I use emergent curriculum now, so alot of my planning is last minute, by the seat of my pants.
By letting the kids take the lead, and how my room/environment is set up, it doesnt call for much planning, and I love it.
Also, I don't feel like EVERY aspect of what I offer HAS to be about the current theme...or that a theme must run from monday to friday.
For example, a few weeks ago, I had one child completely engrossed on volcanoes...on a Thursday.
Friday morning I dug out a few science books I already had about volcanoes, and we watched a few youtube videos on volcanoes erupting.
I threw a brown piece of fabric over a card table, and added red felt "lava" on top. Voila! a volcano! I Put in the dramatic play area, and added a jumpsuit, which is really for astronaunts...lol a hard hat, some goggles, a walkie talkie, and a clipboard. Instant volcanologist.
The block area had some brown paper bags added for the kids to wad up and use as rocks, and added a large red piece of fabric for lava.
On Monday, we studied some rocks that come from volcanos...I was able to find them from friends over the weekend.
I came here and asked for some ideas.
We played some gross motor games...like jumping over the lava, that sort of thing.
I added some red pebbles (from the $ store) to the sand/sensory bin
We made red and brown playdough, and squirted red vinegar onto trays of baking soda for mini eruptions. All stuff I had on hand.
We talked about the letter V a bit, counted and sorted rocks, and cut out paper to make volcanos...again, all stuff I had on hand.
The highlight of the week was the paper maiche volcano we built, painted and erupted on Wednesday. This took a couple of days, but again, was all stuff I had on hand.
So our "theme" met all of the pre-k standards, and ran from a thursday to a wednesday. The only thing I had to look for was some rocks...and luckiliy I have a friend who collects obsidian, and some other volcanic glass. I had pumice on hand.
I guess the point is, If you have a good supply of stuff on hand, and a good imagination, (and this forum
) you can plan fairly easily and it doesnt take much time.