Holidays and seasons offer many opportunities for preschool lesson plans. For example, during October, a Fall theme might be used. The teacher would plan all lessons and activities in the classroom around Fall, including painting with leaves or taking a field trip to a pumpkin patch. Holiday and season themes can also be carried into learning centers such as counting pumpkins at the math station.
The teacher can choose a letter of the week and plan lessons for it every day. For example, if the letter of the week is B, she could read stories about bats, birds and bumblebees and teach the children songs about blue balloons. Students could trace the letter B at the writing center and play with bear puppets in the dramatic play center. This theme can be carried into snack time by serving the children berries or bananas.
The teacher can plan themes around subjects that are both educational and interesting to preschoolers. These might include topics such as insects, the ocean, farm animals, dinosaurs, community helpers, transportation and the jungle. For example, an insect unit could include reading stories written from the point of view of an insect and counting the legs of an insect together. Students might make insects out of clay as an art project and sort different types of insects at the science center.
State education departments have standards for preschool learning. The teacher can choose an educational goal based on the standard and plan activities to address the learning goal. For example, if one of the state's standards is that preschool students should recognize the numbers 1 through 20, the teacher can plan lessons and activities to teach the children these numbers and their values, introducing a game at the computer center, for example, where students can match numbers with pictures representing those numbers.