Bringing Learning to Life

What is thematic teaching?

This method of teaching involves choosing a theme or topic to teach one or more concepts. The theme chosen is then demonstrated using a variety of information and resources. Thematic teaching is based on the idea that kids learn best through holistic, real-life experiences. That is what makes this way of teaching and learning most unique! Instead of focusing on rote learning, kids can make better connections with explored concepts because of daily life examples and experiences.

To demonstrate this concept, the article will look at the November, December, and January themes in SIS Regensburg and how this supported the students’ learning.

Throughout the month of November at SIS Regensburg’s kindergarten, children became knights and princesses. Each day during circle time, they explored life in a castle. One of the teachers from SIS Regensburg, Philipp Sprongl, dressed up as a knight; children were fascinated by how heavy the knight’s clothing was. They were amazed at the head gear and the sword the knight had. The children were even able to try the head gear on for themselves!

Then, during the days after seeing the knight with all his gear on, children transformed themselves into knights or princesses. If they chose to be a princess, they crafted a crown and if they chose to be knight, they crafted a knight’s head gear. In these activities, the students worked on their fine motor skills, bringing their imaginations to life and using different materials in different ways.

The children developed their object and material skills by making their own castle collages and constructing them. Literacy activities connected with the theme expanded vocabulary, taught letters, and encouraged storytelling. Role play included a castle-themed fantasy area with dress-up outfits. The teachers read books on fairy tales and dragons to enhance understanding and vocabulary. Music and sports activities also reflected the theme to support the learning goals. As the festival of St. Martin takes place in November, this was a natural extension of the theme, with the children learning songs and creating their own lanterns

In December, the kindergarten transformed into a Christmas market and of course St. Nicolas came to visit. To prepare for his visit, learning activities often had the goal of supporting the mathematical development of the students, for example measurement: children had to measure paper and tape and figure out how much was needed to cover different-sized boxes. To create Christmas decorations for their parents, they had to correctly measure different ingredients. Fine motor skills were further developed cutting Christmas socks and templates to create Christmas trees. The students had the chance to share which different Christmas traditions were followed at home. The Christmas songs helped the students to work on maintaining rhythms, singing in tune, and enjoy making music, all in classrooms where the theme was wonderfully brought to life by the teachers.

January was an icy experience at the SIS Regensburg kindergarten and children felt like they were in the Arctic. To support the learning environment and theme, the entrance of the kindergarten had all the arctic animals floating on ice bergs. In the classroom, they experienced even more. As part of the SIS Science Curriculum, children made fake snow and ice crystals during a science experiment. They observed how the material changed and were very curious to explore the process behind these changes. The theme also supported other objectives in the science curriculum, for example, the students explored the changes in the weather and learned about different animals and their natural habitats during their learning activities. Children also expanded on their research skills and, with the help of the teachers, searched for more information on the northern lights. This sparked the students’ creativity, and they produced their own northern lights by learning how to mix colours and how these can change depending on the combination that you use.-

Thematic teaching supports the learning goals of the students and anchors their learning in real-life examples and experiences. Bringing these themes to life in the kindergarten makes the learning activities more tangible, thereby helping to achieve the learning goals.



Michelle Dos Santos Costa & Henriett Pamer, Kindergarten Teachers, SIS Regensburg