Hi everyone!! I hope you are all having an amazing summer! I can’t believe how fast it has flown by and that we are already in August!! I don’t know about you, but I start to get the jitters a little bit around this time of year and do my best to hold off on the Back to School shopping! But who am I kidding??? You can find me roaming the $1 Target spot section, Dollar Tree, or Walmart almost daily!
I have been working extra hard on updating all of my thematic units! As many of you know, I absolutely LOVE using thematic units in my classroom. I can’t say enough wonderful things about them! They are my absolute favorite thing to teach during the school year and over time I have created thematic units to go along with each week of the entire school year!!
I know that sounds crazy, but my students and I just can’t get enough of them!!! I remember two years ago when I had a student who had a not so good home situation and was really having a hard time at school. This student was very quiet, shy, did not participate, did not do their work, acted out, and showed little to no emotions. Getting this student to the classroom was a daily struggle and I remember praying that I could bring a smile to this childs face or give them something to look forward to.
I created my first thematic unit (Apples) and the Monday after this unit was over something happened that I never thought I would see. This student came running into my classroom with the biggest smile on their face and loudly guessing what we would be learning about next! With tears in my eyes this student gave me one of the biggest hugs that I will never forget when I told them we would be learning about scarecrows. From that moment on, I knew I had to keep this up! Never again for the rest of the school year did that student struggle coming to my classroom. This student smiled throughout the day, participated, was so excited to do their work, made tons of friends, and left every day without forgetting to give me a hug and a smile. I sparked an excitement and interest in a student that I never thought I would be able to reach and not to mention an excitement and eagerness to learn in all my other students.
Some wonderful things I love about thematic units are:
– The crazy amount of common core standards you can teach in just one unit!
– The fun and excitement that students have throughout each unit.
– Students are highly engaged with the fun, hands-on, and interactive activities provided.
– Gives a variety of learning for the students
– Allows students to draw connections from the real world and understand how to make connections.
– Makes standards exciting as well as provides a huge VARIETY of activities for the standards!
– Creates a community of learners
– Gives a great flow of the standards and learning throughout the school year
– Allows teachers to integrate all subjects
– Makes learning FUN!!
…and so much more!!!
The list goes on and on and on! Last year I made a year long plan and when I recently went back to it, I decided that it needed a major update. I mean MAJOR update!!! I wanted to share with you all my updated Year Long Thematic Unit Plan. Click HERE or on the pictures below to download the file: