Five complete lesson plans for preschool, pre-K and kindergarten, written out in full. Each covers a real week or a real day, with an activity in every box and the objectives and materials underneath. Open any example in the free lesson plan template and change what you like. Then print it or send it to Google Docs.

What a preschool lesson plan looks like

A preschool lesson plan is a grid. Learning areas run down the side and days of the week across the top. Each box holds one activity in a line or two, with a theme tying the week together. Two or three learning objectives and a materials list sit underneath.

One sideways page. That’s the whole plan. Anything longer gets skimmed by the assistant and ignored by the substitute, so keep the boxes short and put the detail in the objectives.

The examples below use the rows most preschool rooms use: circle time, literacy, math, science and sensory, art, music and movement, outdoor play, and centers. Pre-K rooms swap in writing and small groups. Kindergarten rooms swap in reading and social studies, plus specials. Rename the template rows to match how your day runs.

Example 1: a weekly preschool lesson plan on apples

Preschool, 3 to 4 year olds. A September week. Apples are the first theme in many rooms because they’re cheap and safe to cut, with three colors to sort.

Every day involves an apple. The children count and sort them, taste them, make prints with them and act them out. By Friday, the vote and tasting graph have become a math lesson nobody noticed was one.

Example 2: a weekly lesson plan for all about me

Preschool, 3 to 4 year olds. Most rooms run this in the first two weeks of school, while the children are still getting to know each other. It teaches names and introduces families and feelings.

Friday’s name tracing sheets come from the name tracing generator. It prints one page per child from your class list.

Example 3: a pre-K lesson plan for fall leaves

Pre-K, 4 to 5 year olds. This October week adds phonics and writing to the preschool rows. One letter, L, runs through the whole week.

The cutting practice lines for Thursday’s small group come from the cutting practice generator. Choose the curvy level for leaf edges.

Example 4: a daily lesson plan for pre-K

Wednesday from the fall leaves week, written as a daily plan. Times run down the side, with three columns for what you’re doing, what you need, and a note. Leave this one for a substitute.

An infant or toddler room usually uses a daily plan like this rather than a weekly grid. The day is a schedule of care routines with learning built in.

Example 5: a kindergarten lesson plan on community helpers

Kindergarten. A November week built around a firefighter visit on Wednesday. Reading and writing now have separate rows, and social studies gets its own. The specials row shows which day is music or PE.

How to write your own from these

1. Pick the theme first. Apples or leaves, for example. It decides which books you read and what goes in the sensory bin.
2. Fill in circle time and the read aloud for each day. Everything else hangs off those boxes.
3. Write two or three objectives. Each should describe something you could watch a child do and tick off. Sort leaves by color counts. Explore leaves doesn’t.
4. Fill the rest of the grid a line at a time. If a box is hard to fill, leave it as free choice. Children need those boxes too.
5. List the materials at the end. Read the list on Friday so you don’t spend Monday looking for paint.

The template handles the layout. Choose weekly or daily and pick an age preset. Rename the rows, fill in the grid, then print it or copy it into Google Docs. It saves itself in your browser.

Five ways to lay out a preschool plan

The examples above use weekly grids because that’s what most directors ask for and what a substitute can follow. Other layouts may suit your room. The children’s ages matter, as do the parents you serve.

Daily schedule

A daily schedule shows what happens in each block of time. You can vary the routine when something runs long or a new interest turns up. Allow time for independent play, inside and out. And plan the transitions so children aren’t sitting in a line, waiting.

Weekly lesson plan

A weekly plan uses a set template, prepared in advance and usually built around a theme. That makes good content easy to reuse from year to year. It also leaves less room for what the children are into this week. The big advantage: a relief teacher can step in and keep the class running.

Developmental areas plan

A developmental areas plan is organized by skill rather than time. The usual areas are:

• Fine motor
• Gross motor and outdoors
• Problem solving
• Music
• Group time: language and story
• Social and emotional development
• Sensory development
• Creative development
• Self help

The team usually plans it weekly and displays it in the room. You can see at a glance that every area of every child is being addressed.

Learning centers plan

A learning centers plan follows the areas set out in the room: creative arts, dramatic play, math and science, manipulatives, library and writing, construction, and a space for the children’s current interests. Each center has four or five activities that change as interest shifts. Children choose their activities and play, then pack away. That builds independence. The plan is usually paired with separate plans for language and music, plus outdoor time.

Interest led plan

This plan follows an interest rather than a theme. A child makes a siren sound outside and a box becomes a fire engine. Next come fire books and a collage, then a block fire station and finally a visit from a real fire engine. The plan records how the interest grew and what the children learned along the way. Mind maps work better than a grid for this style.

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