Free Preschool Lesson Plans Template
If you are looking for ideas to help you streamline your preschool planning, you’ve come to the right place! Our FREE preschool lesson plan template written out in this post will help you plan with ease and confidence, with just a few easy steps. Plus, you can grab a free editable lesson planning template, too!
Whether you prefer to plan day by day, a week at a time, or the whole year at once, having a plan helps keep your lessons focused and intentional on what your students need.
There are many ways to go about writing preschool lesson plans, and chances are that any preschool teacher will try out a few different approaches before settling on one.
Lesson planning can be time-consuming, so finding an approach that works is important because children’s education depends on well-thought-out lesson plans with excellent execution.
Whether you use weekly planning, monthly plans, or unit-based focus, having a developmentally appropriate scope and sequence that was carefully developed is a valuable tool to help keep you and your students on track.
A scope and sequence is a list of monthly goals and objectives that build upon one another to ensure you reach the big goals by the end of the school year.
Read this: Curriculum Map for Preschool Math Lesson Planning.
Why Use a Preschool Lesson Plan Template?
A well-structured lesson plan template helps preschool teachers stay organized, save time, and provide a balanced learning experience. Here’s why it’s beneficial:
- Simplifies Planning – Provides a clear framework, reducing last-minute stress.
- Ensures Organization – Keeps lessons structured and prevents important learning areas from being overlooked.
- Supports Early Learning Goals – Helps track progress and ensure all developmental areas are covered.
- Saves Time – Reduces the need for daily planning by offering a reusable format.
How to Write a Lesson Plan for Preschool
The initial phase of creating a lesson plan involves selecting a planning structure. For novice teachers, adhering to a pre-established format can provide significant needed structure and can increase learning outcomes in the classroom.
A preschool lesson plan should always include:
- learning objectives or goals
- materials needed to execute activities
- ideas for assessing learning
As you gain more expertise in drafting lesson plans, you may opt to design your own lesson plan format or adjust an existing template to better accommodate your requirements and those of your classroom.
Read this: 5 Things to Do Before Preschool Lesson Planning.
Lesson Plan Format for Preschool
Effective preschool lesson planning saves time and ensures skill progression. These five key tips streamline the process, making lesson planning more efficient and natural over time.
1. Identify Purpose
If a lesson or activity is going to be included, it needs to have a specific purpose within the scope and sequence of skills. When choosing an activity to include in your lesson plans, ask yourself what skills it targets.
And remember that social and emotional skills, most often practiced through play, are of huge value to the development of preschoolers, and it’s beneficial to write down examples of how to help your preschoolers practice and resolve conflicts.
2. Keep Activities Simple
Chances are that if you have to write out preschool activities in paragraphs of details, you’ve chosen the wrong activity. Don’t underestimate the value of a simple activity.
Simple, straightforward activities are often the most effective for preschoolers. Young children learn well through play, so overly complex activities may not be necessary or beneficial.
3. Plan Around Student Interest
Let’s face it, if the children aren’t interested, the unit can be a wash and learning time can be lost.
When planning, choose preschool themes that are of high interest to the children in your class, and also consider how favorite activities can be incorporated into the theme, too.
4. Choose an Approach
The best teaching approach depends on the objective and can be play-based, skills-based, teacher-directed, child-led, or a mix. Focus on what engages young learners and fits your style rather than rigid labels. Preschoolers learn best through hands-on, multi-sensory experiences.
5. Write it Down
Use a lesson plan template for preschool to record your ideas for lessons. You can add as much or as little detail as you want, but be sure it gets written down, even if it is just a list.
Organizing your lesson plans is a time-saver in the long run too! Not to mention, keeping an organized plan stores your most-loved activities and provides an opportunity to reflect the upcoming year for your next set of students.
A preschool lesson plan template is a must! It will put your day on autopilot.
Free Lesson Plan Template for Preschool
A structured lesson plan template helps streamline planning and ensures a balanced learning experience for preschoolers. This free template includes tools for yearly, monthly, and weekly planning to keep activities organized and engaging.
Remember: this free lesson planning template is fully editable, so you can just type your ides right into the pdf. Easy peasy!
Yearly Calendar Lesson Planning Template
Start with a broad overview of the year to outline key learning goals and major themes. This helps ensure a well-rounded curriculum that covers essential skills in literacy, math, fine motor development, and social-emotional learning. A yearly plan also allows for easy adjustments and flexibility as the school year progresses.
Monthly Theme-Based Activities Template
Organizing lessons by monthly themes keeps learning exciting and relevant. Themes like seasons, animals, community helpers, and space introduce new vocabulary and concepts while incorporating hands-on activities. The template provides suggested activities, books, and crafts to align with each theme, making lesson planning easier.
Weekly Lesson Planning Template
A detailed weekly plan helps break down activities into daily lessons, balancing structured learning with play-based exploration. The template includes space for literacy, math, sensory play, and motor skill development, along with room for flexible adjustments based on student needs.
This free lesson plan template simplifies the planning process, ensuring a smooth and engaging learning experience for both teachers and preschoolers.
Preschool Schedule Template
One of the easiest ways to find the perfect lesson plan template is to familiarize yourself with how your preschool schedule might impact lessons.
Snag our preschool schedules guidebook! It’s an 18-page e-book that’ll teach you everything you need to create a preschool schedule that will maximize student learning.
Sample Preschool Lesson Plans with Goals and Objectives
If you want to see exactly what a preschool lesson plan looks like in literacy or math and how they align with preschool math goals and letter recognition milestones, then check out these resources.
Get the Free Pre K Lesson Plan Template Here
The great thing about this lesson planning template is that it can just as easily be used for preschool, prek, and even fore daycares. Grab your freebie below.
Grab our Weekly Thematic Activity Plans
Engaging, hands-on themes that complement your math and literacy curriculum.
Preschool Lesson Plan Templates: Your Questions Answered
Using a template streamlines the planning process, ensures consistency, and helps organize activities to align with educational goals. It saves time and supports structured learning.
Start by assessing your students’ needs and interests. Modify the template to include specific activities and objectives that suit your class dynamics and curriculum goals.
Regular updates are essential. Review and adjust plans weekly or monthly based on student feedback, progress, and any new educational resources or strategies you discover.
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.
