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Step 4: Create A List Of Suggested Activities

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July 24, 2014 by Sarah Punkoney, MAT 9 Comments

This is the fourth of the follow-up posts about how to write preschool lesson plans for an entire year.  You can read my original post here. 

Stay tuned, though.  Tomorrow will feature a BONUS POST!

Step 4 in preschool lesson planning a year in advance - create a list of suggested activities

As I have stated, “these lesson plans do not reflect detailed and scripted daily plans that specify what is to be taught each minute of your teaching time.  Instead, these lesson plans reflect an outline of skills and concepts you hope to teach throughout the school year. In educational terms they are known as a scope and sequence.  This kind of planning helps you identify what skills and concepts you would like to teach during the year, as well as the sequencing and order of how you would like to introduce them.  Many skills are incremental, with one skill or concept will building upon another, so it is only appropriate that your lesson plans reflect a specific order.   As you will find as you follow these posts, this does not mean that these lesson plans are not flexible.  In fact, they are very flexible and can be tweaked or completely discarded as your students or children demonstrate that necessity.”

The following are links to the posts in this series:

Introduction: How To Write Preschool Lesson Plans An Entire Year In Advance

Step 1: Create A Calendar

Step 2: Decide On How To Teach Reading And Math

Step 3: Decide On Themes

Step 4: Create A List Of Suggested Preschool Activities

Be sure to subscribe and follow along in social media so that you can also get the BONUS POST!

You’re almost done!  But, let me tell you, Step #4 is the most fun of all the steps.  This is the step where you get to actually brainstorm and write in activities.  These activities are not meant to be set in stone, rather they are suggestions of how you would like to teach the given concepts.  They are a list of ideas.  While I glean from Pinterest and my blogging colleagues, I am also constantly coming up with my own ideas, so this is the time that I write down those preliminary ideas.  They are all in one place so that I don’t loose them, and organized according to the theme.  Once they’ve been done, I can then share them here on my blog.

Here are some questions to consider when creating your list of suggested activities.

How many preschool activities should I do for each theme?

Well, that depends on a couple of things.  How many days will you be teaching?  My preschool program is two days a week, so I make sure I have at least one activity for each preschool day.  If you’re a homeschooling parent who teaches every day, your list is going to be much longer than mine.  I figure that since each month usually allows me eight teaching days, I plan for ten to twelve activities.  Planning more activities that I “need” not only gives me ideas to further study if the students are really showing a high interest in an area, but it also allows me the flexibility to nix an idea without scrambling to come up with something new.  That being said, sometimes I will be inspired by my students while we are in the thick of a theme and we’ll do something that was never on the list.  Whatever the case may be, it is always a good idea to have a few more suggested activities lined up than you think you will need.

How simple or extensive should these preschool activities be?

I choose the activities to go on my list based more on how valuable I think they will be to my students.  Some activities are very simple and require little planning, like going for a nature walk.  While going for a nature walk sounds really basic, it is drenched in what I like to call “educational nutrition.”  This comes about when an activity has many facets and opportunities for follow-up.  Students not only enjoy being out in nature, but they can search for specific items.  They can use magnifying glasses to examine interesting things they find.  They can be scientific observers and record the things they see in journals.  They can bring baggies to make collections.  This list goes on and on.

Some activities are much more extensive from a planning standpoint.  I like to include a few of those in my list of suggested activities as well.  I think there is value in students working multiple days on one project, and there is also value in teaching students to follow specific steps within a project to get the desire outcome.  (Although, process is also just as important, and sometimes even more important).

The point is, however you choose these activities, whether they be simple (at first sight) or extensive, they should be rich in educational nutrition.  Remember, I am striving for “an inch wide and a mile deep.”

What is the best way to record these ideas?

I used to simply rely on Pinterest to keep track of my suggested activities.  For my activities that I wanted to copy from someone else’s blog, this was fine.  But, I need a place to record my own ideas for each theme.  This is where the templates come into play.

Click the image below to download the exact template I use. It’s fully editable, which means you can type right into the form and don’t even have to print it out of you don’t want to!

You can use the above template to write out your list of suggested activities.

If you decided to do your math lesson plans thematically as well, then you can also go back to fill in those black spaces on the templates I gave you on Step 2.

Looking for More About Preschool Lesson Plans?

Still interested in learning more? UPDATE!

Because of reader interest, I now sell my preschool literacy lesson plans! You can purchase each component individually, or you can purchase them as a bundle for a discounted price! They can also be purchased from my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

I now sell my preschool math lesson plans, too! These are not the thematic lessons I mention in previous posts, but these are complete lesson plans that include everything you need to teach preschool math for an entire year. You can purchase each unit individually (there are nine of them), or you can purchase them as a bundle for a discounted price! They can also be purchased from myTeachers Pay Teachers store.***

Or Get The Complete Preschool Curriculum by Stay At Home Educator

Save yourself the time and let me do all the planning for you. With this preschool curriculum, you get all my literacy lesson plans, math lesson plans, assessments and centers all bundle into one special deal!

 

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Sarah Punkoney, MAT

I am Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home mama of five! I am 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 range of levels, including preschool and college, and a little bit of just about 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

stayathomeeducator.com/

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Filed Under: Preschool Planning, Thematic Activities Tagged With: featured, Lesson Planning Ideas

« Step 3: Decide On Themes
Step 5: Wrapping It All Up (BONUS POST!) »

Comments

  1. Caroline says

    June 30, 2020 at 1:33 pm

    Hi Sarah
    I like organisation and that is the reason why I follow you. We do have a curriculum that we are asked to follow and are inspected upon. For that reason, some of your freebies and curriculum documents do not meet my needs. We have to be totally responsive to what children want to learn about, building on what they already know. However, I like to teach maths, literacy and health and well being in a particular way, timetabled through out the year.I have my own nursery (2-5 year olds) and firmly believe in real experiences for learning. I don’t hold much for printed sheets for children to complete and would rather use real and imaginative resources to teach colour. shape etc. I do share the passion you have for teaching early years and I love gaining knowledge about planning through looking at other people’s ideas. I gather a lot of information from different planning concepts and I need to stop. I need a simple structure to planning that I can edit to meet the curriculum we offer. are you able to do this? I will continue to look at your ideas and feel enriched to compare and improve what we do with your ideas.
    Kindest regards
    Caroline

    Reply
    • Sarah Punkoney, MAT says

      August 29, 2020 at 7:35 am

      Hi Caroline,

      Thanks for commenting. I am actually coming out with some lesson planning template soon. Stay tuned and be sure to subscribe.

      Reply
  2. Tia says

    September 14, 2020 at 2:04 am

    Hi Sarah!

    I love your style. I don’t know why I haven’t thanked you before. (I may have and forgot) covid-19 has things crazy. We have started for the new year, I purchased a couple of your bundles last year, I’m excited to put them to use
    5 days a week. 3 and 4s. This year I’m using your brilliance to get more orderly. You really inspire me. Thanks so much for what you do. Makes my job a bit easier and more enjoyable. Have a great fall! Stay healthy ! Hugs!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. How To Write Preschool Lesson Plans A Year In Advance says:
    May 10, 2015 at 2:20 pm

    […] Step 4: Create a List of Suggested Activities […]

    Reply
  2. Step 2: Decide On How To Teach Reading And Math says:
    May 10, 2015 at 2:21 pm

    […] Introduction: How To Write Preschool Lesson Plans An Entire Year In Advance […]

    Reply
  3. Step 3: Decide On Themes says:
    December 8, 2015 at 3:42 pm

    […] Introduction: How To Write Preschool Lesson Plans An Entire Year In Advance […]

    Reply
  4. Step 5: Wrapping It All Up (BONUS POST!) says:
    March 7, 2016 at 2:18 pm

    […] Step 4: Create A List Of Suggested Activities […]

    Reply
  5. How to Write Preschool Lesson Plans - Step 1: Create A Calendar says:
    August 8, 2016 at 12:31 pm

    […] Step 4: Create A List Of Suggested Activities […]

    Reply
  6. Free Prewriting Practice - Christmas Themed says:
    February 8, 2017 at 3:57 pm

    […] to plan ahead. I have to start thinking about the details of my December lesson plans. (Because the bigger vision is already complete). Specifically, I have to consider what journaling and prewriting practice will be appropriate for […]

    Reply

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