The Top Daycare Lesson Plans You Have To Try

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Best Daycare Lesson Plans

Who Needs Daycare Lesson Plans

Whether you are a home daycare provider or a daycare center, every single daycare should have daycare lesson plans.

EVERY SINGLE DAYCARE

I know it is easy to plop kids down in front of a screen, but try your best to not do that.  They are such eager learners at this stage, give them every opportunity to learn and grow with you.

And believe me, the daycare parents will be impressed with you!

These daycare lesson plans will work for kids of all ages, but the best ages are preschool and up.  The younger the kids means the more you have to help them.

Why You Need Daycare Lesson Plans

If you don't already do daycare lesson planning, you are going to be amazed at how much of a game-changer this is.

Being organized and ready makes being a daycare provider so much easier.

So, even though it will take work on your part to set things up ahead of time, it will make your days run much smoother when you have a plan.

Also, kids love being consistent and having a schedule.  They want to know what to expect and when to expect it.

How to Set Up Daycare Lesson Plans

You can play around with how you want to set up your daycare lesson plans. 

Do you want to include all the kids in your care or maybe these daycare lesson plans are for when the young ones are taking a nap?

I have been testing and adjusting my daycare lesson plans since 2016.  Adjusting your plans is huge because you don’t want your kiddos to get bored.

For example, can do one activity for an entire week and then move on to another. 

Another idea would be to have every day of the week be a certain activity.  

Let me show you an example of this.

Monday – Write a story and illustrate it

Tuesday – Game Day

Wednesday – Science Experiments

Thursday – Art

Friday – Level Up

There is a description of each of these below.

When To Use Daycare Lesson Plans

Depending on the ages of the kids you take care of, you can use daycare lesson plans during certain parts of the year or all year long.

Since I take care of kids ranging in ages 0-11 (my daughter is the oldest and what a great helper she is!), I work hard to set up phenomenal daycare lesson plans for the summer to keep all the kids engaged in learning.

Don't get me wrong though, I have a daily learning plan for the whole year.  These lesson plans are just way more structured.

I start planning these summer lesson plans at the beginning of May. 

In the planner that I talk about below, a must-have by the way, I write down exactly what we will be doing each day and if there are materials I need to buy or check on in my house so we are ready.

#1 Thing You Need For Daycare Lesson Plans

But having planners to write this all down makes my life easier with running a daycare, having 4 kids, blogging, having a husband who has a time intense job, keeping track of 3 families' schedules, and anything else God thinks I can handle.

Daycare Lesson Plan Ideas

Science Experiments

When I first started planning out daycare lesson plan ideas, I had no idea that science experiment day was going to be the fan favorite of all my kids and daycare kids.

I grabbed this science experiment book and picked out the ones that I thought the kids would like the best.

A few tips to make this work.

Read through the experiments you pick to make sure you know what is going to happen and if you need to do it inside or outside.

Ask your kids make a hypothesis and let them get as involved as possible.

Have a backup experiment lined up in case the first one doesn't work or goes way faster than you think it will.

Art

There are so many art projects to try and kids love creating art.

Set up a small gallery where all of this fantastic artwork can be displayed.

I searched through all the amazing ideas on Pinterest to pick which art projects we should try.

The kids told me this was way more fun than coloring in a coloring book.

Pen Pal

If your daycare kids are old enough, this is an amazing project.  Who doesn't love getting snail mail?  Um, no one, that's who!

Have them write a letter to a different person every week.

The letters don’t have to be long but you can teach them how a letter should be set up, how to ask a question or a few in the letter so the recipient has something to write back about, and how to address the envelope.

Make it extra special by having the kids color a picture to put in it.

You may need to let the daycare parents in on this one to get addresses.

This is so extra, but I love this stationery for kids.

Learn About A State

To do this idea, I would highly recommend getting a United States map and a World map.

This United States map and World Map are a nice size and they are laminated.  You will be able to use dry-erase markers on it to show which state/country you are talking about.

Mark where you live so the kiddos can get a sense of where they are in comparison.

Then swing over to Pinterest to print off a coloring fact sheet of the states you want the kiddos to learn about.

I started with our state so my kiddos would be more interested in this project from the start.

If you think your kiddos can handle it, learn about 2 states in 1 day.  We ended up doing this.

Research a Question

This can be so interesting!

Have each child come up with a question that they want an answer to and then let them research it for about 5 – 10 minutes on the computer.

When the time is up, have them write down what they learned and draw a picture to go with it.

This is an activity where the kids will need to take turns, so have a little something else in mind for the kids to do while they wait.

The kids may need a little push to get started but then it will be like the floodgates burst open.

Some examples of questions we researched include:

How was the rubber duck invented?

When was the first milkshake made?

What forms a rainbow?

You will probably learn so fun new facts along the way too.

Write and Illustrate a Story

Get each of your kiddos their own notebook.  I went with these college-ruled notebooks.

Since the pack was assorted colors, it is easier for my kids to keep track of which color is theirs.

Have them write for a certain amount of time.  This is free writing so have them sound words out on their own.  It doesn’t have to be perfect.

For the younger kids, help them write a sentence.  You may have to prompt them with a question like what is your favorite food or tell me something about Halloween.

Each child should include at least 1 illustration to go along with their writing.

If you really want this to be a teachable moment, have the kids present their masterpiece at the end.

Heavens knows we could all use practice with public speaking.

Games

Playing games can teach kids so many different things – taking turns, math, colors, letter recognition, good sportsmanship, and so on.

I have over 50 games for kids to choose from at my house, and they all get played with.

Puzzles

Wow, did you know there are so many benefits for kids by doing jigsaw puzzles?

They help with fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, problem-solving, memory and attention span, self-esteem, and lots more.

Even if you don’t decide to include puzzles in your daycare lesson plans, make sure to pick some up for your daycare.

I love these durable ones the best.

Wooden Puzzles

Animal Puzzles

3D Puzzles

Legos

Kids of all ages go bananas over Legos.  I know you can’t resist them either.

Start your small kids off with the Mega Bloks, then move them on to the Lego Duplos, and finally when you know the kids aren’t going to put the Legos in their mouth, move on to the classic Legos.

And let’s be honest with each other, you can never have enough classic Legos.

Imaginations will run wild when you present them with Lego challenges like who can build the best house, tallest tower, or coolest car.

Level Up

This one, ugh this one, is my kids' and daycare kids' least favorite.  They consider it "real learning" because we use these workbooks.

Preschool Workbook

Kindergarten Workbook

3rd Grade Workbook

But it is so necessary.  We only do this once a week so they think it is tolerable.

This post was all about the best daycare lesson plans.

Let me know in the comments below if you have other amazing lesson plan ideas.

I look forward to hearing from you and thanks for stopping by.