How to Choose Themes for an Early Years Curriculum (Without Letting the Calendar Decide)
In a toddler programme in a beach town in California, the teachers announced that the week’s theme was deserts. There were cactus cut-outs to paint, a desert song at circle time and pictures of desert animals on the board. The children, meanwhile, were busy caring for baby dolls, digging deep holes in the sand and painting surfaces with water. Educator Melissa Pinkham, who observed the session, asked the obvious question: was a desert theme really necessary in a coastal community, and did it connect to the children’s world at all?
Nobody chose “deserts” carelessly. It was probably on a list, it looked colourful, and it filled a week. That is exactly how many early years themes are chosen. And it is why the question of how to choose themes deserves more attention than it usually gets.
What Makes a Good Theme for an Early Years Curriculum?
A good early years theme is broad enough for children to explore from many angles, connected to their real lives, able to carry learning objectives across several developmental domains, and placed deliberately in a sequence so it builds on what came before. The test is not whether a theme is fun. It is whether the theme earns the time it takes.
This article focuses on selection: which themes to choose, and why. Building a theme into lessons and activities is a separate job, covered in how to design preschool thematic units[Blog 9.1].
What the Research Says About Choosing Themes
In Deborah Fischer’s 2023 study of 15 preschool and kindergarten teachers in Germany, teachers found themes hard to select and prepare. Pre-planning helped them plan, meet objectives and stay consistent. Following children’s interests, on the other hand, could boost motivation. Her literature review adds that good themes are broad, interesting and linked to what children already know. It also warns that without school-wide planning, themes can end up repeated or missed.
Practitioner Melissa Pinkham cautions that themes chosen by adults often have little to do with children’s real interests. Expert reviewers Kagan and colleagues add that curriculum should build on children’s own experiences and link learning across domains.
The takeaway: theme choice is where many programmes quietly lose coherence, and that happens before a single lesson is written.
Seven Tests Before a Theme Earns Its Place
| Test | Question to ask | Red flag |
| Relevance | Does this theme connect to what children see, do or care about? | A desert theme in a coastal town, with no bridge to local life |
| Breadth | Can it carry language, maths, science, social-emotional, creative and physical learning? | Every activity is a craft |
| Objective fit | Which learning goals does this theme serve better than another would? | Objectives are copied in after the theme is chosen |
| Progression | Where does it sit across the three years, and what does it build on? | The same theme at the same depth every year |
| Room for questions | Can children’s questions reshape it once it starts? | The plan cannot bend when interest goes elsewhere |
| Cultural fit | Will children find their own lives reflected in it? | Examples and images from only one culture |
| Practicality | Are materials, vocabulary and time realistic? | The theme depends on resources teachers must build from scratch |
The Progression test is where many schools struggle. The fix is not “never repeat a theme.” A theme can return deliberately at greater depth, which is what a spiral curriculum does. The problem is accidental repetition, where nobody has checked what children met last year. That makes theme selection part of how to structure a three-year preschool programme[Blog 33], not a separate task.
The Relevance and Cultural fit tests matter more than they look. Preschool teacher Amina Aleyideino describes a counting activity built around world flags, including the flags of children in her class. A child from Peru lit up at seeing his country’s flag. She noticed halfway through the lesson that the counting goals had already been met. Children stayed engaged because they saw themselves in the material. She draws on education scholar Geneva Gay, who argues that skills taught through children’s lived experiences are more meaningful and learned more thoroughly.
Pre-Planned or Emergent? The Better Answer Is Both
This is the sharpest tension in theme selection. Fischer’s study frames it clearly. Pre-planned themes support consistency, resource preparation and objective coverage. Themes that follow children’s interests support motivation.
The research suggests a practical middle path. Drawing on Pettersson’s work, Fischer notes that children’s interests can be woven in by having teachers select the theme first, then deepen it through children’s questions and inquiry. Pinkham makes a related point from the emergent side. Emergent curriculum is not an absence of planning. It is highly structured and depends on observation and careful teacher preparation.
So the real choice is not “planned or unplanned.” It is how much room a planned theme leaves. A theme like “Our Neighbourhood” can survive a sudden class obsession with the construction site across the road. A theme like “Penguins” often cannot.
Here is a question worth asking in any curriculum review:
If a theme cannot bend when children’s questions go somewhere else, who is the theme really for?
The Calendar Trap and the Duration Question
Procare Solutions (2026). Preschool Weekly Theme Ideas for 2026.
Fischer’s review includes time of year as one legitimate reason to select a theme. But it is only one reason among several. When holidays become the main organiser, a year can turn into a series of celebrations with no conceptual thread linking them.
Duration matters just as much. Fischer describes teachers who stay with one theme for four to six weeks. Planning guides like Landmark School Outreach’s ask teams to decide upfront whether a theme will last a week, a month or the whole year. That decision shapes what children can reach. A week may be enough to name things. It is rarely enough to move from naming to wondering to explaining.
So the question for curriculum teams is:
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Is a one-week theme long enough for a four-year-old to ask a question they couldn’t have asked on Monday?
Where KODEIT Pre-K Fits
KODEIT Pre-K addresses the Progression test directly by bringing key themes back each year at greater depth. Here is how two themes grow across the three levels, based on the curriculum overview:
| Theme | Level 1 (ages 3–4) | Level 2 (ages 4–5) | Level 3 (ages 5–6) |
| Seasons and Weather | Changing seasons, weather patterns, dressing for the weather | Seasonal changes, weather safety, tracking weather patterns | Advanced weather patterns, climate, environmental impact |
| Exploring My World | Community helpers, safety, nature | Roles in the community, teamwork, conservation | Leadership, problem-solving, global citizenship |
The theme names repeat. The thinking does not. That is the difference between a spiral and a rerun.
Two other design choices connect to the tests above. The curriculum describes itself as culturally responsive for schools across the Arabic world, with family and community values reflected in themes and illustrations. It also notes that Level 1 story genres were chosen because they are universally engaging and culturally adaptable. And the Practice Books are designed per unit rather than per lesson, so a theme carries repeated practice across English, maths and science instead of appearing once and moving on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How long should a preschool theme last?
A: There is no fixed rule. Many programmes use one-week themes, while some teachers stay with a theme for four to six weeks. Choose duration based on how much depth the theme needs to reach its objectives, not the calendar.
Q: Should children choose the themes?
A: Children’s interests should shape themes, but research suggests a blended approach works well: teachers select the theme, then children’s questions and inquiry deepen and redirect it. This keeps objectives covered while leaving room for genuine curiosity.
Q: Is it a problem to repeat themes across preschool years?
A: Only if the repetition is accidental. Without school-wide allocation, units can be repeated or missed. A theme that returns deliberately at greater depth, as part of a spiral, is a strength rather than a gap.
Q: How do themes differ for younger and older preschoolers?
A: Younger children often engage quickly with simple, concrete themes like colours, shapes or animals. Older preschoolers can handle broader topics such as space or seasons. The same theme can serve both if its depth is adjusted by level.
Q: How do themes fit a subject-based curriculum?
A: They can work as connective threads rather than the main structure. That question is explored in supplementary themes in a subject-based preschool[Blog 2.1] curriculum and theme-based vs subject-based preschool curriculum[Blog 8.1].