Easy Preschool Lesson Plan Format

Imagine a preschool full of happy, busy kids! Teachers know what to do, and learning happens all day long. This isn’t a dream! This is the magic that happens when you use a well-structured preschool lesson plan format. 

Good lesson plans act as a roadmap, ensuring a smooth flow of the day’s activities. They keep children engaged and motivated and, most importantly, promote effective learning. 

This guide will explore the components of a preschool lesson plan format and its numerous benefits, ultimately helping you create an effective and time-saving resource for your classroom.

Creating preschool lesson plans can feel daunting at first. However, investing time upfront to establish a lesson plan template will save you significant time in the long run.

While daily schedules provide a general framework for the preschool day, a lesson plan format ensures that all competencies and skills are achieved. It outlines specific learning objectives, engaging activities, and assessment methods for each activity. 

I have created a complete and comprehensive year-long preschool curriculum. It is broken down into daily lessons in literacy and math. Check it out and see how this complete program can help you plan every day with ease!

What Is a Preschool Lesson Plan?

A preschool lesson plan is a detailed guide for a particular learning activity. It provides a framework for incorporating various teaching approaches and learning goals while ensuring activities are linked by a common theme. 

This structured approach allows teachers to assess their teaching methods, identify challenges, and adjust lessons to meet the needs of your individual students. By reflecting on post-lesson assessments, you can gain valuable insights into each child’s strengths, weaknesses, and overall learning potential.

How to Write a Good Lesson Plan

Being organized is key to effective teaching, and lesson plans are a big part of that. It doesn’t matter if you map everything out for a year or just focus on a week at a time – having a plan ensures your teaching is well-thought-out, meets learning objectives, and addresses student needs.

Ready to unlock the power of planning? Here are some helpful resources:

• A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Preschool Lesson Plans
• Learn At Home Preschool Lesson Plan Collection
• Preschool Schedule Guidebook
• The Ultimate Guide to Pre-K Lesson Plans

Preschool Lesson Plan Format

Let’s be honest, writing lesson plans can feel daunting and overwhelming! There are many ways to approach it, and it might take a few tries before you find the system that really works for you. Don’t worry, most teachers have been there! 

To help you get started and save you some precious time, here are some key elements to consider when creating your preschool lesson plan template:

1. Identify the Purpose

Every activity should have a clear learning objective aligned with your curriculum. Remember, social and emotional skills are just as crucial as academic ones!

Let’s say your curriculum focuses on the letter “B.” Instead of simply writing the letter on the board, your objective could be for children to identify the letter B in their environment. This objective translates into a fun activity like a classroom scavenger hunt for things that begin with the “B” sound (ball, book, block).

Remember, don’t neglect social and emotional learning! Objectives can target skills like sharing, taking turns, or expressing emotions. An activity like building a block tower together promotes teamwork and problem-solving.

2. Plan Engaging Activities

Opt for simple, hands-on activities that encourage exploration and discovery. Think songs, games, art projects, experiments—activities that ignite children’s natural curiosity. Instead of a lecture about shapes, create a sorting activity with different-shaped objects (circles, squares, triangles). Children can sort the objects into labeled containers, learning their shapes through exploration.

Think beyond worksheets! Incorporate music and movement activities, such as singing songs with specific colors or acting like different animals during a zoo theme.

3. Spark Student Interest

One way to keep children interested and excited about learning is to lesson plan based on student likes and interests, whenever possible.

Is your class fascinated by dinosaurs? Plan a dinosaur-themed week with activities like making dinosaur footprint art using washable paint and their own feet or reading a story about baby dinosaurs and discussing sharing and taking turns.

Integrate themes and activities that pique your students’ curiosity. Consider incorporating your preschoolers’ favorite books, characters, and songs for an extra element of fun. 

You could also let your students suggest ideas! If they love a particular book, create activities centered around this class favorite.

4. Choose Your Approach

Will the activity be teacher-directed, child-led, or a combination of the two? Tailor your approach to the specific learning goals and remember that preschoolers learn best through multi-sensory experiences.

For example, for a color lesson, you could set up a teacher-directed activity where you show different colored objects and lead a discussion that helps the children identify the colors. However, you could also provide various colored materials like paint, markers, and construction paper and let the children explore freely, creating their own colorful masterpieces (child-led). Your lesson plans will most likely involve a combination of approaches depending on the activity and learning objective.

5. Assessment

Include methods to assess student understanding after each activity. This could be through observation, simple questions, or quick exit tickets. After a counting activity using manipulatives like buttons or blocks, ask students simple questions like “How many buttons do you have?” or “Can you show me two blocks?” Observe their responses to gauge their understanding. If needed, you can adjust your teaching approach or provide additional practice.

Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to lesson planning. Use these building blocks as a starting point, experiment, and find what works for you and your unique group of preschoolers. And, always keep a focus on making learning FUN!

Benefits of a Preschool Lesson Plan Format

A well-crafted preschool lesson plan format is more than just a schedule; it should help foster a love of learning and prepare your students for future success.

Here’s why a well-structured preschool lesson plan format is essential:

• Efficiency: Daily schedules provide a general outline, but a lesson plan format will guarantee you cover all competencies and skills needed for comprehensive learning. It becomes your roadmap, ensuring a smooth flow throughout the day.
• Engagement: The format encourages you to design engaging activities that keep children involved and excited to learn. These activities become the building blocks for a fun and stimulating learning environment.
• Effectiveness: The preschool lesson plan format guarantees that your students are meeting the necessary learning benchmarks to prepare them for kindergarten by outlining specific learning objectives for each activity. It allows you to integrate play-based learning while ensuring that your kiddos are acquiring essential skills.
• Assessment: The format incorporates assessment methods for each activity. This allows you to gauge student understanding and adjust your teaching strategies if needed, ensuring that all students’ needs are being met.
• Time-Saving: Once you create a preschool lesson plan template that works for you, personalizing it for each lesson becomes a breeze. This saves you valuable time, allowing you to focus on creating an enriching learning environment for your students.

Free Preschool Weekly Lesson Plan

Let’s face it. Planning lessons can take forever, so finding a quick and easy system is key! After all, happy teachers with a plan lead to happy, learning little ones! 

Here at Stay At Home Educator, we offer Learn at Home Lesson Plan Collections that you can use. Explore 46 engaging themes, each with fun activities to excite your little learners. Pick and choose activities that fit your needs, or use them to inspire your creations.

But for your convenience, this awesome preschool curriculum was bundled together! No more blank page stress—these bundles take the pressure off and save you precious time to create a magical learning environment for your preschoolers.

A well-structured preschool lesson plan format is an invaluable tool. It promotes effective learning, keeps teachers organized, and fosters a positive learning environment for your preschoolers. So, grab your favorite planning materials and start crafting your lesson plans –– because with a little organization, you can create a magical world of learning for your young children.

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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