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Whether you’re prepping for your first day of school or you’ve already got a few weeks under your belt, these September preschool themes are a great way to kick off the new school year with your little learners!
Thematic units are a fantastic way to introduce new skills and concepts while keeping your students engaged and while this list has some great ones for the month of September, you’ll find even more awesome theme ideas on our preschool themes page!
September Themes for Preschoolers
We’ve included a fall theme, of course, but there is so much more to learn about during the month of September!
From apples to leaves and even letters of the alphabet, this list of September preschool theme ideas is packed full of enough fall fun to keep you and your preschoolers busy and engaged all month long!
Fall
It just wouldn’t be a complete list of September preschool themes if we didn’t add fall to the list!
There are so many fun activities and science experiments that you can use to teach young children about the changing colors and dropping temperatures that it makes this theme a no brainer!
Leaves
Speaking of those color changing leaves…
There are so many ways that you can incorporate those into your learning that you could put together a great theme unit all about leaves themselves!
Work on those scissor skills while making some of your own out of construction paper or match their shapes to their shadows during math time! The possibilities are endless!
Sports
There are so many different sports that kick off for the year during the fall, making September the perfect month to add them to your theme list!
If you utilize weekly themes in your preschool classroom, you could easily cover a number of different sports as you work through your various subjects.
If, instead, you utilize monthly themes, you could cover a new sport each week and really work on those gross motor skills!
Planning ahead? Make sure you check out these preschool theme ideas for October as well!
Apples
One of my all-time favorite themes, an apple theme is so easy to throw together and the possibilities for learning are absolutely endless!
With just a few basic materials, you can cover science while learning about the life cycle of an apple, math while you match some apple shapes, fine motor skills while matching numbered apples and worms, and even add a fun hands on sensory activity to your theme by making a paper plate apple that smells like fall!
Woodland Animals
As the temperature drops and the seasons change, it’s the perfect time of year to get your preschoolers out for a nature walk!
Now, whether you have a forest near you or not, you can easily use your outdoor time to kick off a woodland animal preschool theme!
Labor Day
In the United States, Labor Day recognizes the labor movement and the contributions of the workers to the development of the country.
This is an excellent way to introduce your preschool age students to community helpers and the jobs that they do.
Teddy Bears
When it comes to creating theme units for your students, a good preschool teacher knows that to really engage your students, you’ll need to find something that they’re interested in.
A fun way to do this is with teddy bears. Most young children adore teddy bears and often have their own stuffed animals that they’d love to share with their friends.
But why stop there? You can easily put together some amazing themed lessons about animals using different stuffed animals as your inspiration.
Clothes
As weird as it may sound, clothing makes an excellent September preschool theme!
As the seasons change, so do the clothes that we wear. Matching games, stories, and adding different types of clothing and costumes to your dramatic play area are easy ways to incorporate multiple subject areas into your learning.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
When it comes to our all-time favorite books, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom would consistently make the top of that list.
Within this adorable, rhythmic story, your students will learn the names of the letters of the alphabet and then, when you’re all done reading, you can break out a number of different alphabet activities that will extend the fun of learning at the top of the coconut tree.
Habitats
If you’re looking for a science based theme unit that your students are going to go nuts over, this is it!
Whether you’re learning about the animals that call the ocean home or the creatures that inhabit the desert, there are a ton of fun activity ideas for learning about various habitats!
Try sorting animal cards and matching them to their habitats or for a really special activity, add a little bit of magic and have them find the animals that are hiding in their homes with these habitat flashlight cards.
Community Helpers – Veterinarians
Speaking of animals, extend your learning by putting together a theme all about the community helpers that help them.
You can fill your preschool lesson plans with fun projects like tracing x-ray letters, building a veterinarian’s office in the block center, or if you want to create some truly special days for your students, see if you can work with your local vet’s office to schedule a day for them to visit and share some animals with your class.