; cooking applesauce; visit an apple farm; include a mini unit on wasps; Apple math literature connection
Squirrels the theme coordinates with local park offerings; characteristics of squirrels; what they eat; different kinds of squirrels; native and non-native
Pumpkins cooking pumpkin muffins; weighing the pumpkin; measuring the diameter with a string; counting seeds in piles of ten; growth cycle of a pumpkin; graphing, "Who likes pumpkin pie?"
Leo Lionni - author and literature study
Salmon great if you are near a salmon spawning river; life cycle of the salmon
WINTER general seasonal changes and weather study, animals in Winter
Color/Light a science theme that integrates the sparkle and glitter of the holiday season; what is light? where does light come from? sources of light; transparent and opaque papers; reflections, bending light
Water winter is the perfect time to experiment with water, snow and ice; the water cycle; properties and states of water; floating and sinking; dissolving things; how water changes things
Mapping literature based theme based on Rosie's Walk; story maps; what is a map? making a map; introduction to the shapes of and the vocabulary of Canada and provinces; Canadian symbols
Nursery Rhymes mini safety; a science and math kindergarten thematic unit based on nursery rhymes e.g. Jack be Nimble - patterns and fire safety; Humpty Dumpty - animals that lay eggs, helmet safety
Rocks an earth science unit; study school yard rocks; lots of classifying: shiny and dull, small, smaller, smallest
Jan Brett - author and literature study
SPRING general seasonal changes and weather study
What is Air? - experiments with air, making wind toys, What can air do?
Pond study - bring the pond water into the classroom, frog life cycle, what do animals need to stay healthy
Insects so available and fun to study, characteristics of common bugs, how are they helpful, how are they alike and different
Compost / Worms / and Gardening - what do plants need? grow plants, measure their growth, learn about the environment, study worms and other animals who live in the compost, how are worms helpful
Recycling - awareness of and measuring how much garbage the class generates, of what can be recycled, reused, and composted
Spiders - great to study, especially when the egg hatches or you bring a bunch of baby spiders into the class.
Eric Carle - author and literature study
EARLY SUMMER (June) - general seasonal changes and weather study
Slugs - very abundant on the west coast, such wonderful vocabulary; kids love learning that scientists call a slug a Gastropod which means "stomach foot"
Wildlife Trees instead of studying the whole forest, we concentrate on the concept of a wildlife tree, who lives on it, why is it important to have them.
Tide pools - the ocean is so big, so focus on one little part, the tide pool. I take the kids and their parents to a special tide pool not too far from the school. Celebrate a year-end picnic at the same time. Everyone explores, shares and learns about the tide pool environment.
Interspersed between the kindergarten thematic units are special days such as holidays and also:
- Pattern Day
- Little Circle Day
- Mr. Square Day
- Triangle Dog Day
- Rectangle Train Day
- Tens Day
- Fifty Day
- One Hundred Day
Go from kindergarten thematic units to next theme page...
Theme pages table of contents
Teaching themes:
How to teach content filled kindergarten themes - What are the benefits of teaching with themes, sample pond unit content, how to use themes to teach skills
Suggestions for yearly themes - How to choose age appropriate themes and suggestions for yearly themes
Tips for teaching themes - more ideas for choosing themes that are appropriate for the preschool and kindergarten ages, how to integrate subjects, how to use projects to measure the students' learning
Specific themes:
Apple theme - count, sort, sequence, compare and cook; learn about apple growth and the seasons
Light and color theme - integrate math, science, social studies, literacy and holiday ideas as you study about light and color. A great sparkly holiday time theme.
Light and color theme science page - light sources, experiment with opaque, translucent, and transparent papers, experiment with reflective and non-reflective materials, light vocabulary
Winter theme - winter activities that teach symmetry, patterning, classifying, and ordinal numbers; science activities about the properties of water and hibernation
More Winter theme activities - language arts and art ideas
Integrate math into your themes