Are you looking for a play-based preschool curriculum that uses themes? Look no further! I created a Play-Based Preschool Curriculum that will work perfect for you!
When I was in the preschool classroom, I loved using themes to teach my littles because they built excitement. My students were excited to see the activities for each theme, and it challenged me to teach specific topics in depth and in creative ways.
Many preschools or daycares require their teachers to use themes throughout the year. The school will have a calendar with designated themes for the entire year. While I loved teaching with themes, it was very overwhelming when I first started teaching preschool.
Lack of Resources
I was given a list of themes for the year and nothing else. It was completely up to me what to teach and how to teach it. Basically, I had to buy or create everything myself. That first year, I felt completely overwhelmed by it.
Desperately, I searched for a preschool curriculum that was play-based and coincided with the themes I was required to use. I found play-based curriculums, but they used different themes or in a different order than I was required to use. I found preschool curriculums that used my themes, but they were worksheet based (I am not a fan).
Ultimately, I created my own preschool curriculum, and, now, I want to share it with you. This curriculum is completely play-based, and includes both small group activities and center activities.
List of Preschool Themes
Wondering what themes are included? (By the way, you can get all the themes individually, too.)
- Back to School– 2D Shapes
- All About Me– Patterns
- Weather– Measuring
- Health– Colors
- Emotions– Counting
- 5 Senses– 2D Shapes
- My Family– Patterns
- Hispanic Heritage– Measuring
- Apples– Colors
- Fall Fun– review
- Dinosaurs– Counting
- Wild West– 2D Shapes
- Halloween- Patterns
- Community Helpers– measuring
- Harvest– colors
- Native American Heritage– Counting
- Thanksgiving– 2D Shapes
- Christmas Around the World– Patterns
- Christmas Characters– Measuring
- Christmas Fun- review
- Nativity/Christmas Story– review
- Arctic Animals– 2D shapes
- Safari– 3D Shapes
- Winter– Measuring
- Martin Luther King Jr.– Counting
- Ocean Life– Addition
- Black History Month– Money
- Forest Life– 2D Shapes
- Valentine’s Day– 3D Shapes
- Desert Life– Measurement
- Spring– review
- Women’s History Month– Counting
- St. Paddy’s Day- Addition within 5
- Pond Life– Counting
- Rainforest- 2D Shapes
- On the Farm– 3D Shapes
- Easter or Easter Story- Measuring
- Earth Day– Money
- Life Cycles- 2D Shapes
- Asian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month– Money
- Science Experiments– review
- Gardening– 2D Shapes
- Transportation- 3D Shapes
- Around the World– Measuring
- Camping– Counting
- Outer Space– Addition
- Insects– Money
- Construction– Shapes
- 4th of July– Measuring
- Pirates– Counting
- Summer– review
- Summer– review
Customize the Preschool Curriculum
Each theme includes activities for a certain math skill, and all the letters for ELA activities. This way, you can rearrange the themes for your own needs. I do include lesson plans for themes to be used in this specific order. However, you can simply change the lesson plan to the letter you are teaching for that theme.
Do you work in a preschool that is not year round? That’s okay! Simply remove the themes you don’t need to fit your school schedule. If you are following the curriculum as I created, remove the underlined weeks to shorten the curriculum.
Where to Find the Preschool Curriculum?
My Play-Based Preschool Curriculum is available in my TeacherPayTeachers store. You can click this link to see the entire curriculum. Just need one theme? Click this link (or the themes above) to get the individual theme you need.
A Word for Preschool Homeschool
Are you a homeschool mama? Me too! This curriculum was created for the classroom, but it can definitely work at home too. Just a couple things to keep in mind if you are homeschooling:
- Using a weekly theme requires a lot of printing and laminating. It can be very time consuming to prepare the entire curriculum. If you will only be using it for one year, it’s probably not worth it.
- It can take up quite a bit of space to store all the activities when using 52 different themes. If you have a small homeschool space or are homeschooling several children on different levels, you may not want to take up space by using 52 themes.
Not sure you want to use 52 themes in your homeschool? Me, either! So, I created another preschool curriculum for homeschool. My homeschool preschool curriculum only uses 4 themes. It is streamlined and simplified to work in the home. Be sure to check out my next education post, “Year Round Preschool at Home.”
