Bringing Thematic Learning Units Into Your Home

I had the opportunity to teach Kindergarten for a very short period of time as a beginning teacher.

One of my favorite teaching memories from this time was calling students to the back table, one by one, to paint their hands for a handprint craft before sending them over to the sink to wash up and back to their seats to continue the task the rest of the class was working on. I was naive enough then to think I could simply tell a Kindergarten student “wash your hands” without explaining any further or modeling the process.  I gained the kind of wisdom only earned by experience that year. As I paused to take in the moment- so proud of myself for managing so much at once- I looked over to find a line of students backed up at the classroom sink, the faucet spraying water across the counter tops because the water was turned on to full pressure, bubbles spilling onto the floor from the over use of hand soap, and tiny painted handprints all over the wall and soap dispenser because I hadn’t specified which hand to get soap with.

Panic set in. My eyes shifted from the mayhem at the sink to the child seated before me at the back table- his tiny, freshly painted hand still held in mine. My eyes widened. Did I imagine that smirk that just crossed his face? What would happen if I let go of his hand to handle the line at the sink? And when had 3 more children gathered around him at the back table repeating my name over and over? I couldn’t think. My heart raced. This hand held in mine felt like the trigger to a nuclear weapon. This situation had to be treated delicately but urgently. My eyes shifted from the child before me and began to desperately scan the room. Where was an adult? I needed help. That’s when the realization set in… oh no. I AM the adult.

Suffice it to say, I moved to a different grade level the next school year.

I thought about that day again recently as I’ve been navigating 2 under 2 and had to laugh. How far I’ve come in the last 10 years. But that experience teaching Kindergarten prepared me for my own children in more ways than just handprint crafts and chaos management. It has given me a vision for an educational experience I can offer my own children. A vision I hope to offer you now too.

This was the first time I encountered the teaching strategy of organizing curriculum and learning experiences into thematic units.

It was also the last year Kindergarten teachers were able to gather their own resources and plan for learning units in this way, which makes me even more grateful I got to observe them when I did.

What are Thematic Learning Units?

In education, a unit is a list of learning goals a student will be able to accomplish by the end of an extended period of time- anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. Those units are broken down into lessons, each of which target a specific one or two of the intended goals. Throughout a single lesson are informal assessments that serve as check points to ensure a student is making progress toward the overarching goals. These check points can be as simple as observing a student to ensure they’re understanding a concept to assigning independent work as documentation that they’re on the right track. Some goals will require a gradual release from teacher-led instruction to independent student work across many lessons. Other, more straightforward goals may be able to be accomplished by encouraging this release of responsibility within a single lesson.

A thematic unit, then, involves organizing a set of learning goals around a single topic or theme.

Thematic units can be used for any age or grade level, but they’re especially helpful for young learners who are still building schematic frames to organize their understanding of the world. In other words, they’re still building background knowledge. Some examples of early education thematic units could be the ocean habitat, modes of transportation, a particular country, community helpers (in general or a spotlight on one specifically), authors, artists, insects, etc. You can even plan thematic units around upcoming events or holidays. For example, maybe a World Cup themed unit to overlap with this event that only happens every four years, or a space unit that overlaps with an upcoming solar eclipse.

(Note: If you wanted to continue thematic units as your children grew older, they could explore more mature or niche themes. They could also explore the same themes as younger children, but in greater depth. For example, instead of emphasizing which animals live in the ocean with younger children, you might focus on the different levels of the ocean’s depths, food webs, the effects of pollution on ocean life, or the development of coral nurseries. Thematic units allow for the integration of math and science concepts at every level, but integration becomes more strategic as children grow older and the complexity of the skills they need to learn increases. Although thematic units are highly engaging at every age, the challenge of integration at later ages is a reason they are most commonly chosen for younger children.

If you are a homeschool family of older students, you could choose to continue thematic units for literacy skills, working in math, science, and social studies goals where appropriate, but ultimately relying on a boxed curriculum set for these other subjects to ensure nothing is missed. The beauty of homeschooling is choosing an approach that works best for your family.)

Benefits of Thematic Learning

Building background knowledge is one of the most understated foundations of early literacy. Your child can know all their letters and sounds, sound words out or check photographs or illustrations for visual cues, but if they don’t have background knowledge of a topic, their ability to figure out an unknown word will be limited. Too many unknown words in a passage then limits comprehension. Relying on context clues to determine the meaning of a word is a more complicated reading strategy that is not often taught until the mid to upper elementary years. Even then, it is a skill strengthened by having background knowledge on a wide range of topics.

Here’s how it plays out practically…

Imagine you’re a young child working your darn hardest to sound out the lengthy word “rhinoceros.” Even if you managed to get the sounds down using your knowledge of phonics rules, if you don’t have background knowledge of a rhinoceros, you will have no idea what that word you just read means.

If you’re old enough, you might be able to read other words in context like giraffes and elephants, or the fact that a rhinoceros has a single horn on its head, even details about its habitat- the African Savannah-and fill in the blanks about what this word means. Maybe you’d remember, “oh yeah! I’ve seen an animal that fits this description before, but I didn’t know what it was called.”

But what if you weren’t old enough for this skill yet? Or, what if you didn’t have these other pieces of background knowledge either? The less background knowledge you have, the more you lack critical vocabulary or text to world connections necessary for comprehension. Now this single unknown word- “rhinoceros”- has impacted your ability to read and comprehend an entire passage of text.

 The more background knowledge a child has, the more knowledge they’ll be able to gain through literature, the more background knowledge they’ll continue to build. It’s a cycle. 

Aside from establishing background knowledge, other lesser known early education goals (toddler, preschool, and Kinder years) are the development of fine motor skills which eventually aid in holding writing tools, self-care skills related to dressing, feeding, and cleaning, and interpersonal skills including emotional regulation.

These skills are the learning goals I center my thematic learning units around in the toddler years. Any academic skills we work on are secondary to these skills.

By the preschool years, you can begin to work letter recognition and sounds, number recognition, colors, shapes, and basic addition and subtraction into your thematic units if you have not already.

The most beautiful part of learning alongside your child is learning to follow their lead. They’ll show you when they’re ready for more. They’ll also show you what they’re passionate about as you pick your topics or themes.

It sounds a lot more complicated than it really is.

Come on, I’ll show you…

Note: As an Amazon affiliate, I do receive a small commission on anything purchased through the links included in this post. Thank you for your support of our family and my writing as you shop these links. And please be reminded that true joy is not found in materialism or comparison, so I pray there is never any pressure to purchase something just because it’s what another person is doing. You are equipped with the Holy Spirit to make the right decisions- including purchases- for your family and budget.

Getting Started with Thematic Units

Choose your Topic or Theme

This is where the fun begins!

If you’re overwhelmed from the very beginning, rest assured… you can’t choose wrong. Truly anything can be a topic or theme to explore if your children are curious about it or already passionate.

If you’re just starting out, your children may not know what they are curious or passionate about yet. This is where you get to serve as their guide- offering a wide range of background knowledge through various themes. As they experience more and more of the world, you will begin to see the spark in their eye when they encounter topics that excite them. Pay attention to these sparks. They are the small glimpses we get of our children discovering who God created them to be.

These glimpses of passion can help us support our children as they step out in the direction of their unique mission fields. However, I deeply believe they’re for us too. Mothers can get so caught up in trying to do right by their children that they forget to stop and take in the moment. Their childhood is also your motherhood. Don’t miss the joy in noticing. There’s nothing like witnessing wonder in a child’s eye…  watching them discover what they were made for.

I’ll never forget the “circus” themed unit with my first born, Savannah, that evolved into weeks of watching trapeze artists on YouTube and acting out our own routines to The Greatest Showman soundtrack. Those are some of the moments I’ll go to in my mind when I’m eighty.

Decide How Long Each Unit Should Last To Fit Your Life

Thematic Units have looked a couple different ways for me over the years.

I first brought thematic learning into my home when Savannah was small. Savannah was placed on a heart transplant waiting list when she was 8 months old, at the height of the Covid19 pandemic and global shutdown. She was feeding tube dependent and delayed in both fine and gross motor skills, including walking. As Savannah first entered the toddler years, I began to think about her educational future. It didn’t seem fair that she would have to sit all day long in a public school Kindergarten classroom when she might just be beginning to walk by then. She would have missed all the exploratory toddler years that most children have.

This was when I first began to consider bringing my elementary education experience into our home and offering her thematic learning units while we spent so much time sedentary and alone. Then, as she grew and became stronger, we could transition into more of the hands-on, experiential learning typical of the toddler years.

I started bi-weekly thematic learning units around my firstborn’s therapy appointments.

Every other week, we would go to the public library and gather books on a topic. Then, I would schedule either a craft, fine motor/sensory/learning activity, or outing (once the pandemic subsided) related to our topic every day around her therapy and appointment schedule. There weren’t many other thoughts during this time except what was best for Savannah- her health, her education, her self esteem, her quality of life. I could keep up with thematic units that changed weekly because she was the center of every day, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

By the time I had Charlotte, exactly 5 years and 3 days later, life looked a lot different. The world had returned to its routines post-pandemic,  but mine would never be the same. First, it became marked by loss and then, by the beautiful complexity of life after loss. Now that Charlotte is nearing 2 years old and ready to start thematic units, life really looks a lot different. My home now holds two children at the same time, for the first time. Two healthy children under the age of two, and my attention is divided between them. I’m also back to teaching (although part time, and for a homeschool co-op now) and working on personal goals that had been put on pause for many years around Savannah’s care (like writing this blog).

While my children remain my top priority and receive the majority of my time, their experience with thematic units is going to differ from what I was able to offer Savannah.

Running around town to purchase the materials for a daily craft or fine motor/sensory/learning activity is just not feasible around meeting two small children’s needs and the other responsibilities I’ve taken on.

Even as I commit to less of these sensory and learning activities, I have to make peace with the fact that they may not look the way I expect either. Sitting uninterrupted with Charlotte sounds so lovely, but sometimes I’m hovering nearby as I attempt to nurse a crying baby. Other times Charlotte takes this opportunity to make a mess I could have prevented if I were sitting close or has a tantrum because she wants me to sit close and I can’t. And still other times, when all the conditions are otherwise right, she decides she’s uninterested and- because she’s typically developing- hops right off the chair and runs away in a way I never experienced with Savannah. I try to explain to her that it might be the only window of time I can offer her, but those are empty words to a not-yet-two year old.

On the other hand, I’ve been humbled at the ease with which Charlotte meets milestones that Savannah and I had to practice together for such long periods of time. While I can’t offer daily crafts or activities anymore, it’s evident that I don’t need to either.  Also, Charlotte is learning in other ways that Savannah did not. It’s okay if I’m not able to commit to the same amount of activities at home because we’re learning outside of the home in ways I only hoped to in years past.

I’ve had to remember my girls’ needs are not the same, and so neither will their educations be.

It will be the same when Warren comes of age, and it will be the same for your child(ren). As long as we lean into Him and listen well, God will always tell us what each of our children need.

So, for now, I’ve committed to monthly thematic learning units with Charlotte.

Each theme will be for the entire month. I hope this will give us enough time to read our themed library books and fit in at least a couple fine motor/sensory/learning activities around our other commitments outside the home. Right now, while Warren is still a newborn, I am only planning for one activity a week that will require extra materials or set up. However, I do like to have a short list of easy-to-pull-together activities in my back pocket for a day it just happens to work out to do something extra. Whenever possible, Justin and I like to also make fun weekend plans that reinforce the learning we’ve been doing at home. It gives Justin an opportunity to be a part of what our children are learning, but it also offers them real world experiences and connections to the topic or theme being taught. During our ocean month, we might make the drive to an aquarium. While learning about modes of transportation, we might pack a picnic lunch and eat it at the local airport’s observation deck. You get the idea.

As you determine how long each of your units should be, ask yourself the following questions…

• What skills can I integrate into this thematic learning unit?
• To what depth do I want to explore this theme or topic with my child(ren)? Do I want to spend a long time going deep with this one topic, or would I rather go wide by exploring a variety of topics over that same span of time? (You can even circle back to topics and go deeper as your children grow and mature.)
• How often am I able to go to the store or library to refresh our resources, or commit to finding resources online?
• What does my weekly schedule look like? What else am I responsible for that might impact how much time I can give to thematic learning units? Both the planning and implementation of them. (The less time available to engage with the thematic unit resources per day, the more days or weeks you probably want to keep your child with the current theme. You do not want to put yourself in a position where you’re frantic to keep the thematic learning units fresh every week or every other week, and yet your child is not able to engage with the resources long enough to make any meaningful connections.)

And know that you can always adjust as you try things and determine what works for your family!

Pick Your Priorities

Once you’ve picked a theme and have a general idea of how long you want to spend with it, you can decide what you want to prioritize in that time. For this, ask yourself…

• Will my topic be only for monthly library book hauls that I explore with my child to teach vocabulary during free time, or do I want to work in fine motor, sensory, and academic activities too?
• Will I be home some, most, or all days of the week? How many of them do I want to devote to thematic learning units? And- once I decide how many days- how much of those days do I want to devote to themed learning activities? Do I want this to be something my child can engage in independently while I’m busy, or something I’m excited to spend time exploring with them?
• Do I want to limit sensory experiences or crafts to only one a month because they overwhelm me, or are they the parts of educating young children that make me want to dive in head first? Do I want one a week? One a day?
• Which developmental skills does my child still need? What opportunities do I see for tying them in with this theme?

You can check the CDC website for more information on which developmental skills your child should be acquiring according to their age.

Gather Your Resources

This is the fun part!

Your resources could be…

• Print Resources: Books, Magazines, Reference Books, Maps, Timelines, etc. Pinterest and Instagram are great resources for finding vetted children’s book lists on different topics. (This is something I would love to offer you here on the blog myself, one day!) 
• Digital Resources: YouTube Videos, Songs and Podcasts, Virtual Field Trips, Computer Games, etc. You can even find read-alouds of classic books on YouTube if you want to preview texts before purchasing them.
• Games & Toys
• Paper Products & Craft Materials

Visit my Pinterest Board to see some of the ideas I’ve gathered for themes including the Ocean Habitat, Human Body, Weather, and more! 

Plan Experiences To Match Your Content (As Much As Possible)

• Are there any places I could take my child(ren) that would allow them to experience this topic or theme personally? (This could be somewhere local, a day trip, or even a family vacation.)
• Are there any events coming to my area (or within a reasonable distance) that could help reinforce the topic or theme we are studying?
• Is there a movie or play on the same subject matter that we could make into a family night?
• Is there a book club or some kind of membership group that we could be a part of to explore this topic with community?
• Could I integrate this topic or theme into a grander or more exclusive experience that wouldn’t be available to my child every day? This could be a party or perhaps a special purchase.

An Example: Charlotte’s Recent Ocean Themed Unit

• Decide How Long Each Unit Should Last: I made the decision to focus on an ocean theme for the entire month. This gave plenty of time for us to read and complete activities around a newborn and our regularly scheduled activities outside of the home.
• Pick Your Priorities:  My main priority is to teach Charlotte to identify characteristics of the ocean habitat and the animals that live within it. I wanted to start very minimally in this season of being home with a newborn too. I decided that I could realistically keep up with 1 sensory bin or 1 craft activity per week right now. I also did not want to sacrifice our 3-4 time weekly outings from the house. The sensory bins and crafts I have chosen will fill the time we have available and still provide plenty of practice for developing fine motor skills, which is what I wanted to prioritize after vocabulary and background knowledge. After this first month, I can evaluate whether that’s enough for now or whether we want to plan for more in future months.

My month’s outline looked like this:

• • Week 1: Habitat Reusable Stickerpad by Melissa & Doug- Ocean page only (fine motor skill- peeling stickers)
  • Week 2: Watercolor Fish (fine motor and pre-writing skill while holding paintbrush) after reading the book Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
  • Week 3: Decorating Cardboard Turtle Shells (fine motor skill- ripping construction paper by hand and squeezing a glue bottle)
  • Week 4: Handprint Hermit Crabs (sensory experience- handprint craft / fine motor and pre-writing skill- coloring the paper plate “shell”) after reading A House For Hermit Crab by Eric Carle
  • Week 5: Ocean Animals Sensory Bin (sensory experience and fine motor skill- kinetic sand/ academic skill- counting and color sort of toy fish in sensory bin)

And, of course, books every day. Plus a fun Move Like An Ocean Animal gross motor game from Homeschool Share to keep things silly and fun, and a YouTube video of underwater ocean scenes set to instrumental music which I’ll use during crafts and play time.

Depending on the time you have available, you can choose lower effort activities like the Melissa & Doug sticker pad pages mentioned above or higher effort yet more engaging activities like a blue Jello ocean dig where small ocean themed toys are retrieved from Jello with tweezers,  or an ocean animal rescue activity where small ocean themed toys are frozen within a block of ice and then freed again by using tools.

• Gather Your Resources: I purposely planned for sensory bins and crafts that used materials I already had at home. I also prioritized activities that were very quick to prepare in the moment because, with a newborn, I’m not able to prepare materials ahead of time right now.

My resources included:

• • Borrowed Library Books
  • Children’s Bible- we are connecting the stories of Noah and Jonah to our ocean month
  • This linked Youtube video of underwater ocean scenes set to instrumental music
  • A Melissa & Doug reusable sticker book that we already owned
  • Watercolors we already owned for the fish she was painting
  • Red paint for handprint hermit crabs that we already owned
  • A single paper plate for a hermit crab shell
  • Crayons to decorate the shell
  • An Amazon box I cut apart for a turtle shell
  • Some different colored pieces of construction paper for a turtle shell
  • Blue kinetic sand and small fish toys we already owned for a sensory bin
  • Hand drawn color sorting mat

• • 

• Plan Your Experiences: 

We would love to soon plan a beach day to help Charlie connect what she’s learned to the Florida seashore we’re blessed to live so near. We can collect sea shells for a final art and academic project- painting and counting seashells- to commence our first monthly thematic unit.

Or… because it’s been so hot and we are still in the newborn season, we could also take a short weekend getaway to an aquarium in a city a couple hours away. We don’t always conclude our monthly units with such big experiences, but it’s always fun when it works out that way. Because Justin just began a new job with longer working hours, he made this suggestion  so that he could be a part of all the learning we’ve been doing at home. I love that he looks to be involved in our children’s education in this way.

We read Charlie’s Bible with her at night. By the time we finish each of the ocean animal crafts, we will reveal to her that there’s been a purpose to us creating 2 of each animal. We will take her crafts and use them to model the animals entering Noah’s ark “two by two.”

 

There you have it, Mama… everything you need to get started on your first ever thematic learning unit.

Leave a comment below and let us all know… What topic or theme are you starting your family off with?! Or what questions do you still have?