How to Plan a Themed Week

One of my favorite things to do is plan theme weeks. I do my best to keep things age appropriate. I won’t plan the same activities for an 8-month-old as I would an 18-month-old etc.

To start I think of a subject. Recent ones have been the ocean, community helpers, outer space, and all about me. Once I’ve decided on something I head over to my library’s website and online catalog. My local library is part of a consortium. A host of libraries that send books back and forth based on patron’s requests. So, I can go on and not only have access to hold books at my library, but I can place a hold on books from other libraries and they will be shipped to the library of my choosing. I go back and forth between picking up at my library and Little Bear’s library. That way he and I can have a trip out somewhere.

Books are always my first step because so many have art, sensory and gross motor activities on Pinterest. That’s my next step. Pinterest, or I search through old photos of past families to see what I did then. Let me use Eric Carle as an example.

You have an 18-month-old. You’ve chosen Eric Carle as the topic of the week. You place holds on five of his books. To be available for pick the following Monday, library day. An art project for that age group would be to cut an apple or potato in half. Stick a fork in it and use the halves to stamp with paint. You can stamp the Very Hungry Caterpillar. Red head, green body. One red stamp with four or five green stamps in a row. Add some black lines as feet and voila! This is an art and sensory project for the age group.

Or something for an older toddler would be painting with tissue paper. Print out an outline of a seahorse. Have cut up pieces of tissue paper, about one-inch squares, available in a small bowl. Purple, pink, green, blue, make it a bowl of color. With a paint brush put some water on the paper inside the outline of the seahorse. Place pieces of tissues paper all over, don’t be afraid to overlap them. Give it about 10 minutes, read some books or have a snack, and remove the tissue paper. The color bleeds on to the paper and it looks like watercolor.

After art I look up, or try and think of games that would go with the books. The Very Hungry Caterpillar would probably be an eating and transforming game. Wrap the kiddos in a blanket and leave a trail of “food” (Melissa and Doug have a food cutting set that would be perfect but Legos, blocks, balls etc. work great too!) around the house. Once they have “eaten” it (have them inch around n their bellies and swallow the food by capturing it in the blanket) they will wrap up tightly in the blanket until they are ready to emerge as beautiful butterflies. This is a great gross motor game.

I plan music round a theme if possible, and try and execute fancy lunch or snack plates that go with the theme, red and green grapes in a line for the caterpillar, duck shaped sandwich and blueberries under the sandwich as water with cottage cheese clouds for Five Little Ducks etc.

My goal is to include, 2 fine motor, one gross motor, five books, 2 art projects, a sensory activity, and some music and food for the week. The one gross motor tends to be a fun game they want to keep playing. Fine motor and art usually double. Sometimes triple with sensory. Music stays on in the background mixed in with our usual Pandora stations and the food is a bonus. I don’t always get to the food, but that’s okay. They won’t miss it.

I’m planning on sharing my theme weeks on Instagram and Facebook, feel free to follow along for ideas! See you next time!