Ready-made thematic units to teach in October

Make your lesson planning so much easier this fall using our ready-made thematic units for October.

Ready-made thematic units for fall

The fall teaching themes for October in our Play Academy include lesson plans based on Halloween, Leaves & Twigs, Space and the festival of the Day of the Dead.

All our thematic units are based on hands-on activities which makes them super fun and engaging for your children, and routed in best-practice teaching methods so the learning sticks.

Every unit is all planned for you, and comes with accompanying printables to make your teaching even easier.

Think of me as your teaching fairy godmother and take your pick from our grab-and-go teaching solutions this fall.

Here’s our collection of grab-and-go thematic units to teach in October.

World Space Week Thematic Unit

The first week of October is World Space Week. Use our ready-made Space Unit to learn about stars, planets and space exploration.

In these lessons plans for World Space Week your children can :

:: learn about planets

:: make planet paintings

:: learn about stars and constellations and go star gazing

:: learn about space exploration and make junk model rockets

:: create an outer space small world

Play Academy members can download this Space unit with all the accompanying printables here.

Not a Play Academy member yet? Find out more and pick your first unit here.

Leaves & Twigs Thematic Units

Autumn gives us such a beautiful natural landscape to explore. Use our Leaves & Twigs lesson plans to explore science, literacy, math, arts and crafts.

In this Leaves & Twigs thematic unit:

:: learn about leaves

:: make a word tree and write with twigs

:: explore leaf symmetry

:: make yarn-wrapped leaves or twigs

:: play leaf and twig math games

Play Academy members can download this Leaves & Twigs unit with all the accompanying printables here.

Not a Play Academy member yet? Find out more and pick your first unit here.

Small Worlds thematic units

A popular unit in our Literacy Pathway is our Small Worlds Unit. You’ll see your children using so much language, conversation and storytelling through these activities.

In this Small Worlds Unit your children can:

:: discover the magical appeal of small worlds

:: make their own small world

:: develop their imagination, play and language skills with the addition of a loose parts surprise

:: include mark making and writing in their project

:: build in junk modelling to develop their skills further

Play Academy members can download this Small Worlds unit with all the accompanying printables here.

Not a Play Academy member yet? Find out more and pick your first unit here.

Halloween thematic unit

Of course, October heralds the start of festival season. In our Halloween Unit your children can enjoy a whole week of learning based around pumpkins and potions. This is a fun unit with no scary elements such as ghosts, monsters or zombies.

In this Halloween thematic unit your children can:

:: make pumpkin art

:: experiment with fizzy pumpkin science

:: make magic potion smoothies, making up recipes and working with fractions/ratio

:: play Halloween literacy games

:: create a Halloween house as an art-meets-storytelling-meets-social-skills project

Play Academy members can download this Halloween unit with all the accompanying printables here.

Not a Play Academy member yet? Find out more and pick your first unit here.

Day of the Dead thematic unit

Teach your children about the Mexican festival of Dia de los Muertos with our Day of the Dead unit. This festival falls on November 1st/ 2nd and so can be introduced this month or taught at the beginning of next month.

In this Day of the Dead thematic unit your children can:

:: learn about the Day of the Dead and make a mini book

:: make a sugar skull collage

:: learn about their ancestors

:: use papel picardo letter cards for literacy games

:: use marigold number cards for math games.

Play Academy members can download this Day of the Dead unit with all the accompanying printables here.

Not a Play Academy member yet? Find out more and pick your first unit here.

Diwali thematic unit

The date of the Indian festival of lights varies from year to year, and this Diwali teaching unit is a great way to celebrate this joyful festival.

In this set of Diwali lesson plans your children can:

:: learn about Diwali

:: make Rama and Sita puppets and act out their story

:: create firework paintings or diya lanterns

:: make rangoli designs

:: explore a five senses Indian food taste test

Play Academy members can download this Diwali unit with all the accompanying printables here.

Not a Play Academy member yet? Find out more and pick your first unit here.

Choose from over 50 ready-made thematic units

The Play Academy gives you over 50 grab-and-go thematic units which integrate perfectly with your curriculum. They’re carefully planned to introduce each topic and give children a range of hands-on lesson plans that really engage them in learning and developing cross-curricular skills and ideas.

Each unit is clearly laid out, showing you how to introduce and lead each lesson, so you can pick up your chosen unit and be ready to teach.

You can use individual units and also group units together to build a year-round pathway of cross-curricular leaning based around extended themes including Festivals, Science and Math, Art, and Nature.

Your teaching is about to get a whole lot better and easier!

Take a tour of the Play Academy and choose your first thematic unit here.