Monthly Theme Ideas for Toddler Classrooms

Featuring monthly themes for toddler classrooms is an excellent way to celebrate new seasons and holidays. Some toddlers begin to understand the meaning of holidays, events or even months as early as age 2. You can create themed parties, bulletin boards or other activities at the start of each month. Over time the children will learn which holidays are featured in a given month, and they will start to connect the month to that holiday.

November is an excellent month to feature in a preschool classroom. Celebrate by decorating bulletin boards with turkey and fall themes. Create activities that teach the children the concept of being thankful. Ask the kids to draw a picture of what they are thankful for, such as their family, pets or flowers. Decorate a bulletin board with a border of fall leaves. Staple brown bulletin board paper over the entire board. Collect leaves as they fall on the ground, and staple them along the border of the board. You can feature pictures of a turkey or other Thanksgiving themes or post pictures that the children have colored.

Celebrate spring by decorating the classroom with flowers and plants, whether real ones or pictures. Create activities such as flower planting. Give the children small flowerpots, and help them paint flowers, ladybugs or other objects that remind them of spring. After the paint has dried, fill the pots with potting mix and soil. Help the kids plant the seeds. Place the pots along the border of the windowsill in your classroom, and show the kids how to water their plants each day.

Have a spring party, and make custom fruit trays using flower-shaped cookie cutters. Cut 5-inch-wide slabs of pineapple, watermelon and honeydew. Press the cookie cutters on the fruit to create shapes. Place the fruit on a tray, and serve it to the kids at the spring party.

Celebrate the beginning of summer by asking the kids to paint rocks with objects that remind them of the season, such as the sun, flowers, fish or swimming. Find fist-size rocks in your backyard, or buy them at a home-improvement store. Decorate the classroom with flowers and pictures of the sun.