“Winter” is a developmentally appropriate thematic curriculum topic that builds on children’s lived experience. The overall curriculum theme “The Seasons” can be introduced at the beginning of the school year, and then each season should be explored at the appropriate time.
A few thoughts and comments about revising individual sub-themes, and perhaps combining some of the topics and adding a few other topics:
1. Sub-theme 1 “What is winter?” is a good introduction. What specific ideas do you plan to explore in this introduction? Will you briefly touch on weather?
2. Sub-theme 5 “Ice and Snow” should actually be integrated into Sub-theme 2 “Change in Weather,” as ice and snow are part of this change to colder weather. This is a good topic for the second sub-theme.
3. Sub-theme 3 “Holidays” should actually be explored in a different curriculum topic that focuses more on culturally relevant themes (e.g., how different people celebrate traditions, different religious traditions, etc.)
4. The focus in Sub-themes 3-5 for the “Winter” curriculum should explore how winter affects plants, animals, humans. Sub-theme 3 might be “Plants in winter,” which then leads more naturally into the next sub-theme, Sub-theme 4 “Animals in winter.”
5. Your final sub-theme might then explore “People in winter,” which would then incorporate how we dress, what we eat, activities we engage in in winter, and also, as a part of this sub-theme, holidays that we celebrate in winter. You want to be sure when exploring holidays to do so in a culturally relevant way. Think about all the different holidays that people in different parts of the world, different cultures, and different religions might celebrate during the winter months (December-March). Again, this is just one piece of the sub-theme “People in winter”
Think about how you might re-organize and re-structure the thematic unit in this way before you begin the next activity (children’s literature).
Hi Lesley:
“Winter” is a developmentally appropriate thematic curriculum topic that builds on children’s lived experience. The overall curriculum theme “The Seasons” can be introduced at the beginning of the school year, and then each season should be explored at the appropriate time.
A few thoughts and comments about revising individual sub-themes, and perhaps combining some of the topics and adding a few other topics:
1. Sub-theme 1 “What is winter?” is a good introduction. What specific ideas do you plan to explore in this introduction? Will you briefly touch on weather?
2. Sub-theme 5 “Ice and Snow” should actually be integrated into Sub-theme 2 “Change in Weather,” as ice and snow are part of this change to colder weather. This is a good topic for the second sub-theme.
3. Sub-theme 3 “Holidays” should actually be explored in a different curriculum topic that focuses more on culturally relevant themes (e.g., how different people celebrate traditions, different religious traditions, etc.)
4. The focus in Sub-themes 3-5 for the “Winter” curriculum should explore how winter affects plants, animals, humans. Sub-theme 3 might be “Plants in winter,” which then leads more naturally into the next sub-theme, Sub-theme 4 “Animals in winter.”
5. Your final sub-theme might then explore “People in winter,” which would then incorporate how we dress, what we eat, activities we engage in in winter, and also, as a part of this sub-theme, holidays that we celebrate in winter. You want to be sure when exploring holidays to do so in a culturally relevant way. Think about all the different holidays that people in different parts of the world, different cultures, and different religions might celebrate during the winter months (December-March). Again, this is just one piece of the sub-theme “People in winter”
Think about how you might re-organize and re-structure the thematic unit in this way before you begin the next activity (children’s literature).