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.
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.
Skill-based objectives require that your students learn to do something new. Examples include: Draw a triangle, button a shirt independently, spell their name. Conceptual objectives require that your students understand a concept or grasp an idea. Examples include: Identify a triangle, describe the weather, share their feelings in circle time. Some objectives combine skills and concepts, like sounding out a word, which requires students to understand the relationship between letters and sounds (a concept) and to put them together verbally into a word (a skill).
Students of all ages learn best when they are engaged in the subject at hand. Some students, particularly those with attention or behavioral problems, benefit from lessons structured specifically around their areas of interest. [6] X Research source Some common preschool interests include: animals, particularly baby animals; seasons and weather; dinosaurs; sea life; outer space; fairy tales; robots; dolls and domestic activities like cooking, cleaning, and keeping house. Preschoolers also often have favorite pop culture figures and imaginary characters, and while these vary, you can get a good idea by asking your students who their favorite singers, cartoon characters, or video game characters are, or by paying attention to who is on their backpack or character apparel.
Writing or tracing letters or numbers Painting, drawing, or other art Gross motor exercises or activities Books that are relevant to the theme for story time and for children to read independently Songs with or without motions Sorting and counting activities using small figures or toys, etc.
Be sure to plan enough for every student, plus extras in case of mistakes or accidents.
Be sure to make notes afterwards about what worked well and what did not. In future years, you can use these notes to reuse, rewrite, or scrap plans depending on how well they worked during implementation.
Expressive and receptive language: Students should be able to speak in complete sentences most of the time, understand and follow directions with more than one step, understand vocabulary related to position, size, and comparison (such as like/different, top/bottom, in/out), and make simple predictions about a story. [9] X Research source Cognitive/learning readiness: Students should be able to match similar pictures; classify objects by physical features such as color, size, and shape; recognize pattern sequences; sequence up to three story pictures; retell a simple story; complete a simple puzzle; and identify five or more colors. [10] X Research source Phonological awareness and print recognition: Students should be able to recognize own name in print, point to and identify letters in name, attempt to write name, demonstrates book awareness (such as reading books from left to right and words read from top to bottom, even if they are unable to read), identify rhyming words, match at least 3 letters with their sound, use symbols or drawings to express ideas. [11] X Research source Mathematics: Students should be able to count up to five objects, match numerals 0-5 with that number of grouped objects, arrange numbers in order, identify at least three shapes, count to ten, and understand the concept of more or less. [12] X Research source Social/emotional preparedness: Students should be able to identify self by name, age, and gender; interact with other students; make needs known to peers and teacher; demonstrate independence by washing hands, using bathroom, eating, and dressing; and demonstrate ability to separate from parents. [13] X Research source Motor development: Students should be able to use pencils, crayons, and scissors with control; copy a line, circle, and X; hop, jump, run, catch a ball. [14] X Research source
Spend lots of unstructured time on the playground. While these might not seem like “lessons” in the traditional sense of the word, researchers have found that free play shapes development of the prefrontal cortex during a critical period of early childhood, which has lifelong implications for emotional regulation, planning, and problem solving. [15] X Research source
Consider a center designed to mimic a playhouse, with a kitchen set, small toddler-sized table and chairs, baby dolls and bassinet, etc. Small, affordable toys from stores like Ikea or second hand shops can make this very affordable. Create a costume wardrobe. This can range from fancy costumes to simple silk scarves. You can often find costumes on sale right after Halloween, or simply bring creative clothing from a second hand store like overalls, a fancy princess dress, a cowboy hat, any type of uniform, etc. Plush stuffed animal toys are often the beginning of many creative games for preschoolers. Children can use their imagination to pretend that these are students in a classroom, pets in a home, animals in a rescue center or veterinary clinic, etc. Choose toys that you can easily wash every few months in a washing machine.
In addition to one-on-one time, consider inviting parent volunteers to read to children once a week in small groups. The number of volunteers you get can determine the size of the groups; anything from one-on-one to groups of five students per adult will foster relationships and discussion that are key to early literacy.
