The Learning Zone: Childcare Article: How to Plan your Own Thematic Curriculum

How to Plan Your Own
Thematic Curriculum
by Kim Richman

Would you like to plan your own thematic curriculum? It’s not hard to do. Planning your own curriculum can be a fun and rewarding experience.

A developmentally appropriate curriculum for children integrates the needs, abilities, and interests of the children. An appropriate curriculum for young children cannot be planned without an understanding of the children’s development. Listening to children’s conversations will help provide you with insight as to their interests.

Planning a curriculum using a theme approach involves these steps:

Selection of a theme (with consideration of appropriateness to the children in terms of development and interest)
Development of a flowchart
Extraction of goals, concepts, and vocabulary from the flowchart
Selection of activities that compliment learning goals

Let’s go through each step in more detail…

FLOWCHARTS
A flowchart is a simple way to record all possible concepts and sub-concepts that relate to a theme. Flowcharting is really a lot like brainstorming. To illustrate flowcharting, let’s choose the theme of "pumpkins" as an example. Using an encyclopedia or other resource material, record all related concepts. For example, you may want to include categories such as origin, parts, color, size, texture, taste, food preparation, and nutrition. In addition, under each concept, list content that might be included. For example, under the category, FOOD PREPARATION, you may want the children to learn that pumpkin meats can be prepared and eaten, as well as pumpkin seeds.

THEME GOALS
Once you have prepared a flowchart, extracting theme goals is a simple process. Subheadings may be used as goals. Taking the sample list above, we could extract the following goals:

Origin - The origin of a pumpkin
Parts - The parts of a pumpkin
Color, Taste, Size - The color, size, and taste of a pumpkin
Texture - The texture of a pumpkin
Food Preparation - The preparation of a pumpkin for eating
Nutrition - The nutritional value of pumpkin

Through participation in the experiences provided by using the "pumpkins" as a curriculum theme, the children can learn all of the planned goals.

To get more specific in our planning, we can make concept decisions related to each theme goal. To write the concepts, study the goals. Then prepare simple, easy-to-understand sentences that convey the information you want the children to learn and retain. Here are just a few concepts that a unit about pumpkins might include:

1. Pumpkins start out the color green.
2. Pumpkins are orange when harvested.
3. Pumpkins are a type of squash.
4. Pumpkins grow on vines.
5. Pumpkins can have smooth skins or big, bumpy skins.
6. Pumpkin plants need sunlight and water to grow.
7. Pumpkins come in different shapes and sizes.
8. Pumpkin seeds are found inside pumpkins.
9. Pumpkin is a great source of Vitamin A.

The next step is to decide on appropriate vocabulary goals. What new words will you be introducing to the children? Vocabulary words can be tailored to meet the specific needs of a group of children. A small sample of possible vocabulary words for this unit might be:

1. Pumpkin- a type of squash that grows on vines
2. Texture- how something feels
3. Stem- the brown part of the pumpkin that extends from the top

ACTIVITIES
Now that you’ve learned how to develop goals related to a theme using a flowchart, you’ll need to select appropriate activities that compliment your goals. Your major role as an adult, caregiver, or teacher, is that of a facilitator. Your most crucial responsibility in the planning and preparing of the environment is to stimulate each child’s natural curiosity.

To begin this process, review each goal and determine how it can be introduced to the children. As you plan activities for this unit, review all of your goals and brainstorm on enjoyable activities for the children. What activities would help the children gain the knowledge that you would like for them to gain? Try to have as many different categories of activities available as possible. A diverse curriculum will include cooking and tasting experiences, science and math activities, dramatic play, sensory experiences, etc. For example, if you want the children to learn the color of pumpkins, your selection of planned activities might range from cooking experiences to art experiences. Through the process of planning, you are helping to guide the children through their development.

Always remember that the best activities for children are hands-on and open-ended. Well, that’s it! That’s theme planning in a pumpkin shell- oops, I mean nutshell.

Happy Planning!

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