How to Write a Preschool Lesson Plan

This article was co-authored by Sylvia Rath. Sylvia Rath is a Parenting Specialist and the Director of Little Village Nursery School in Los Angeles, California. With over 30 years of experience, Sylvia guides parents through the preschool years and beyond by teaching respectful communication and positive discipline methods. Sylvia holds a BA in Psychology and Early Child Development from Antioch University. Before working at Little Village Nursery School, she taught preschool for eight years.

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Writing a preschool lesson plan takes time up front, but once you establish a template that works for you the process will become much easier. Thoughtfully created lesson plans will ensure children learn and have fun while meeting necessary learning benchmarks to prepare them for kindergarten. Preschool lesson planning is done in "big picture" and "small picture" segments. The "big picture" will help you make a cohesive plan for the entire semester or year. The "small picture" will help you make meaningful and engaging lessons within that broader plan.

Sample Lesson Plan

Part 1 of 4:

Planning the "Big Picture"

Assess your students' skills. Before you start planning your lessons, establish your students' skill sets in communication, language awareness and reading readiness, number awareness and math readiness, gross and fine motor skills, and social and emotional development. Every child learns and develops at a different pace, and that’s okay! Rather than forcing them to engage in easier or harder lessons, plan around their skills to encourage them to grow. [1] X Expert Source

Design lesson plans by keeping in mind the specific user groups - Preschool lesson plans have to be specifically designed to give a proper look for each user groups.
In draft stage itself, lesson shall be shared with each staff members
Preschool children develop at different rates and have various levels of support in the home, so it should be no surprise that your students will likely display a wide variety of skills and readiness in various areas of development.
Major areas to assess before the start of a semester include: verbal skills, phonological awareness, number awareness, fine and motor skill development
The number of children you have and how much time you have for assessments will likely influence the type of assessment you conduct, but in general brief assessments (when you have 20 minutes per child or less) can be structured (at a desk with a teacher, using flashcards, using paper and pencil, etc.) while longer assessments should be more naturalistic (watching them at play centers, watching their interactions with peers, etc.). Young children don't have the patience or ability to sit for prolonged assessments.
Various early childhood factors contribute to each child's skills. For example, it is not unusual for some 4 year old children to not yet know their alphabets; although more rare, others might already read at a 2nd or 3rd grade level.
Identify students with delays, special needs, or giftedness. These students may require additional support throughout the semester, or additional effort to tailor lesson plans to their particular needs.
Under law, all students are guaranteed reasonable accommodation for disabilities and developmental delays. Students with developmental delays or disabilities (including autism and learning disabilities such as ADHD) should be referred for evaluation with the district coordinator, who will conduct a specialized assessment that takes all areas of development into account and can put together an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) to ensure that children receive the services they need to thrive in preschool. This process can vary by state, so check with your site coordinator. [3] X Research source

Label breaks and holidays and number each week of instruction. These numbers will correspond to your plans.
Think about the big picture. What are the learning objectives for your students?

For instance, the Mississippi State University Early Childhood program suggests monthly units such as "All About Me," "The Community," "Food," "The Weather," etc. These units would each have weekly a focus area. For example, if the month's theme is "Food," the weeks might be divided into the focus areas "Breakfasts," "Lunches," "Dinners," and "Desserts." The focus areas will be further developed in daily lessons (in this case, each day might be devoted to the mealtime cuisine of a separate culture).
Some teachers prefer to choose only a few themes and focus areas to begin with, and from there let the students' interests guide the development of the rest of the semester's themes.

8-8:10am: Arrival, pledge of allegiance, roll
9-9:20am: Potty break, snack
10-10:20am: Outdoor recess
10:50: Gather backpacks and line up for home

These might include oral language/sharing time, letter recognition/phonological awareness, fine motor centers, book time, number recognition and math readiness, small groups, etc.
Remember to focus on all major areas of early learning, including emotional, social, physical, and cognitive development. These are each significant in school readiness, the major goal of preschool curricula.

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Arrange these subject areas in small blocks of time of about 10-20 minutes each, depending on the length of your school day. Preschoolers' attention spans are short, so changing the activity regularly is a must. [4] X Expert Source

8-8:10am: Arrival, pledge of allegiance, roll
8:10-8:30: Community circle
8:30-8:45: Phonological awareness
8:45-9: Free play in centers OR art
9-9:20: Potty break, snack
9:20-9:40: Reader's workshop
9:40-10: Math
10-10:20: Outdoor recess
10:20-10:40: Vocabulary
10:40-10:50: Community circle
10:50: Gather backpacks and line up for home

For instance, your theme for the month might be "All About Me" and your focus area for the week might be "My Family."
In this case, sharing time in the community circle might involve stating who is in your family, math might involve writing the number of family members, and art might involve a family portrait made of dried noodles and beans.