Your students will benefit from an apple-themed unit. Apply apples to math by seed counting, dividing into fractional pieces and measuring ingredients to make your own cooked applesauce. Study Johnny Appleseed and map his journey through many states planting seeds for apple trees as well as the process that apple trees take to grow.
Transportation is a theme that every child has experienced or seen in one form or another. Incorporate a transportation theme in your class through song with "The Wheels on the Bus" and movement by acting out the motions. Count wheels, study the different types of transportation, determine where in the country the transportation would be found and used, and learn about the Wright Brothers and their plan for aviation. Students may fold and decorate paper airplanes as an added activity.
Set up a dramatic play area in your classroom with various community helper costumes, including those of doctor, bus driver, mail carrier, chef and police officer. Add some math and writing to your themed unit by counting change when a passenger rides the bus and practicing to write and send letters to a pen pal in a neighboring class or school.
Holiday-themed units help students understand the manner in which other cultures celebrate and uphold traditions. During December, for instance, encourage children to make a dreidel from a three-dimensional shape, light make-believe candles on a kinara, create a dragon mask for Chinese New Year and decorate a Christmas tree with a patterned paper chain. Holidays are an opportune time for journal writing for children in mid- to upper elementary grades.