This is the third and final section of the series of articles on TEFL themes. It is designed to give you a comprehensive overview of the various themes that could be used in your classroom along with suggestions as to the area of focus and any special events that could be linked to the theme.
To assist you with your planning, international dates for that theme are given so that you can share confidently with parents the logical reasoning behind your use of the themes and the systematic curriculum progression.
Pets Theme
Within a theme of pets you have the opportunity to focus on a variety of areas such as pet foods, places where pets live and how to look after pets. If desired you could develop this through making a class pet (real or pretend in the form of a teddy bear etc.) Parents could be invited to come in and share any pets to add a practical aspect to the theme. National Pet Day is April 11th.
TEFL Theme Compilation 3- Pet theme
Picnic Theme
In addition to exploring food and kitchen utensils (e.g. knives / forks / bowls etc.) a picnic theme can include location (exploring the type of places you could have a picnic) as well as a variety of maths (with one to one correspondence / matching / patterns / colours etc.) At the end of a picnic theme, it would be good to have a real picnic in your classroom. June 18th is International Picnic Day.
Pirates Theme
This theme can provide you with a lot of interesting vocabulary as well as a lot of practical activities to reinforce basic concepts through the use of treasure hunts and gold letter coins. Role-play is also easy within this theme and you could conclude with pupils dressing up as pirates and directing others to hidden treasure etc. Talk Like A Pirate Day happens on September 19th every year.
TEFL Theme Compilation 3- Pirate theme
Plants and Life Cycles Theme
Plants and life cycles are a staple component of a classroom. This theme offers a huge range of tasks with pupils being able to investigate the different types of plants and the different parts of a plant.
Rain Theme
Rain can be incorporated into a weather theme or used as a theme on its own with there being an emphasis upon water, floating and sinking as well as exploring different ways that we use water. Water conservation can also be explored and the importance of rain for the earth can also be an area of investigation.
Rainforest Theme
June 22nd is World Rainforest Day, which is a collaborative effort to raise awareness and encourage action to protect the world’s rainforests. Conservation of rainforests could be one area of focus, with others being the various animals that live in the rainforest as well as exploring weather conditions.
TEFL Theme Compilation 3- Rainbow theme
Rainbows Theme
Colours form the basis of the rainbow theme, however this can be developed to include measurement as well as a rainbow of letters. The causes of a rainbow can be explored as well as carrying out role-play activities to look for the treasure at the end of the rainbow. Each year on April 3rd, National Find A Rainbow Day challenges us to look to the sky and find a colourful ray of a rainbow.
Recycling Theme
Recycling can be practically explored in the classroom not only with sorting rubbish but with working to use old things in new ways. For example, making plant holders from old bottles, working to recycle old paper into new paper or using old containers to make pencil holders etc.
Reptiles Theme
In a general animal theme, reptiles are not generally heavily featured. Through focussing specifically on reptiles you can investigate them in greater detail, including themes such as deserts or habitats as well as movement – comparing and contrasting slow tortoises with fast moving lizards.
Robots Theme
This theme enables pupils to explored sizes, shapes and materials as well as allowing you to bring the very popular area of STEM into your classroom. Pupils could work to sort different nuts and bolts , make their own cardboard robot, design a shape robot as well as practise their phonics through the use of robot speak. June 6 is international robot day.
Seeds Theme
In this very practical theme pupils get a change to sort and classify the different types of seeds, learning comparing and contrasting vocabulary. They can then progress onto investigating the different conditions a seed needs to grow, keeping their own seed diary as to what to happening to e.g. a seed grown in the dark/ a seed grown without water / a seed grown in the fridge etc.
Shapes Theme
Shapes will be a daily part of your circle time however rarely do you get the opportunity to explore shapes in detail – exploring shapes in the environment / using the classroom blocks to make new shapes / exploring different bridge shapes etc.
Snow Theme
Even if there is no real snow it is easy to carry a wide range of snow activities, exploring symmetrical patterns with paper snowflakes and role-play making your own snowman. You can even make your own snow from mixing one cup of baking soda and one cup of corn starch in a bowl. Add water, one tablespoon at a time, mixing with your hands. Keep adding water until the mixture can just hold its shape when squeezed in your hand.
Space Theme
Space is a traditional theme in any classroom. In addition to exploring size, colour and shape with the planets, stars can be investigated and sung through “ Twinkle Twinkle Little Star “ You can diversify if desired into space aliens – pupils working with a potato and straws / collage materials to make and describe their own space alien. April 12th is the International Day of Human Space Flight.
Sports Theme
This is a great practical theme and is very popular as it is something that all children can relate to. Remember when planning this theme that young children find it very hard to work as a part of a team so even if a team sport is featured pupils can practise on their own.
Spring Theme
The season is all about new life – so it is easy to explore sunshine and spring flowers. In addition, spring is a time when baby animals are typically born so this is a great way to explore this vocabulary.
STEM
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and maths. “STEAM” represents STEM plus the arts – humanities, language arts, dance, drama, music, visual arts, design and new media. The main difference between STEM and STEAM is STEM explicitly focuses on scientific concepts. Within both of these topics, there is a huge wealth of materials to work with ranging from working out how the Gingerbread man in the story could have safely got across the river to designing a disguise for the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. The possibilities within this topic are endless and can revolve around books and rhymes or behind themes e.g. colour – separating out colours using chromatography on coffee filter paper to making skittle rainbows.
TEFL Theme Compilation 3- STEM theme
STEM is a very popular activity at the moment and both parents and pupils alike will be interested in this theme
Summer Theme
summer represents sun, beaches and vacations – so weather and geography can easily be incorporated into this theme as well as transportation. In addition, summer food can be explored including the making of lemonade.
Time Theme
Time is an important concept in the language classroom. For the younger pupils this can be focusing on the progression of the day – the routines that pupils have and how it is important to do things in order. For the older pupils then days of the week and moths of the year can be incorporated.
Tools Theme
All pupils will have some exposure to tools – on however basic a level and thus they can easily relate to this theme. There is a lot of vocabulary in this theme from the tool names themselves (as well as accompanying equipment) in addition to the different movements. Pupils will particularly enjoy working with play items as well as working with role-playing with the various tools thereby providing a great opportunity for the development of language acquisition.
Transportation Theme
This a firm favourite in a language classroom. The theme can be kept as an all encompassing theme or split into the different areas – for example:
- Alternative forms of transportation (e.g. donkey / walking / camel etc.)
- Road transport
- Rail transport
- Air transport
- Space transport
- Water transport
Travel Theme
The main difference between the travel theme and the transport theme is that this one focuses on the process of getting somewhere. This means focus can be on the different places you can travel to and the main features of countries when you get there. Role play in the form of travel agents as well as airports are easy to set up and can encourage pupils to develop a wide range of vocabulary. World Tourism Day is on September 27.
Unicorn Theme
National Unicorn Day on April 9th is a day to celebrate the most popular mythical creature ever. Unicorns can be a focus of pretend play and fantasy and since unicorns are so popular at the moment there are a wide range of games and worksheets that are unicorn themed that you can download and use to reinforce areas such as numbers, colours and letters.
TEFL Theme Compilation 3- Unicorn theme
Under the Sea Theme
Unlike an ocean theme, an under the sea theme enables you to develop focus so that you also explore sea plants as well as aspects as shipwrecks.
Veterinarian Theme
This is a great theme that children respond very well to. There are lots of opportunities to develop mark making and writing skills through pupils identifying and writing down the problem with the various animals as well as working through role play. You can have a grand finale for this theme through pupils bringing in their favourite stuffed animals for a check up and taking it in turns to take their animal to the vet.
Weather Theme
Weather as a general topic can be as one or split into the various aspects. In addition to exploring the different weather conditions, you can focus on the different clothes made for n various weather conditions, comparing and contrasting. Pupils can work at packing a bag for a type of weather, explaining why something is or is not needed – for example, thick snow boots are not used on a hot beach.
Winter Theme
Used as either part of a seasons topic or as a separate topic, Winter not only allows you to focus on winter weather conditions such as snow and ice, but can also encompass winter holidays such as Christmas, animals which hibernate as well as exploring winter sports.
This complete series of themes will have provided you with a wider range of ideas and suggestions for the way forward – simply take our your calendar and planning sheet, progress through the series ideas and before long you will have a complete set of themes to take you through the whole school year.
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