Mrs. Jackie Muller

Cross Curricular Teaching

Preschool Thematic Units

Early learning is often centered around thematic units. This truly is cross curricular learning at its beginnings. Thematic units are lesson plans based around a specific topic. The theme guides the lessons for content areas like reading, writing, math and science.

These units may seem at first glance to just be cute and fun, but they are so much more. Creativity, thoughtful conversations, fun read alouds, large and small motor development are just some of the activities within a given thematic unit.

These units help preschool students connect to their world while meeting the Teaching Strategies GOLD objectives for development and learning.

These objectives are Social-Emotional, Physical, Language, Cognitive, Literacy, Science & Technology, Social Studies, Math, The Arts and English Language Acquisition.

As you can see from the morning (or afternoon) message above, the current theme for Mrs. Jackie Muller's preschool classes is insects and spiders. Morning meetings are used at Lincoln Elementary to help students prepare for the day while developing their SEL.

Creating a Culture of Trust and Safety in Every ClassVisit a school that uses morning meetings to develop kids’ social and emotional skills to prep them for learning.

Click on the link (picture) above to learn more about morning meetings.

Literacy

Books are placed in the literacy center that focus on the theme. Here a student is reading how bees move from flower to flower and pollinate.

Art

Art projects help develop the students' fine motor skills while creating colorful art to adorn the classroom walls.

Sorting insects

By color, shape, number......

More sorting

Using fine motor skills to pick up bugs.....so much fun

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Counting 8 green bugs!

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Play with a purpose

Themes help preschool students

engage with the content
make connections with real life
use prior knowledge and experiences
develop vocabulary and comprehension skills

Roll the die and count the dots

Find the matching action

Move your body like an insect

Table work with teachers

Swat the letter bug

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Match the spider shapes

Tracing and coloring

More information on Cross-Curricular Teaching and Early Childhood Strategies

Deeper Learning: Why Cross-Curricular Teaching is EssentialDeeper learning has some specific requirements, not the least of which is collaboration. Ben Johnson shares some tips to establish cross-curricular collaboration even in the most isolated of environments.

Six Strategies for 21st Century Early Childhood TeachersWhat are early childhood educators doing to prepare students for a high-tech life? Read on to find out what teaching strategies you can implement now.

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