Lesson plans for the infant room

An infant room is a special place where babies are nurtured, loved, and are given opportunities to learn! Infants are learning about themselves and their world every single minute of every single day.



1. To prepare an infant lesson plan, the first thing I like to consider is the developmental stages of an infant. Each stage brings about new understanding and abilities. Because you may have a variety of developmental stages in your care at one time, you will want to create a plan that is flexible and easily adjusted to meet the developmental needs of each child.
Here is a brief overview of the four developmental domains to include....

• Physical - Development of Fine (small) and Gross (large) Motor Skills.
• Cognitive - The process of making sense of the world around them.
• Social - The awareness of others around them and the interaction with others around them.
• Emotional - Development of self-awareness and self-confidence

2. You will want to repeat the activities you plan. I plan a weekly lesson plan and apply the activities with each child as the opportunity arises. Sometimes I am able to repeat an activity many times and other times I can't get to an activity at all. Infants need repeated opportunities to try the activities you plan in order to foster growth in all developmental domain areas.

3. Evaluate your lesson plans regularly.  Each month you will want to adjust the level of ideas you plan to match the rapid growth and development of the babies in your care.

4. Including other areas. I also make sure I include music, sensory play, and creative expression.

5. Infants need time to explore. Don't feel you need to plan something for every waking minute. Infants also just need time to explore their world without constant interruption.

6. A schedule is not the same as a lesson plan. Don't confuse the infant's schedule with the lesson plan. The lesson plan is a set of ideas you hope to include throughout the week but the infant's schedule (sleeping, feeding, diaper changing) will always dictate how much time and when you will be able to present the ideas you have prepared in your lesson plan.

Here is a template that I often use to help me with my planning.

Learn a little bit about Baby Signing!

Webbing lesson plans for preschool

It was recently suggested that I talk a little bit about how to create a web that will help you in creating lesson plans. I am going to present a few very basic webs just to get you thinking!

Centers




This first web is focused on centers. This web is simply an example of how webbing can be used to help you think through all aspects of your classroom planning.  In every web you want to start with the middle of the web. The middle of the web is the core idea that you will build all other parts of the web from.

Webbing out from the word in the middle are the centers I have elected to set up in my classroom. I could have added fewer or more centers. The point of this article is not to tell you what centers to include in your web or classroom, rather to show you how to use the webbing method.

Thematic Web

Now let's take a look at another simple web. This web takes a thematic approach but still focuses on centers. The chosen theme is birds. Now I have to decide what I want to include in my centers to allow for further exploring of the theme.



In the web to the left,  I have added ideas to include in each center. Again this is a very basic example of webbing.

The purpose of webbing is to brainstorm ideas for your lesson plans. You can add more lines to each of the outside circles and at the end of each line, add more ideas.

Going off of this very basic web I would then choose the ideas I like best and transpose the chosen ideas into a lesson plan format.

Here is a basic lesson plan that I created from this simple web...

Webbing is for brainstorming ideas...

Grab a sheet of paper and draw a circle then start building your web of ideas. Your web can be simple or complex.

• Webbing helps you build on a basic idea.
• Webbing illustrates how each idea builds off another.
• Webbing helps you think outside of the box.
• Webbing helps you know where your lesson plans are weak and where they are strong.

Here are a few more basic webbing ideas for you to see how the core concept (middle circle) can be adjusted to meet the planning needs specific to your situation.

Farm Week in Preschool

The children in this class spent the week exploring all about the farm. They explored a variety of activities including how to create the form of a tractor out of shapes.

For sensory, the children drove tractors in (and around) the dirt.

The children discovered the feel and shape of lima beans. The children then added water to their lima beans and let them sit overnight to see what would happen next. The next day, the beans absorbed the seeds and expanded. The children tried to predict what they thought would happen and many of them predicted the beans would get smaller.

Some of the children explored haystacks. The children sprinkled glue and shredded wheat on the print out.

For science, the children made butter from whipping cream. They poured whipping cream in a jar and shook it throughout the morning. After the butter was formed, they poured off the extra milk. Then the butter was refrigerated and later the children put a little of their home made butter on crackers to taste.

Toddler lesson plans

Several years back, I was contracted with a local childcare program to write toddler lesson plans. In all my years of teaching, I had never worked in a toddler classroom. I raised my own toddler which helps but I know it isn't the same as managing 10 toddler all at once. To prepare, I did some observations in the classroom and read up on toddler growth and development. I thought I would share with you a a brief overview of the lesson plans I developed and the format in which I gave it to the teachers.

First I wanted to include important developmental areas that a toddler needs to develop during this stage of growth. I broke down the lesson plan into sections which included...

• Sensory
• Speech and Vocabulary
• Creative Art
• Music and Movement
• Large and Fine Motor Skills
• Daily Life Skills

Often times the activities I created to promote these different developmental areas would overlap. One activity may actually promote several areas of development - such as using tongs to pick up toys in the sand table would promote both fine motor and sensory play.

I also took more of a thematic approach...
I based all themes around a concrete object or group of objects rather than abstract ideas. It was important to identify specific objects that would be meaningful and tangible to the child. For example, I wouldn't include a theme about friendship because this is not a tangible concept. Instead, friendship is always being taught through daily interaction with the child. The themes I selected were to highlight more specific concepts or objects that the child could connect with verbally and physically.

Here are some of the themes I included...

• Dig, Dig, Dig: tools we use and plants we grow in the garden
• I like to Eat, Eat, Eat: the fruits and vegetables we eat 
• Ring-A-Ling: musical instruments we can play
• Beep, Beep, Zoom, Zoom: trucks, cars, airplanes, and boats

The reason for choosing cute titles was two-fold. First to keep teachers who would read the lesson plans thinking in terms of toddler age children. Second, so that when the lesson plan was sent out to parents or posted on a parent board, they too would view preschool for what it should be - fun and engaging.

Lesson plan forms...
I created my own lesson plan forms based on the developmental areas I wanted to make sure I covered throughout each week. Here is a partially completed sample of the lesson plan overview form...

In each space of the form, I would write the title of the activity I planned to use each day. Then attached to each outline of the overall plan would be several pages of information describing the details of each activity highlighted on the overall plan.

Here are two examples of detailing the lesson plan:

Consistency and repetition
The lesson plans remained consistent in format so the teachers could more easily follow them. The lesson plans included many activities that were repeated weekly; for example the treasure box activity was presented to the children every week but the items in the treasure box were rotated based on the theme of that week.

Daily Life Skills
I always included daily life skills such as washing hands in the sink or helping to sweep up the floor.

Sensory
I always included sensory activities including water table, sand table, shave cream, feely boxes, and so forth.

Music and Movement
I always included fingerplays or songs that children could move to and sing with.

Circle Time
Age appropriate books were suggested for each day. Many were read all week long and the term "circle time" was used more as a guide for the lesson plan form rather than a guide for how to present a book in the toddler classroom.

Nursery Rhymes
The school provided me with a wonderful collection of nursery rhyme puppets, CD's and posters that were incorporated into the lesson plans. One nursery rhyme per week.

What about the ABC's and other basic concepts?
These concepts were introduced or reinforced through the various themes on a daily basis. Rather than having the children sit down and have a lesson on the color red, for example, the color red and the sound of the word red was used through casual interaction with the toddlers on a daily basis. A print rich environment where toddlers can explore these concepts was also part of the overall program.

This truly is a very brief overview of what all goes on in developing a lesson plan but it gives at least an idea of the potential that can be planned or provided for in a toddler classroom. Keep in mind that the classroom or learning environment itself is an extension and key aspect of any lesson plan.

Photo was taken by Karena Michelle DeMerchant and permission granted to use it in this post.

Lesson Plans: A Basic Approach

Before writing your next lesson plan, consider the "Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How" approach. For each activity you plan to do, ask yourself the six questions below.


Who are you writing these activities for?

• The "who" focuses on keeping the lesson plan age appropriate.

What activity are you going to do?

• The "what" focuses on the specific activities you plan to include.

Where are you going to do the activity?

• The "where" focuses on the specific location your activities will take place.

When are you going to do the activity?

• The "when" focuses on scheduling enough time.

Why are you going to do this activity?

• The "why" focuses on the concepts or skills your students will learn (also called learning objectives).

How are you going to present the activity?

• The "how" focuses on the children's experience and involvement in the activity.

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Copyright (c) 2009 Deborah J. Stewart; All rights reserved!

What is a Daily Lesson Plan?

A daily lesson plan is a clearly defined schedule of activities that you plan to implement throughout the classroom day.


Lesson plans come in many formats. Some teachers write their own lesson plans and other teachers follow a lesson plan provided by the school. In either case, the key to success in any classroom is to have a plan.

Just because you have a plan, doesn't mean you can't deviate from that plan. But a well thought out plan for the day helps you prepare for how the children will spend their time and what they will be learning while in your care.

When preparing a lesson plan you should consider the following needs of your students...

1. Their daily schedule
2. Their developmental readiness
3. Their attention spans
4. Their interests

When preparing a lesson plan you should consider the following environmental needs...

1. The space in your classroom
2. Other space in the building available to you
3. The equipment and supplies you will need

When preparing a lesson plan you should consider the following developmental domains...

1. Cognitive
2. Physical
3. Social
4. Emotional

When preparing a lesson plan you should consider including the following content areas...

1. Language art
2. Creative art
3. Science and Nature
4. Math
5. Social Studies
6. Music and Movement
7. Free Play in CentersOutdoor/Indoor Play

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Copyright © 2009 Deborah J. Stewart, All Rights Reserved!