Creating a lesson plan is one of the most important jobs for a preschool teacher. Planning out your lessons will not only help you feel prepared, it will help to improve classroom management and will help you to meet the needs of individual children. Plus, creating a lesson plan will eliminate some of the stress in teaching.

The first part of this process is thinking about the entire year. You should first create a yearly or monthly overview of the themes that you plan to teach and the skills you plan on focusing on. This will allow you to incorporate holidays, seasons, etc. into your lesson plans. Plus, planning out the year in advance will allow you to collect materials, plan learning centers and plan field trips.

The next step in this process involves creating weekly or daily lesson plans. These lessons should integrate things like concepts, skill objectives, activities, etc. It is this weekly schedule that will allow you to plan out your days hour by hour in greater detail to create successful time management within the class.

The format of the weekly lesson plan should include several blocks of time usually starting with circle time. Typically circle time consists of attendance, the pledge, the date, talk about weather, a review of the week and an introduction to the lesson. It is the introduction to the lesson that should be placed on the lesson plan. Several things need to be considered when planning how you are going to introduce the day's lesson. For instance, what is your objective; what do you want the children to learn? How will you get their attention? What are some of the key questions that you can ask? For example, if your theme for the week is bears. During circle time you might want to discuss parts of the bear's body. This can be done by introducing a picture or a stuffed animal.

In addition to circle time, you will need to plan several other parts of the day. Your lesson plan format should include a block of time for reading readiness; a book that you plan on reading to the children that coincides with your theme. How will you incorporate your theme into a math and science lesson? Your daily lesson plan should also include a craft, music, activities that allow children to use their large and small motor skills and a snack.

By allotting time for each task you plan on covering, you can effectively keep children involved and interested. You will also effectively be able to break up the day so that the children will be effectively be able to release energy with a large motor skill activity as well as calm down with a craft or a snack.

For detailed information on creating lesson plans for your preschool class in addition to lesson plan examples, original snacks, songs and crafts for your preschool class, please visit us on the web at our Toddler to Preschool Activities page.

Jenny Esposito is the chief editor of Toddler to Preschool Activities.com http://www.toddlertopreschoolactivities.com/ an information rich site your all of your early childhood needs.