Classroom Themes for November

Are you trying to think of classroom themes for November to use with your students? Whether you do weekly, monthly or termly themes… In this blog post you’ll find a bunch of great themes and activity ideas that you can do with your students. This time of year is always my favorite because there’s so many great theme options around, so this blog post is one that I’ve been super excited to write and share!

Below you will find 7 of my favorite classroom themes for November. Underneath the list, you will find each theme has their own heading, theme ideas and links to activities, blog posts and resources you can use with your students.

1. Thankfulness
2. Community Helpers
3. Hibernation
4. Gingerbread Man
5. Turkey
6. Remembrance Day
7. Bonfire Night

1. Thankfulness

I think ‘Thankfulness’ is probably one of my favorite themes to do throughout November. And if you want to include and work around Thanksgiving as well, then this is a great theme. There’s so many things you can do with it under one umbrella like;

• What do I have to be thankful for?
• Thanksgiving.
• Family traditions.

It’s also a great time for us to start to explore different holidays around the world (this is my favorite December theme to do!) And how we all may celebrate things differently with our families.

Some of my favorite activities to do under this theme are;

• Thanksgiving Boom Cards
• Making a Thanksgiving Meal Adapted Book
• Thanksgiving Wh- Questions Adapted Book
• The Story of Thanksgiving
• Thanksgiving Activities Pack
• Wh- Question Scenes
• Thanksgiving Adapted Binder

You can also find all of my Thanksgiving and Thankful themed activities here. I also have a Thanksgiving Pinterest board full of ideas here.

2. Community Helpers

This is one of my favorite themes to not only focus on one month, but also to revisit through the year. I always want to try to communicate the importance of community helpers and to help my students understand who to go to for certain things and situations in life.

November is one of my favorite times to focus on community helpers, and as part of this we like to;

• Visit a local fire station.
• Have a visit from the local police.
• Theme the dramatic play area as a hospital / doctors office.
• Have a week where the dramatic play area is turned into a post office.

We try to fit in as many of the community helpers as we can with physical activities and field trips., but it’s not always possible. So, we go with what we can achieve and anything else is a bonus! My favorite way to make sure I’m covering as many community helpers as possible is to list down all of the community helpers on an excel spreadsheet. From there, I try to fill in at least two columns next to each helper for activities we will do in the classroom.

Some of my favorite activities to do are;

• Community Helper Task Boxes
• Matching Puzzles
• Sorting Pages
• Adapted Books
• Bingo!
• Emergent Reader Books
• Fire Safety Play Dough Mats

You can also find all of my community helper themed activities here.

I also have a Community Helpers ideas board on Pinterest here.

3. Hibernation

Hibernation is always one of my favorite topics to teach. Students love to learn about animals, and so this theme always goes down well with them. With the right resources, it’s actually not as complicated as you might think to teach about hibernation!

We spend time learning about what hibernation is.. The ways that animals survive during the winter period.. And how that looks for different animals.

One of the activities that I look forward to the most for teaching hibernation every year is my ‘Who Stole the Bear’s Honey?’ crime scene. You can read all about it in this blog post here. While the bear has been hibernating, someone has stolen his honey! Students have to investigate using the clues provided to find out who committed the crime out of 4 possible suspects.

It’s always a huge hit and something I look forward to every year. Other fun activities that we like to do are;

• Read ‘Bear Snores On’
• Hibernation v Migration.
• Using factual guides to read about animals and which ones hibernate.
• Hibernating animal crafts.

I also have a Pinterest board full of Hibernation ideas here.

4. Gingerbread Man

This one I usually do towards the end of November into December. It’s a fun theme that can be made Christmassy, or not Christmassy, depending on what you want! Everyone loves the story of The Gingerbread Man. And it’s a great classroom theme for November because there’s so much you can do with it!

We love to start by reading the story of the Gingerbread Man, followed by this fun story of the Gingerbread Lady.

Other activities that we love to do are;

• Bake gingerbread men biscuits and decorate.
• A gingerbread man scavenger hunt around the school.
• Gingerbread Man in Disguise Adapted Books
• Who Ate the Gingerbread Man’s House? Interactive Classroom Crime Scene.
• Gingerbread Man Boom Cards.

You can also find all of my Gingerbread Man themed activities here.

I also have a Pinterest board full of ideas for the Gingerbread Man theme here.

5. Turkeys

If you’re looking for a theme that’s not quite so ‘Thanksgiving’ but along the same lines, then turkey is the theme for you! I love with this one the way that we can work on turkeys in so many different ways. Some of our favorite activities to do for the turkey topic are;

• CVC Sorting Feathers.
• Play Dough Mats
• Turkey in Disguise Adapted Book
• Boom Cards
• Read ‘How to Catch a Turkey’
• Bend pipe cleans into turkey feet and paint with them to leave turkey tracks.
• Make turkeys out of empty toilet roll holders and feathers.
• Make turkey donuts.

I also have a Pinterest board full of Turkey activities and ideas here.

6. Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day is something I really try to focus on in a way that my students will understand. I try to make all my themes appropriate for my students and meaningful for them as well. I usually spend one week working on Remembrance Day with my students and that seems to work really well. Some of the activities that we do are;

• Free 2D Shape Matching Poppies
• Making Poppy Suncatchers.
• Invite a local soldier into the school.
• Remembrance Day Comprehension Passages.
• Paint poppy’s on stones and hide them around the local area for others to find.
• Do a small fundraiser to donate money to our local veteran charity.

You can also view more of my Remembrance Day activities in this blog post here. I also have a Pinterest board full of Remembrance Day ideas and activities here.

7. Bonfire Night

Bonfire Night / Guy Fawkes is another theme I do in November. Usually for 1 or 2 days. I love to play the song ‘Firework’ in the background while we make different bonfire night crafts or bake bonfire cupcakes. But there’s also a bunch of other activities that I try to make time to do;

• Firework themed sensory bin.
• Social story to help my students manage with fireworks and loud noises.
• The Story of Guy Fawkes.
• Guy Fawkes Fact Flip Book
• Write the Room
• Make chocolate sparklers – breadsticks dipped in melted chocolate with sprinkles added on.
• Rocket / firework crafts.

I have a Pinterest board full of ideas for Bonfire Night / Guy Fawkes here.

Aside from themes, I also like to incorporate some monthly themed activities with my students, and through November I’ll be using;

• November Task Boxes
• Short Story Sequencing Puzzles for November
• November Themed Writing Prompts

If you found this blog post about classroom themes for November helpful, please consider sharing it with your friends and colleagues on social media.

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