With Amatullah heading toward the 18 month range very quickly here, and Aamina nearing 4 years old, we need to have structure in our day, or they just end up climbing the walls. I’ve been stewing over how to make their days more interactive, fun, and educational, and I was searching and searching for an online preschool lesson plan template that was close to what I had in mind, but I couldn’t find anything for free. I knew I had seen a cute one at the teacher store, but I really didn’t want to pay for a book, plus I want something I can just put in my Home Binder.
Normally I don’t try to reinvent the wheel, but since nothing out there was fitting just right, I just made my own printable. I decided to include:
- Letter
- Number
- Color/Shape
- Prophet
- Shopping list
- Goal/theme for the week
- Notes
Each section is meant to be a theme, and not a strict lesson plan. At this age, there needs to be a lot of give and take. When the kids aren’t interested in doing an activity, then we back off. Sometimes Aamina is begging for more “school” and I have to keep finding new things for her. At least if I have a rough outline of what themes we are doing in a week, it narrows my search, and keeps us on a loose path. Kids learn well from repetition, so focusing on one letter or number each week is helpful.
As we work through the Ad-Duha Level ALP curriculum, many times the letter, number, color, or shape will be in Arabic. The same activities apply, and since Aamina is not yet of reading age, I can really pick up any activity for colors and shapes and use them with our Arabic vocabulary. Easy!
With my super affordable, handy-dandy laminator, I’ve laminated two sets and set up a loose schedule for a two week period of time. When I’m done, I just wipe off one week and start the next without wasting extra paper!
Now, how to decide what activities to use to fill your week? Here’s some suggestions:
- Our planned preschool curriculum
- Ad-Duha Level ALP
- Mudpies to Magnets
- Slow and Steady: Get Me Ready (recommended in The Well Trained Mind for kids birth to age five)
- The Toddler’s Busy Book
- Printables found around the web. I really enjoy Gift of Curiosity’s printable packs
- Pinterest activities! Never underestimate the power of Pinterest.
I’m all for loosely followed routines in the day rather than strict lesson plans for the little ones. If something doesn’t get done in the day because we were having fun doing something else, then that’s great! Now, if I don’t get it done because I just want to play games on my phone and act like a sloth? Not so great. Do what works best for you and your family. Some people like to try to plan an overfilled day so they don’t run out of stuff to do, and they can cut things out as the day goes on. Others like a couple activities planned, and then see where it takes them. Whatever you do, just have fun!
Click on the image to get the preschool lesson plan template:
Some of my kids have vaccinations (the older ones) and my younger ones don’t. Whooping cough makes me a bit uneasy because we have a few light asthma kids (but we still haven’t vaccinated). Loved that you shared what you did to comfort your daughter!
Also love the printable, that is exactly a lay out I would use, as a letter of the week theme. To keep organized color/number/shape is useful too. And we study a Bible character per letter of the week (not always a prophet ;^). Thanks for sharing!
I’m so glad you found this post helpful! I was very fortunate my friend told me about her daughter possibly having whooping cough very early on, otherwise I wouldn’t have put the pieces together until much later. She never got the full “whoop” in her cough, which we are so grateful for! Thanks for stopping by!