In addition to our theme activities, I've also tried to encourage more writing and literacy, both through modeling, creating a literacy rich environment, and promoting organic writing experiences. In addition to labeling all of our bins containing toys, and signing his name to Valentines, this past week, when singing "pasta starts with p, pasta starts with p, puh puh puh puh puh puh puh, pasta starts with p" during dinner. It dawned on me that we could be writing too. And since my husband has a long commute and doesn't get home until the kids' bedtime, RJ was excited to write him a menu so he knew what to reheat for dinner.
Pictured is our second menu for Daddy. I plan on keeping this in our routine as long as RJ is engaged with it, because it's great writing/phonics practice and it actually keeps him eating bites between letters (since we actually write at the dinner table). While doing this we also sing the "___ starts with __" song for each food, which keeps the baby happy (and learning words for his food) too.
. As a contemporary educator, using developmentally appropriate practices promoted by the 
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believes that there are five meta-principles from cognitive psychology which influence learning such content knowledge; building on prior knowledge, making thinking explicit, emphasizing links, providing practice opportunities, and expecting individual variability. These meta-principles reflect principles from sociocultural, constructivist, and multiple intelligences theory. When teachers use thematic units, constructivist practices embedded within, such as providing authentic materials to promote active engagement, allow for individual variability, allow children to build on their own prior knowledge, as well as providing practice opportunities. Furthermore, when children are working in such hands-on ways, the teachers have created opportunities to facilitate children’s questioning, testing, exploring, and reflecting. Teachers can scaffold children toward making connections to prior experiences, set up the environment to pique curiosity, and engage children in active reflection about the experience, thus making thinking explicit. While teachers are ultimately responsible for planning a balance of child-initiated authentic experiences and teacher-directed activities, it is important for the themes themselves to stem from the children’s interests (even if a teacher piques that interest) and inquiries in the classroom. When they do, the children are engaged in their learning and also feel like they are empowered in making contributions (based on their existing knowledge) as well as having some control over what they are learning. I consider thematic units to be semi-emergent since the children’s interest drives the themes, but teachers guide the progression of the theme along with the children. I believe that children must feel connected to the theme and want to learn about it, but that teachers should play a role in gently guiding their exploration toward a logical progression of concepts that build on each other. 
, where children’s experiences progress through a structured system where, over time, they assess what they know and plan their project, and lastly, determine how to share what they learned. Teachers utilizing thematic units also use ample concept webbing, and might use the know-want-how-what charting to determine the course of the theme, adding their own elements to round out the theme as well. Using themes leads to children building a knowledge base as well as asking more questions, thus furthering the theme investigation. In this way, children truly develop a love of learning from an engaging thematic unit. When teaching using thematic units, teachers can also use the plan-do-review method popularized by the 
method to promote the children’s autonomy and purposefulness in choosing, implementing, and reflecting on the activities, thus making their thinking explicit.