A slight alternative

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A slight alternative
By Cathy-Dee

I use themes as well but mainly through language arts. Since I have a curriculum to follow in all the subject areas I found it much too frustrating to try to incorporate all my areas into a theme. For example in September,
October and into November I do a theme in language arts on rhymes (including Nursery rhymes). I also do an author study.
In math I begin basic numeration so I can incorporate the theme at times using Nursery rhymes or other rhymes with numbers.
In science we do colours
In social studies we do Our School.
My social studies units are each about 3 months long. My science units

are generally about 8 weeks each. So to try to fit themes around these subjects becomes more difficult.

A neat way to set up your themes and topics for the year is to get a large piece of paper and graph it out.

Put the months across the top and then down the side write your topics/subjects. Language Arts, Math, etc.,

Then you can just jot in what you are covering (topic wise) and what themes might fit better in different months. This way you have a quick page to look at to keep you on time (or closer on time) with your themes, etc.,

I think weekly themes would work fine if they were under a monthly theme as you suggested. However since this is your first year teaching grade 1 you might want to stick with monthly themes.

Other themes to consider that often have good resources as well for grade 1
Autumn
Harvest or Pumpkins
Bats, Owls
Winter
Snowmen
Gingerbread
Christmas or Winter Holidays
The forest
Nursery Rhymes
Popcorn (great for a five senses theme too)
Rainbows