Those who live on the shore may focus on boats. Such units would be designed around familiar ideas and concepts and would provide opportunities for children to extend their knowledge. The thematic topic must be broad enough to enable the teacher to generate activities that address the IEP skills identified for individual children. A unit should be of high interest to the children. With a focus on the children s interests, activities are intrinsically motivating and offer opportunities for children s descriptive language to become richer and more complex.
Thematic instruction requires the availability of materials and resources.
The program and staff must be able to provide concrete and child directed activities in order to maintain interest. A final consideration is the staff s interest in the subject. It is important that the staff be enthusiastic about the theme. Our challenge as early childhood teachers is to provide learning opportunities that can meet the needs of a diverse group of young children. Using integrated thematic units, a literature based curriculum or a combination of the two offers organizational strategies for developing a quality early childhood curriculum.