I decided to change the way I do thematic planning this year. Instead of picking a specific theme (say...bugs) I'm going to plan around a certain author or type of book. I'm hoping that by doing this, I can integrate more literature rich activities into my planning, and incorporate learning opportunities that fit the wide spectrum of ages and abilities. So to start out the new year, the author I picked was Melanie Watt, with a specific focus on her Scaredy Squirrel series (though we did spend time with the rest of her phenomenal books).
Scaredy Squirrel gave me some great opportunities to incorporate open ended crafts and natural resources.
This is the children working on their squirrel mural. I didn't anticipate how much they would enjoy this crafting experience, but we spent an entire afternoon immersed in this creative opportunity.
I decided to broaden the activity for the younger children by working on some fine motor skills - I let them experiment with scissor cutting. To do this, I sat one-on-one with each child in turn, and let them choose to cut their picture as they wished (after some modelling and guidance). They were so focused, and handled the scissors with great care. It was a huge success!
In the end, the murals turned out more beautiful than I could have ever imagined!
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