Create an Effective Early Childhood Education
Lesson Plan With Our Helpful Guide

Identify Your Learning Objectives

Learning objectives are key goals that will guide your lesson plan. They should be observable, age-appropriate, and measurable. When lesson planning, less is generally better unless the learning objective spans a long period of time, like a month.

Some common learning objectives you may want to incorporate can include:

Pre-Reading and Pre-Writing Skills

Developing a child’s reading skills starts at an early age, even before they can speak. Pre-reading skills in an Early Childhood Education setting are critical for establishing a child’s understanding of letters and words and overall communication. You can help children build this critical scale along with pre-writing skills through lessons that do the following:

• Encourage children to form patterns by drawing waves and lines
• Exposing children to letter formation and how letters look
• Phonological awareness
• Crossing the midline

Early Math Concepts

In the Early Childhood Education setting, this looks like rote counting, counting up to 10, assigning a numerical value to items, and even complex math concepts such as addition and subtraction. You can create entire lesson plans where these math concepts serve as the overarching theme for a day, a week, or a month.

Motor Skills

The early years of a child’s life are critical for developing their motor skills. During the Early Childhood Education years, children are still enhancing their fine motor skills and gross motor skills. Continuing to work on these skills can serve as an objective, clear goal that can guide a lesson plan.

Social-Emotional Skills

It’s not just a child’s physical development that’s firing on all cylinders during these formative years; their social and emotional skills are still developing as well.

Lessons can be tailored around activities that teach a child how to identify and manage emotions when they arise. It’s not just big emotions that can be identified and improved; everyday emotions can be identified as well. Through social-emotional learning objectives, you can help a child practice how to:

• Listen to instruction
• Appropriately interact with their peers and teachers
• Share
• Identify how others might feel, such as the emotions that a character in a book might be feeling

Cognitive Reasoning Skills

As children grow, so does their ability to reason both with themselves and with those around them. Lesson plans should include learning objectives that promote the growth of cognitive reasoning skills. You can incorporate various activities to encourage a child to remember, concentrate, reason, problem-solve, and engage in learning.

Employ These Early Childhood Teaching Methods

You’ll come across a range of teaching methods that are suited for an Early Education classroom. Below are two popular and effective methods Early Childhood educators should incorporate in their classrooms:

Play-Based Learning

Play-based learning is a critical teaching method in any Early Childhood Education classroom. Children learn through exploration and engaging their five senses. This is done through play. As children play structured games in a structured setting with their peers or with themselves, they develop key skills, including communication, social interaction, creativity, reasoning, critical thinking, and others.

While play-based learning happens at the directive of the child, it is done in a structured environment with intentional games and toys provided by the teacher.

Montessori Method

The Montessori Method has a lot of overlap with the play-based method but takes a more hands-off approach to learning. This method is 100% child-centered and incorporates self-directed learning as children play alone or in a group.

The Montessori Method does not discriminate against a child’s age and instead encourages play with mixed-aged groups. To promote this child-led learning, the Montessori Method often incorporates child-size furniture so children can move around independently.

Explore more Early Childhood Education resources and techniques here. 

Identify Required Materials

When creating an Early Childhood Educational lesson plan, it’s important to establish your learning objectives first. This will lead to the next component of your lesson plan: gathering the required material.

As you plan, certain materials, games, and activities lend better to specific learning objectives. For example, if a learning objective is to help children work on their fine motor skills, you may want to opt for Lego building blocks instead of large wooden building blocks. These smaller building blocks will encourage a child to engage their fine motor skills as they build and create.

It’s also important to note that you’ll often create activities that engage more than just one learning objective. For example, if you want to focus on cognitive reasoning and fine motor skills, you can create an activity in which children build a bridge that holds a stuffed animal using Lego blocks. This will engage cognitive reasoning while children engage their fine motor skills.

Lay Out the Timing and Structure of the Day/Week

Another important element of creating a quality lesson plan is timing and spacing. Ensure that you plan activities requiring mental focus and attention during appropriate times of the day. This will typically be at the start of the day or after lunch or nap time. Additionally, ensure you incorporate appropriate periods for free play.

Start Your Career in Early Childhood Education With Sunrise Children’s Foundation

At Sunrise Children’s Foundation, we can help you get started in an exciting and rewarding career in Early Childhood Education or an Early Head Start job. When you work with our team, you’ll have experienced education professionals by your side as you create an enriching and supportive environment for children. Learn more when you explore our Early Childhood Education career FAQ.

Explore career opportunities in Early Childhood Education and get started in a rewarding chapter in your life with Sunrise Children’s Foundation.