Curriculum vs Lesson Plans – What’s the Difference?

As a preschool teacher, understanding the difference between curriculum and lesson plans can make all the difference when it comes to delivering engaging content. If you’re a new preschool teacher, you’ve probably wondered about this curriculum vs. lesson plans conundrum. As a teacher, it’s essential to understand the differences between these two concepts if you want to effectively craft your lessons.

In this blog post, we’ll break down what curriculum and lesson plans are, their respective roles in classrooms, as well as how they can support student learning and development.

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Lesson plans and curriculum are both key components of any effective teaching program but can easily be confused due to their overlapping elements.

What is curriculum?

What do lesson plans include?

How does one develop an appropriate approach that successfully balances both for optimal learning in the preschool classroom?

You’ll find out here! In this blog post, we will differentiate between two essential elements of any quality early childhood program—curriculum vs. lesson plans—defining exactly their differences and when to use each in your preschool program.

What is the Difference Between Curriculum and Lesson Plans?

A curriculum is a comprehensive blueprint that outlines the entire academic year, while lesson plans are more tailored to how specific concepts are taught. Lesson plans are adaptable based on specific needs.

For early childhood education, your curriculum should adhere to the NAEYC guidelines to ensure all fundamental objectives are met. On the other hand, lesson plans can be adjusted to meet your unique requirements and those of your class. These lesson plans can be crafted closer to the actual teaching period.

What is a Curriculum Plan?

A curriculum is a core guide and implementation path for what teaching and learning should look like in the classroom.

A Curriculum Includes

• content for instruction
• sequence and plan for instruction
• instructional materials
• teaching methodology
• assessments

Scope and Sequence vs. Curriculum Map

A well written and developmentally appropriate curriculum for preschoolers will include both a curriculum map for the year and a sequence for the instructional content. This provides teachers or homeschooling parents to look at a year and identify exactly which skills will be taught and when. A curriculum will ensure these skills are taught in a systematic way.

When a sequence or order of concepts is mapped out for a specific duration of time, it is called:

• scope and sequence
• curriculum map

What Should be Included in a Preschool Curriculum?

A preschool curriculum should include domains of learning and skills that are not limited to academics.

One of the primary goals in preschool is to develop school readiness, which can also be called learning readiness. This means that a preschool curriculum will include methods for teaching preschoolers learning skills, not just letters and numbers.

Preschool curriculum should include content in the following learning domains:

• social skills
• approaches toward learning
• physical well-being and motor development
• cognition and general knowledge
• language and literacy
• mathematics

What is a Unit Plan?

A unit plan is on overview of a content area for a smaller time duration. In preschool, they are often called thematic unit plans or thematic units of study. Unit plans typically cover a scope of one week to one month.

Thematic preschool activities that make up a unit of study will feed into the larger preschool program by offering skill work as designated in the preschool curriculum. Learning experiences will offer opportunities for skill development as outlined in the curriculum map.

A Thematic Unit Includes

• skill work based on preschool learning standards
• high interest preschool themes
• a sequence of learning activities
• resources and materials to execute the unit of study

What does an example preschool unit of study look like?

Preschool math is an easy way to demonstrate what a unit of study looks like in preschool, since there are obvious categories of content to be taught throughout the school year, and clear skills within each category.

• Unit: Sorting and Comparing
  • Skill: identify matches
  • Skill: identify differences
  • Skill: identify similarities
  • Skill: comparing two objects
  • Skill: sorting by one attribute
  • Skill: sorting out attributes that don’t fit
  • Skill: sorting by two attributes
  • Skill: create categories for sorting

Notice how these skills are still taught in a sequential order.

That order is outlines in the selected preschool curriculum. Remember, the curriculum should be systematic. In example of the Comparing and Sorting Math Unit, preschoolers begin with the most basic skill is making matches, and then advance through more complex skills.

Example of a Thematic approach

The above steps can be taken when creating a thematic unit of study for preschool.

• Unit Theme: Spring
  • Rain and clouds
  • Plants and growth
  • Flowers
  • Bees

Now, under each of these themes, skill-based preschool activities can be selected for the time of year according to what skills are outlined in the curriculum map.

For example, by spring of the preschool year, young children should be able to hop on one foot, so that would cover the necessary gross motor skills. Fine motor skills would include thematic activities that really challenge the tripod grasp.

What are Lesson Plans?

Lesson plans are designed to lay out, in detail, all the skills in the curriculum and the unit plans.

They provide specific activities and learning content for each individual day and lesson. A well-written lesson plan allows preschool teachers to stay on track and use class time efficiently, ensuring that all the necessary material is covered.

Additionally, lesson plans can help educators adapt their teaching methods if they feel a particular class is struggling with the material.

A Lesson Plan Includes

• learning objective
• necessary materials to execute specific activities relating to the learning objective
• procedures and methods for teaching
• informal assessments
• modifications and adaptions for students who need more skill development

What does it mean to have a learning objective?

The learning objective sets the purpose for the lesson and activities. These objectives will correlate directly with standards of learning. Objectives are what you want the children to learn at the end of a lesson. These can target specific goals or domains in your curriculum, like social or cognitive skills.

A lesson plan can have more than one objective, too. For example, a lesson in literacy skills on the letter A might include activities that practice the letter name and sound as well as fine motor and problem solving skills.

What does teaching procedures mean?

Lesson plans will outline specific procedures for teaching content. It’s the HOW of teaching the lesson. For example, here is an excerpt from the Daily Lessons in Preschool Literacy Curriculum.

Thematic Preschool Lesson Plan Ideas

If you’re ever at a loss on what themes preschoolers love, or if you’re just looking for some inspiration, try this collection of free preschool lesson plan activities featuring over 40 preschool teaching themes!

Lesson Plans for Pre K

This all-inclusive guide to pre-K lesson planning will explore the significance of preschool lesson plans, providing insightful guidance on their creation, and showcasing some of the best lesson plans customized to suit your needs.

Curriculum vs. Lesson Plans

Now that we have all the important definitions squared away, let’s discuss the differences between what curriculum and lesson plans actually look like in the preschool classroom.

1. Curriculum is all about product, whereas lesson plans are about the process.

Preschool curriculum dictates all the skills preschoolers need to have mastered to be kindergarten ready via NAEYC or state standards of learning. This is the product, or the desired outcome from a year of early childhood education.

Lesson plans, on the other hand, are all about the process. They are what makes learning fun! Lesson plans showcase the hands on learning activities that meet the curriculum objectives. These are activities that are intentionally designed to meet learning goals.

2. Curriculum standards are the framework for teaching, while lesson plans contain all the details.

A preschool curriculum scope and sequence acts as a map for teaching throughout the school year. This is one reason why it is sometimes referred to as a curriculum map. It’s directions for teaching skills in a systematic way.

But sometimes, even when we have directions, we need more details. Should I be the in the right or left lane before making the next turn? Which left lane? Outer or inner? Even when we are driving in a familiar place, we might rely on Google maps to remind us of the details of how to get to our destination.

That’s also what lesson plans do. After we have identified the destination via the curriculum map, we use intentionally written lesson plans to give us all the details on how to get there.

Looking for Both a Preschool Curriculum and Daily Lesson Plans?

Get a Sample of the Daily Lessons in Preschool Curriculum

Want to see what a week of the Daily Lessons in Literacy and Math Preschool Curriculum actually looks like? Fill out the two forms below and a full week of each will be sent to your inbox.

Free Sample: Preschool Literacy Curriculum

Free Sample: Preschool Math Curriculum

Sarah Punkoney, MAT

I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.

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