Dimensions of Early Childhood - Southern Early Childhood ...

• sorting boxes into groups (for
example, gift boxes, or colored
boxes)
She remembered she had her center’s
curriculum standards at home,
so she pulled out the guide to find
other content areas that might be
taught with a box theme. She happily
noted that some of the science
guidelines were pertinent to the
theme as well.
• Investigate unfamiliar objects.
(Mrs. Keenan thought she
could find boxes that had
compartments inside them.
Oddly shaped boxes would be
useful, too.)
• Observe changes in objects. (cut,
fold, paint, or decorate boxes)
• Describe objects using scientific
words. (some of the
vocabulary terms are scientific
words)
• Design science constructions.
(ask children to create box
sculptures, collages, or pretendplay
props such as rockets or
school buses)
“I’m on the right track with this
theme,” Mrs. Keenan said. “Now I
need to get back to my classroom
and start organizing some materials
and lessons so the children will learn
at their maximum potential.”
Pulling the Theme
Together
Mrs. Keenan’s experience with
thematic unit development is based
on her understanding of young children’s
learning. She knows that
much of children’s learning is
accomplished through encounters
they have with interesting people,
Photos courtesy of the authors
Families often have boxes they’re willing to share. This treasure chest was a great focus
to captivate children’s interest.
places, and objects in their environment.
In her classroom, she depends
on numerous child-directed,
teacher-guided play activities to
enable children to develop concepts
about their world.
Her planned curriculum connects
children’s experiences with the life of
the classroom as recommended by
early childhood experts (Feeney,
Christensen, & Moravcik, 2006;
Wardle, 2003; Warner & Sower,
2005). Mrs. Keenan’s planned
instructional activities are relevant
to children’s lives, meaningful to them
on a personal level, and engage their
Connect children’s
experiences with life!
participation. Children must be
actively involved in classroom activities
for learning to occur. Integrating
the theme into a variety of largegroup,
small-group, and center
experiences for children makes the
learning more interesting for children’s
young minds (Henniger, 2005).
Mrs. Keenan knew that conceptualizing
the theme is the first step
in planning a unit, and she had
done just that. The next step is to
select some activities to explore with
children to accomplish learning
goals, such as her child care center’s
curriculum standards.
Most of the activities that Mrs.
Keenan used are described in the
remainder of this article. However,
she also realized that integrating
activities into daily routines provided
essential skill development (see
Figure 3). And she knew that often,
one activity would lead to something
else that was suggested by children’s
questions and interests.
The cardboard box explorations
described here are designed for
12 Volume 35, Number 1 DIMENSIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD Winter 2007