November Preschool Themes

These November preschool themes are a great way to keep your preschoolers engaged and learning during one of the most fun months of the year! It is just one preschool theme from our ultimate list of preschool themes.

Every year when I think of November, this is what comes to mind: delicious pie, family time together, Thanksgiving, and the best parts of fall. When it comes to lesson plans for November, I still incorporate some of these too! We also have some fall themes for lesson plan ideas if you want to focus more on just the fall concepts.

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, the days are getting shorter and colder. I don’t know about you, but when it starts getting dark before dinner time, I am ready to cozy up into bed earlier too.  Or I just want to binge-watch my favorite TV series. Pass the popcorn and hot cocoa!

Before we know it, the holidays will be quickly approaching. This is why I use this November preschool theme “cheat sheet” so that I’m not having to start from scratch each year. When we spend all day pouring our energy and hearts into little ones, we can be completely exhausted by the end of the day. Let’s skip the part where you would be spending time in the evening and on weekends thinking up themes for your classroom. I’ve already started it for you so you can spend your precious time doing other things you love or need to catch up on.

November Preschool Themes

I’ve put together a list of November themes to help give you ideas so that you can prep more ideas, read your favorite book, spend more time with your family, or maybe even take a nice well-deserved bath! These November themes are ones that I’ve used in my classrooms for years as well as some other favorite themes for November that other teachers have told me that they love too. Whether you are following the student’s lead with a Fantasy and Fairy Tales theme right after Halloween or preparing for Thanksgiving, these November themes will give you a great jumping-off point for planning your November classroom lessons.

Dinosaurs Theme

A beloved preschool theme that kids naturally adore learning about. Have a DinoNovember, or any other month of the year or play some dinosaur games. Get an entire dinosaur-themed lesson plan in our store.

Fall Theme

Fall is a great November theme for anyone in the Northern Hemisphere! I love to make each seasonal theme as real as possible. So I usually have a fall theme ready once the leaves start changing color, or I save a winter theme once we get a snowfall (well until we moved to the desert that is). You can see all of the ideas we have for fall themes. Or visit our preschool store for an entire fall lesson plan!

Fantasy and Fairy Tales Theme

This theme is one of my favorites that I did either as a Halloween alternative or after Halloween. After kids go trick or treating, they want to talk about it and keep doing it, so I just went with it. Cue the dramatic play! We bring in all of their costumes they want to share and keep going with their interests. They do “trick or treating” throughout the day with rocks or mulch (they’ll use anything…am I right!?!). Then I set up dramatic play to something fun. See this fairy tale lesson plan to make your theme even more magical!

Friendship Theme

This theme is one that I love doing in February, but it’s also a great theme heading into Thanksgiving. Help children navigate through the important foundations of friendship and learn to be a better friend themselves. Social and emotional skills are so important to teach in preschool, and this is a perfect way to weave it in. Sending friendship letters is a great tie-in to this theme, as well as a wonderful way to practice writing and name recognition. We also love to read kindness books. Snag an entire friendship theme lesson plan to get even more great ideas.

Fruits and Vegetables Theme

Want a preschool theme that’s more than just apples? Talk about all the fruits and vegetables! What makes them different, how to grow them, how they taste, and why they are good for us. This time of year, you could even focus on root vegetables and different kinds of squash. Have taste tests and go on a field trip at a real farm or pumpkin patch. This theme is great for November, particularly as some of us in North America head into the season of cooking and baking. For more ideas, here is a vegetable theme lesson plan from our friends at Preschool Teacher 101.

Gingerbread Theme

Each year in November I love to read some of our favorite gingerbread books, The Gingerbread Baby and The Gingerbread Man, and we turn this entire study into a theme. This is a great time to make some gingerbread slime for some sensory learning or to create a gingerbread ornament. Or if you need an entire gingerbread lesson plan, check out this one from Preschool Teacher 101. They even have an entire winter theme bundle.

Guy Fawkes Day

Whether you live in the UK, or just like bringing a bit of history into your classroom, Guy Fawkes Day is a great way to add some pop to November! Celebrated on November 5, Guy Fawkes Day commemorates the foiling of Guy Fawkes’ plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London. Celebrations include fireworks and an evening bonfire. For more ideas, visit The Educators’ Spin On It. Happy Bonfire Night!

Harvest Theme

I love a Harvest festival! It’s a great way to celebrate the season without focusing on either Halloween or Thanksgiving. Harvest is a reminder of all we have to be thankful for, a time to be with friends, and a way to appreciate the abundance of the autumn season. Preschoolers particularly can start learning about the importance of the harvest, both today and historically, and can enjoy activities with apples, pumpkins, squash, and corn. Tie this theme into your discussion of Thanksgiving, or use it as a stand-alone November preschool theme.

Leaves Theme

Leaves make a great preschool theme for many times of the year. During the fall months, colored leaves are absolutely magical. During the spring months, leaves can teach about life cycles and new growth. Check out the many leaf science experiments your class can do! Preschool Teacher 101 has a leaves lesson plan.

Nocturnal Animals Theme

Bats, owls, hedgehogs, cats, and other animals are nocturnal. This is a fun preschool theme that allows you to explore and learn more about these fascinating creatures. Read Stellaluna and use this time to enjoy some fun art.

Pumpkins Theme

Fall and Halloween is such a fun season to plan activities around, and pumpkins are by far one of the most exciting. They make a great shape to incorporate different activities, as well as actually exploring the pumpkin itself. Enjoy some pumpkin books, pumpkin crafts, and pumpkin art projects to get you started! Or get this entire pumpkin lesson plan from Preschool Teacher 101.

Quilts and Patchwork Theme

Quilts have a historical aspect to them, as well as the idea that multiple small parts create a whole. This is a great theme to help kids learn about community and kindness! Over the years, some of the most thoughtful gifts my kids and I have received are quilts. This is also a great theme to tie into a study on Thanksgiving, as early settlers had to work together to forge new communities and as quilts were a main source of warmth and friendship in the cold winter months.

Thanksgiving Theme

Thanksgiving is a holiday full of history. This is a great time to touch on historical facts, or help teach children about thankfulness and sharing. There are lots of awesome books about gratitude and thankfulness to use during this theme, and lots of fun thanksgiving crafts and activities. See the Thanksgiving lesson plans from our friends at Preschool Teacher 101.

Travel Theme

This is another great November preschool theme to get kids talking about themselves! Use a map and talk about all the different places the kids have traveled. Show them where they live on the map and invite any parents to come share about other countries that they have lived in or know a lot about. Incorporate geography and your transportation theme too. This is also a great theme to tie into Thanksgiving, as some kids might be traveling to visit family or have family coming to visit them for the holiday.

Veteran’s Day Theme

One of the most important parts of preschool themes is using events and relevant topics. If you have students who have families who are in the military or who are veterans, you may want to tie this in. Even though Veteran’s Day isn’t a theme I would do for an entire week, it is something I would touch on if you have families with veterans in them to honor them. They could decorate a thank you note or make a class flag or read a book about it.

While the month can sometimes seem cold and gray, a well-planned November preschool theme, with engaging activities for your preschoolers, can make the day seem much brighter! Anne of Green Gables struggled with November: “November is usually such a disagreeable month…as if the year had suddenly found out that she was growing old and could do nothing but weep and fret over it”. For even more themes and ideas, visit The Ultimate List of Preschool Themes.