How to Set Up Lesson Plans for a Preschool Classroom

Lesson plans are an important part of the educational growth for preschool children between the ages of 2 and 4 years of age. Children in the preschool classroom need a variety of different activities to hold their interest and promote mental development. When creating a preschool lesson plan, emphasis should be placed on the areas of language, physical development, art, and social interaction. Including these activities in the preschool lesson plan will enable the teacher to provide a stimulating and educational curriculum for the preschool classroom.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Lesson Plan Outline
• Costumes and Dress-up Clothes
• Wigs
• Kitchen Toys
• Play Food
• Plastic Cars
• Boxes
• Lacing Cards
• Safety Scissors
• Beads
• Puzzles
• Climbing Toys
• Balls
• Alphabet Flash Cards
• Paints
• Paint Brushes
• Butcher Paper
• Modeling Clay
• Crayons
• Markers
• Collage Material

1. Begin your preschool lesson plan with an outline. This should be the basic template that you will use on a weekly basis. Include the activities that the students participate in on a daily basis such as circle time and music.

2. Incorporate dramatic play into the lesson plan. Preschool-age children learn through role play and imitation. Provide items to nurture the children’s creativity such as costumes and dress-up clothes, wigs, kitchen toys, play food, dolls, plastic cars and boxes that open and close.

3. Include fine motor skills activities in the weekly lesson plan. Children learn fine motor skills by using their fingers and other small muscle groups. Incorporate activities like lacing cards, practicing cutting skills, stringing beads and puzzles into the lesson plans.

4. Integrate activities that promote gross motor skills. These activities can take place on the playground or inside the classroom depending on the weather. Include jumping, climbing, running, bouncing balls and any activity that helps promote large muscle growth in preschool children.

5. Add language and pre-writing skills. This can be accomplished by reading to the children every day, teaching the alphabet through songs and simple flash cards, and providing the preschool student with access to picture books during center time. Tracing pictures and the alphabet with a pencil promotes writing skills.

6. Incorporate arts and crafts into the daily schedule at least once a day. Preschoolers love to be creative and get their hands messy during art time. Art projects should include a variety of supplies that stimulate the senses such as paints, paint brushes, butcher paper, modeling clay, crayons, markers and collage materials.

7. Remember that social skills should be an important part of your preschool day. Social skills should be taught when the class is working or playing together as a group. Learning to share with others, taking turns, and saying "please" and "thank you" are social skills every preschooler should master before moving on to a more structured kindergarten setting.

Tips & Warnings

• Create your weekly lesson plan around themes such as the weather, holidays, animals or the seasons.
• When you feel that your preschool class is ready, you can add pre-math to your lessons by including simple patterns and shapes.
• Break up the lessons with free play or center time to prevent the students from becoming over stimulated.
• Do not make each lesson last more than 20-to-30 minutes. Longer lessons will result in the children becoming unfocused.

Resources

• The Perpetual Preschool has numerous lesson plan and themes.
• Free lesson plans and themes for the preschool classroom.