Literacy-Based Preschool Lesson Plans

I really believe in literacy-based preschool lesson plans. I love books. There is nothing better than going into a bookstore and looking through the stacks. I really love going in the children's section. The books are bright and colorful and most are fun to read.

So if I love books this much why not bring this into my lesson planning? Well, I do. Some of my favorite themes have been based around a specific book. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Gingerbread Boy, and Dinosaur Roar are just a few that I have used.

You really can expand on these books to enrich your whole curriculum. An example may be for Gingerbread Boy. I made a file folder game with gingerbread shapes and numbered them. I had them match the numbers to the correct number of buttons on the gingerbread shapes. We mixed , decorated and baked a large gingerbread boy. When we went back to the oven to get him he was "gone". We then from classroom to classroom asking if they had seen our gingerbread boy. And at the last class, we found him. We had those kids convinced that he was running around to the classrooms. But then of course, we ate him. Just in that activity we worked on math skills (measuring the ingredients), cause and effect (He is gone, so he must have run away like in the story), and problem solving (how do we find him?). And I haven't even gotten to pre-reading skills.

Also, I would have an author of the month each month. It might be Dr. Seuss, Mercer Mayer, or Laura Numeroff. We would read about them and read their books. We would even "write" stories in book form in our writing center. Books and those authors who write them are great resources to lesson planning in preschool.

So the next time you are finding it hard to come up with something new for you lesson plan, go to your bookshelf and pick one out.