Noting that theme teaching offers opportunities to set up a classroom environment that fosters and encourages process learning, this book offers a rationale and activities for a thematic approach to instruction. The introduction of the book explores several issues: (1) assessing the strategies that children will learn as a result of theme teaching such as classifying, observing, making judgments, clarifying, summarizing, comparing and contrasting, and identifying cause and effect; (2) understanding how a single theme can be integrated into the curriculum for the day; (3) identifying ways of locating themes; (4) outlining a pattern of theme teaching; and (5) examining ways to use texts for theme teaching with whole-class instruction, group readings, or independent readings. Parts 1 and 2 of the book discuss three themes each that can be used to teach younger and older children, respectively. The themes presented are People, Friendship, Habitats, Courage, Mystery, and Survival. Each theme can be introduced using songs, photographs, stories and other media. Several books are suggested for exploring each theme, and the use of each book is detailed in terms of relating it to the theme, reading it, rereading it to build theme information, and integrating curricular activities to expand awareness of the theme. The book concludes with a description of outcomes of theme teaching and a checklist that will enable the teachers to evaluate what students learn through this process. (BAC)