Ideas for Using Topic Boards
Day and night Topic Board
Basic vocabulary
Sorting activities:
- which might you see at night? which might you see during the day?
- who sleeps at night? etc.
Animals (farm, zoo animals and pets) Topic Boards)
Children choose the animals to sing about during music or group time, for example choosing the chicken in “Old Mc Donald”.
Children report back on a visit to the farm, pet shop or zoo. “I saw - “ and “I liked -”.
Children identify the animals from a verbal description, for example “It’s furry, it purrs“
Children describe animals for their classmates to guess, using a colour topic board eg. “I(t’s) white “
Children identify the animals through the noise that each makes.
Children identify animals that are partly hidden by a cloth (progressively inched off so they can see more and more of the toy)
Children identify animals in a shoe bag, by feel alone.
On the Pets topic board, there are a few unusual pets that could lead into discussion of ‘pets that members of my family have’ and what ‘pets I’ve never seen before’.
House/ home
Home 1: general - a range of the different parts of the house, so children can use the board to talk about the rooms that are in their house, or what furniture/activity goes on in each room.
Living Room
Kitchen
Bedroom
Basic vocabulary specific to each room, for matching and guessing games.
Children identify room from a verbal description example ‘where do we eat?’
Playing a guessing games ‘What room am I thinking about?’ I sit down, I turn on the TV...”
Weather
Children identify the weather for morning circle time, and at playtimes to indicate what clothes need to be worn.
Using clothes Topic Board and/or cards as well, match particular weather to particular clothes that would be worn.
Act out a sensation and get children to identify the weather that might cause it (eg panting, wiping face, taking off jumper etc. - “sunny’ or ‘hot’)
Transport
Basic vocabulary - matching with toys, pictures, storybook pictures etc. vocabulary board.
Categorising - things that go in the sky, things that go in the sea, things that go on the road, etc. (eg competitive games with a pair or small group - ‘who can find three things that go in the sea?’
Our local area
This really is just an example as you would need to personalise a board to suit your own local area. This general board might be useful for “What’s this? Is there a ______?” in our area? or “Did we see a _____ on our walk?”
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