Teaching Preschool: A Year of Inspiring Lessons

Learn how to develop creative and balanced preschool lesson plans for every month of the school year. This course will equip you with a solid lesson plan template, plus over 100 engaging and interchangeable activities for circle-discussion, art, literacy, motor skills, science, and music.

6 Weeks / 24 Course Hrs

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Offered in partnership with your preferred school

University of Central Florida

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Learning method

Self-Guided

$129

No instructor. Study on your own schedule

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Instructor-Moderated

$129

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Starting March 12 | April 16

Details + Objectives

Course code: tps

If you teach preschoolers, crafting original and inspiring lesson plans may have been a daunting task, but not for much longer. In this course, you will get equipped with a solid lesson plan template and lots of interchangeable activities to choose from—plenty of inspiration to take you and your students from September to May.

You will learn over 100 circle-discussion, art, literacy, fine and large motor skill, science, and music activities that you can take into your classroom right away. Then you can adopt the ideas just as they are or tweak them slightly to fit a variety of themes. Either way, you will have ample material for crafting memorable, balanced, and engaging lesson plans.

Whether you're already teaching or you're just investigating a career as an early childhood educator, you're sure to find the right mix of inspiration, motivation, and practical tips in this short yet comprehensive course.

What you will learn

Learn a foolproof, endlessly-modifiable template for preschool lesson planning
Learn over 100 art, literacy, motor-skill, circle-discussion, science, and music activities in just 6 weeks
Discover how to craft original and inspiring lesson plans that will engage and keep the attention of your preschool students
Discover how to build lesson plans to last the duration of the school year calendar

How you will benefit

Gain confidence in your ability to reach and inspire young students
Learn a year's worth of activities to teach and engage preschool-aged children
Understand how to develop and use a template for an endless number of creative lesson plans

How the course is taught

Instructor-Moderated or Self-Guided online course
6 Weeks or 3 Months access
24 course hours

Outline

Have you ever thought about teaching children aged 2 to 5? Or maybe you already are and just want some fun, creative ideas to help you reach these students on their level. Either way, you're going to discover new techniques for teaching preschool and the skills needed for success in the classroom.

Some people think that preschool teaching is limited to art projects and snack time. Nothing could be further from the truth—the best preschool classrooms are structured around balanced lesson plans. In this lesson, you will learn the first four components of a trusty lesson plan template—themes, circle discussions, literacy activities, and songs and fingerplays.

Now that you know the first four components of your lesson plan template, are you ready to meet the rest? A balanced lesson plan also includes art projects, number sense activities, large and fine motor skill activities, dramatic play, and science and discovery time.

There's something about going back to school in September. For teachers, it's an exciting time of year because you get to meet your new students. But students often have a lot of anxiety about going back to school. In this lesson, you will discover smart strategies to make the classroom transition easy on them.

October is a month of spooks and scares, but that doesn't mean that your lesson plans need to be in horrifying shape. That's what you will learn about in this lesson—everything from the books to the art projects and dramatic play that complement Halloween.

November is the month to teach students to consider all that they have and how grateful they are for wonderful things in their life. In this lesson, you will build a week's worth of lesson plans around the Thanksgiving theme.

If November is a month for being thankful, December is a month for grand-scale celebration. In this lesson, you will craft lesson plans around the theme of Celebrations Around the World—including books, circle discussions, and art projects that celebrate diversity and cultural exploration.

In this lesson, you will plan a week's worth of lessons around the winter theme. You will be able to build your own winter wonderland at school with lesson plan ideas that incorporate number sense, discovery, games, and art projects. No passport necessary!

It's always great to get a valentine, and Valentine's Day is a fantastic time to incorporate some heart into the preschool classroom. In this lesson, you will create a week's worth of Valentine's themed lesson plans.

March is often when people notice the sunshine and puffy clouds in the sky. That makes March the perfect time to plan a weather-themed week. In this lesson, you will do just that—craft literacy, number sense, science, and motor skill activities around the weather.

Since spring is a time that brings birth and renewal in the natural world, what better time to teach students about animals and outdoor life? In this lesson, you will craft a variety of farm and animal-themed lesson plans that include art projects, science and discovery time, and circle discussions.

May is the perfect time to pay tribute to some of your students' favorite people: the moms who love them. In this lesson, you will develop a week's worth of lesson plans around Mother's Day crafts, activities, games, books, and art projects that help your students appreciate Mom.

Instructors & Support

Kt (Katie) Paxton

Kt (Katie) Paxton is a certified teacher with a Master's Degree in Education focusing on Learning and Technology. She has more than 20 years of classroom experience and has been an online instructor since 2003. She also owned and managed a home daycare for five years and is the author of More Adventures With Kids in San Diego. Furthermore, Kt has trained and placed tutors with at-risk students in over 100 schools in addition to working with the students herself.

Instructor Interaction: The instructor looks forward to interacting with learners in the online moderated discussion area to share their expertise and answer any questions you may have on the course content.

Requirements

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to take this course.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

PC: Windows 8 or later.
Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

FAQ

Instructor-Moderated: A new session of each course begins each month. Please refer to the session start dates for scheduling.

Self-Guided: Your course begins immediately after you enroll.

Instructor-Moderated: Once a course session starts, two lessons will be released each week for the 6 week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends. You will interact with the instructor through the online discussion area. There are no live sessions or online meetings with the instructor.

Self-Guided: You have 3 months of access to the course. After enrolling, you can learn and complete the course at your own pace, within the allotted access period. You will have the opportunity to interact with other students in the online discussion area.

Instructor-Moderated: The interactive discussion area for each lesson automatically closes two weeks after each lesson is released, so you're encouraged to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release. However, you will have access to all lessons from the time they are released until the course ends.

Self-Guided: There is no time limit to complete each lesson, other than completing all lessons within the allotted access period. Discussion areas for each lesson are open for the entire duration of the course.

Instructor-Moderated: Students enrolled in a six-week online class benefit from a one-time, 10-day extension for each course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.

Self-Guided: Because this course is self-guided, no extensions will be granted after the start of your enrollment.

Reviews

This was my favorite class so far! I have learned so much in this course and taken away so many lesson plan ideas as well. I was glad to see that we have a lot of similar ideas and teaching methods in common; it makes me feel more confident in my teaching and feels like I am doing a good job.

I have been a preschool teacher for 9 years now and this course gave me some new exciting ideas to use in my classroom. I am so glad I took the class.

I just want to say that I LOVED this course. KT (the instructor) did an excellent job. I found this course very interesting and fun. I loved her ideas and suggestions. She made me feel confident in setting up lesson plans and dealing with situations that may arise in the classroom. Thanks again, KT, for everything!

This was an amazing course! It was very informative and well worth it. Since it was online, it was definitely easy to access anytime of the day...I especially liked the instructor’s writing style because it was definitely very teacher-like especially for the topic of preschool - cute, fun, interesting and educational through each and every lesson.

This is the most helpful course and curriculum I have ever taken. It will remain a resource for me to utilize on may levels.

I have been working in preschool settings for over 25 years. I have enjoyed this course greatly and have learned a lot of new strategies. This course has lit the fire under me and has started my creative thinking for the classroom again. Thank you so much for offering this course.

This is the second course that I have taken with this instructor and she is awesome! The lessons were laid out in an easy way to follow. There were very helpful supplementary articles with each lesson. I enjoyed this course and this instructor and would recommend both to others.

I enjoyed this course and learned a lot of useful suggestions. I am excited to teach preschool this fall! Thank you for making this class not too difficult and providing us with useful lessons and activities.

This was a wonderful class that gave me tons of new ideas that I can't wait to apply to my classes this year. I would definitely take another class from KT!

I'd like the instructor to know that I absolutely enjoyed taking this class and it has already been helpful. It is very clear that you not only have a good deal of experience teaching preschoolers, but you are passionate about what you do and that made returning to the lessons throughout this course even more exciting and fun. I am so glad to be working with little ones again and look forward to continue applying what I have learned here. The resources you provided will also be incredibly helpful as well. Thank you!

I have been a preschool teacher for 9 years now and this course gave me some new exciting ideas to use in my classroom. I am so glad I took the class.

This is the most helpful course and curriculum I have ever taken. It will remain a resource for me to utilize on may levels.

This was a wonderful class that gave me tons of new ideas that I can't wait to apply to my classes this year. I would definitely take another class from KT!

Teaching Preschool: A Year of Inspiring Lessons

University of Central Florida