Follow Children's Interests: Trash Those Themes

Do you sit down in August to plan your school year?  Do you pick a theme for each month?  Common themes are Back to School/Apples for September and Pumpkins for October.  Picking themes is not the way to go!

I'm sure by now that you have heard of following the children's interests or emergent curriculum.  It is an easy concept that many find difficult to put into practice.  Early childhood educators often make the mistake of assuming that following the children's interests means that they are handing control of the classroom over to the children which would result in complete chaos.  However, by following the children's interests, the classroom will be much easier to manage.

The best teachers take time to build relationships with each and every child in their class.  Building relationships involves listening and observing.  When you listen to and observe the children, you can identify what they are currently interested in.  During the hot summer months, they might be discussing the weather, trips to the beach with their families, or camping.  Plan classroom activities around these interests.  If popular discussions are on family trips to the beach, you can set up a beach in your dramatic play area (and, please, remove the housekeeping stuff!).  Plan math and literacy activities using shells and sand.  Paint with seaweed for art and explore crab and lobster shells in science.

But, what happens when two weeks into this great unit focused around the beach the newest superhero movie is released?  Now, all the children discuss is this new superhero.  Well, that means it's time to switch things up to keep learning progressing and keep them interested.  But, we are an anti-bias program; we can't talk about mainstream superheroes!  Not a problem!

Engage in the children's conversations and use their interests in superheroes to create different learning experiences.  For instance, use open ended questions to discuss what qualities a superhero has such as strength, kindness, physical fitness, special abilities, and so on.  Now you have several concepts to focus on for learning!  One big idea could focus on the question, "How can we get strong like a superhero?" Learning areas can focus on exercise and ways to keep the body healthy and strong.

So, let go of those pre-planned themes and learning will be much more meaningful!