Lesson planning for preschoolers is perhaps one of the most crucial aspects of an early education teacher’s job. However, it can also be a source of frustration:
- Balancing development and engagement
- Time constraints
- Balancing curriculum and creativity
- Limited resource
This is why, we are here to guide you through these and create preschool lesson plans like a pro!
This guide aims to empower you to tackle these challenges head-on and develop effective lesson plans with confidence. Here is a breakdown of the process into five easy steps, addressing common obstacles and practical tips for success.
Why lesson plans matter
Here’s a daily peek into most early educator’s life: It’s circle time, and the children are restless. You planned a fun sing-along activity, but it falls flat because the lyrics are too complex. Frustration sets in, for both you and the children. This scenario, unfortunately, is a common pitfall of unplanned lessons.
Here’s why that well-worn preschool lesson plan deserves a place of honour in your early education toolkit:
- They set a clear direction
Lesson plans provide a roadmap for the day’s activities, ensuring they align with learning objectives and curriculum guidelines. They’re your compass, guiding you towards fostering crucial social, emotional, cognitive, and physical skills in your young learners. - Keep the pre-k kids engaged
Preschoolers are natural explorers, brimming with curiosity. Lesson plans help us translate those boundless energy levels into focused learning experiences. By incorporating engaging activities – think songs, stories, movement, art, and hands-on exploration – we keep their minds and bodies active, fostering a love for learning that will last a lifetime. - Individualised learning for each child
Every preschool classroom is a microcosm of unique individuals, each learning and developing at their own pace. Lesson plans allow us to differentiate instruction. We can incorporate healthy techniques and offer choices to little learners to feel challenged and supported.
How to create winning lesson plans for preschoolers
1. Define your goals to create lesson plans for preschoolers
Establishing broad learning goals provides a framework for lesson plans and assessment methods. Well-planned goals help both teachers and parents stay on track and enable them to provide support to the kids whenever necessary. Ideally, goals are divided into the following categories for kids attending preschools –
- Physical goals
This deals with the development of gross motor skills in children. This could range from teaching preschoolers how to hold a pencil, and how to paint using a brush, to how to tie their shoes and fasten their coat buttons. The aim here is to help children develop agile mobility while helping them explore their environments. - Social and interpersonal goals
Also known as social competence, these skills teach preschoolers how to interact and communicate with their classmates. These skills tend to strengthen a kid’s attention span, ability to follow instructions, and listening capacity. Social and interpersonal skills are usually fostered through group activities that involve collaboration, patience, and problem-solving. - Cognitive goals
Cognitive development deals with the growth of reasoning, thinking, and understanding among preschoolers. These goals incite excitement for learning in the kids and familiarize them with concepts such as size, time, distance, fact, and fiction. To achieve this, teachers can get the kids involved with puzzles, math games, and quizzes, making them learn their ages, addresses, and phone numbers. - Language goals
These goals aim to instil a readiness for reading in the kids while focusing on their sentence formation. Through these, teachers aim to help the children build a stronger vocabulary and help them participate in conversations. Engaging in role play and skits could be one way of achieving this.
2. Know your students
Capacity for learning and development changes rapidly across age groups. Hence, lesson plans should meet their specific needs at each stage. Here’s a breakdown to help you understand your early learners and plan engaging activities:
Lesson plans for nursery school (Ages 2-4):
- Focus: Play-based learning with an emphasis on socialisation and basic skills development.
- Imagine them: Busy little explorers learning through play. They’re soaking up the world around them, experimenting with communication, and developing social cues.
- Lesson plan ideas for nursery school: Sensory activities, circle time with songs and rhymes, simple art projects, dramatic play with dress-up clothes, and gross motor activities like climbing and running.
Lesson plans for preschool/pre-k (Ages 3-5):
- Focus: Building on the foundation set in nursery school, introducing early learning concepts while still prioritising play.
- Imagine them: Curious minds eager to learn and explore. They’re starting to recognise letters, numbers, and shapes, express themselves creatively, and develop basic self-help skills.
- Lesson plan ideas for preschool: Themed units around familiar topics like animals or seasons, incorporating basic literacy and math activities like counting games and letter recognition, fostering creativity through art projects and pretend play, and introducing basic science concepts through exploration.
Check out a year’s worth of preschool themes for your classroom.
Lesson plans for kindergarten (Ages 4-6):
- Focus: Transitioning to a more structured learning environment while nurturing social and emotional development.
- Imagine them: Energetic and enthusiastic learners ready to delve deeper into academics and social interactions. They’re refining fine motor skills, building friendships, and starting to grasp foundational reading, writing, and math skills.
- Lesson plan ideas for kindergarten: Structured learning activities on reading readiness (phonemic awareness, sight words), basic math concepts (addition, subtraction), hands-on science experiments, creative writing exercises, and cooperative games that promote teamwork and social skills.
3. Choose routines over schedules
Schedules give children a sense of order and help them anticipate what’s coming next. Children thrive in predictability. However, it is equally important to make room for flexibility in young children’s schedules. This is why choosing a daily classroom routine over a daily classroom schedule could help you create a predictable yet flexible environment.
A schedule is more ordered and dictated by time, whereas a routine is more procedural and less structured. Children often get frustrated by schedules because they are made to move on to the next activity before they feel they are done or are asked to continue an activity for more than their mental capacity or level of interest allows. A routine provides more freedom, which reduces dissatisfaction and lets children learn things at their own pace and interest.
4. Give children the freedom to choose
Offering children the opportunity to make their own choices not only instil a sense of independence in them, but also encourages critical thinking. It is equally important to factor in this aspect while you plan and create lessons for preschoolers.
One such example is free choice centres, which are less structured classrooms where children are allowed to pick the activities of their choice from a list provided by the teachers. They allow kids to play and develop their scholastic, imaginative, and cognitive abilities. Free play also allows you to observe your students and work with those who require additional assistance.
5. Developmentally appropriate pre-k lessons
The needs and capabilities of every kid in a classroom vary. Every child who enters a preschool has different strengths compared to their peers. While some may have good attention spans, others might feel the need to move and play. While one might enjoy going through picture books, others might need help with social interaction. Therefore, planning activities and lessons that are focused on and relevant to the developmental growth of each of them becomes crucial. To achieve this, you must understand, identify and define the fundamental learning goals for each child individually.
Once you’ve crafted fantastic lesson plans, consider how you’ll keep parents informed about their child’s learning journey. By keeping parents informed and involved, you create a powerful partnership that benefits everyone. Illumine streamlines parent teacher communication and empowers parents to be active participants in their child’s learning journey.
Tips for writing effective lesson plans for preschoolers
1. Define the purpose
Every lesson or activity that is being included in your curriculum should have a purpose within the scope and sequence of skills you’d want the children to achieve. Before adding an activity to your lesson plan, figure out what purpose it serves and which skill development it targets. Make it a point to factor in and focus on social and emotional skills as well, as they play a huge part in the overall development of the kids.
2. Keep activities simple
A simple activity with kids can go a long way. It’s a great way to start helping and encouraging kids to build different skill sets. If the kids require more complex activities, they’ll be surely reflecting on it to you through their play. However, overcomplicating tasks could lead to confusion amongst the kids and might not produce the same result you desired.
3. Use student interests to plan
The best way to ensure that your lesson plans for preschool kids are effective is to plan activities that your students are interested in. Choose themes that will pique the interest of the students in your class, and think about how their favourite activities might be incorporated into the theme as well.
4. Lay-based approach
Make sure to incorporate enough playtime while laying out your pre-kindergarten lesson plans. Equip your classroom with a range of learning activities, from building blocks to musical instruments, art supplies, and more. Give your students at least 45 minutes of uninterrupted playtime to ensure the best learning experience.
5. Write it down
There are various ways to go about writing lesson plans for preschoolers. While some teachers prefer writing on an hourly basis, others opt for writing according to their teaching subjects. The difference is also in the writing styles they go for, some might lay it out in paragraphs, while others might just sum it up in pointers. Figure out what works best for you, and go with it.
Make sure to include key details such as the supplies required, the activity outline, and the goal. It’s critical to understand the “why” underlying the lesson. The goal will help you understand the ‘’why’’ underlying the lesson and will keep you on track.
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