Friday, August 20

Learning Baskets for the 2010 School Year...


I really like the idea of using themes that reflect the changes in the seasons for teaching pre-school. Expanding on Dawn's list of Kinderthemes, I came up with five themes per month last year. This year, I reduced the themes to four and changed some of them that I used last year (mainly moving some of them to months where they make more sense for our family). I think that this will help my planning for my Living and Learning Lists as well as provide a focus for our week. Since I am planning this a bit far in advance, I am expecting to tweak things a bit as we go along. I am hoping to tuck the books, crafts, and ideas into a basket the week before we plan to learn about them and then we'll have a Learning Basket to work from at our own pace. We are also planning on homeschooling more formally this year... but that is a topic for another post!

Without further ado, here are the themes that I would like to use for our Learning Baskets this year:

January
12 Days of Christmas
The Nutcracker
Snowflakes and Snowmen
Orange

February
Candles
Hearts and Valentines
Red
Museums

March
Rainbows and Shamrocks
Green
Spring
Kites

April
Rain
Farms
Knights and Dragons
Yellow

May
Flowers
Blue
Strawberries
Butterflies

June
Seashells
American Flag
Summer
Boats
Violet

July
Independence Day
Blueberries
Peaches
Sunflowers

August
Watermelon
Picnics
Bugs
Seashore

September
Apples
Harvest Moon
Autumn
Zoo

October
Leaves
Squirrels
Owls
Pumpkins

November
Pilgrims
Native Americans
Turkeys
Thanksgiving

December
Saint Nicholas
Gingerbread
Winter
Nativity and 12 Days of Christmas

I will post our basket for the last week of August next week! The topic will be the Seashore!

7 comments:

Kh. Patty said...

Oh wonderful! I'm hoping to do more with the seasons and go through the resources we already own (books, puzzles, games, toys, etc.) to fit the seasons. You've just done half the work for me! Thank you! Mind if I print this out and add it to my homeschooling binder?

Kh. Patty said...

Just noticed that "seashore" is your topic for next week. Would go perfectly with our recent beach outings. :) Thanks again, Matushka!

Matushka Anna said...

Wow! Looks great!

I feel guilty because my youngest is always taking a back seat to the older ones. With kids in second through sixth grade (skipping fifth) this year I haven't planned one single thing for the 3 year old. I try to make up for it a little by reading books with him and quizzing him on letters, colors, shapes... But I don't have any specific plans or curriculum for him. Even ones as simple as you have outlined. Sigh.

Michelle said...

I would love for us to do some crossover homeschooling activities this year if at all possible!

You are so creative!

Kh. Patty said...

Mat. Anna,

I bet your 3-yr-old picks up a ton just listening in on the older ones' schooling and being read to. I probably won't be planning anything too detailed for my little ones either as we have more older ones homeschooling.

Michelle M. said...

That is such a great list. Thanks for the inspiration.

Gae said...

Thanks for sharing. I love the fact you have done a whole year
Wonderful topics, I will have to re season them for down under though.
Just shared it on my facebook page too
God Bless

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