Themes and apologies for my absence!

So again, sorry to be so sparse in my update duties, but the computer has been acting wonky when I try to update anything, and we have been working like mad in the garden.  I will be posting pictures soon of CJ's birthday, and of the new improvements in the garden.

I really want to talk a little bit about how important using themes to teach the kids has been to me.  Today we listened to the song Scarborough Faire on my ipod.  I love the song, and I am sure you all know it.  Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme?  Well I taught them a bit about what the song means, and we went into the garden to look at all the herbs, discussing that these herbs have been used by cooks and medical practitioners for centuries.  We looked up the herbs in a book and found out what people used to think they did, and what the herb names mean and stand for.  Rosemary for example was often given as a gift and means remembrance.  We are having Scarborough Faire chicken for dinner, using all these herbs from the garden.  We talked about how they grow, and how the plants are different and the same.  We tasted them all.  We learned the words to the song.  We even read a children's book that took place in medieval times to talk about how people lived differently. 

Recently I have also done themes for Earth day and recycling.  There was a recycling program at the library for the kids, which actually wasn't very good, but helped me form a theme for the kids.  We recycled newspaper and some seeds into plantable seed pods.  We recycled dryer lint by putting it out for the birds.  We found ways to recycle many items in the house to help us with the garden and other projects.  The kids understand what recycling is, and why it is important for the earth.  We read Earth day books, and watched Sesame Street Earth day movies.  We spent a few days talking about the Earth and how to take care of it. 

Teaching in themes makes it so much easier for me to plan lessons, and I find it makes the lessons stick with the kids much more.  This is mostly because we spend so much time with one topic and we learn about it in so many ways.  We integrate all subject areas into the one topic making it a part of our entire day and week.  This makes it seem important.  I even try to integrate topics into our games and play.  For recycling we made toys to play with using old discarded items.  For today we are playing ring around the rosie, a game that originated in medieval times.  There are so many ways to integrate and use themes in everything we do.  I also love the consistency it brings to our learning. 

That is all for today, and I will be posting pictures soon, as long as my computer allows it.  Off to plant some more seeds in the garden!