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Your Ultimate Guide to Early Childhood Education Lesson Plans

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Childish illustration of young students with pencils, books, large letter cutouts and other classroom objects.

Teaching requires a lot of planning, from organizing the classroom to developing engaging content for students every day. It is important for teachers – especially those working with young children – to establish a vetted repertoire of go-to lesson plans to promote development that is critical from birth to grade 3.

With the constant introduction of new learning standards and changing curriculum requirements, educators must be ready to identify and incorporate new resources for their students. That’s why we’ve compiled the ultimate guide to online lesson plans. Listed alphabetically, you can find valuable teacher resources, including lesson plans, printable classroom materials, worksheets, interactive activities, discussion boards and more. Browse our list and get inspired!

Early Childhood Education Lesson Plans

A to Z Teacher Stuff

Free lesson plans sorted by grade and subject.

ABC Teach

Thousands of free printables and education clip art. Members section includes tools to generate customizable materials.

Artsonia

Free art lesson plans by grade.

Can Teach

Teacher blog with lesson plan resources by grade.

Curriki

It’s a wiki for curriculum. Free lesson plan database, searchable by grade or subject and state standards.

Discovery Education

Free K–5 teacher resources in science, technology, social studies, math and language arts from The Discovery Channel.

Early Childhood Teacher

A list of free online resources created by teachers, for teachers.

Education.com

Preschool lesson plans designed to develop essential early learning skills.

Education World

Free lesson plans, worksheets and activities sorted by grade and subject.

Edupics

Free coloring pages for virtually any subject.

Elementary Lesson Plans (Pinterest boards)

A listing of all Pinterest boards for elementary school teachers.

EZ School

A compendium of free printable worksheets.

Instructables

A good site for hands-on activities.

Jump Start

Games, lesson plans and community. Features popular animated characters from DreamWorks Studios. Lesson plans are sorted by subject.

K–3 Teacher Resources

Find and review lesson plans from other teachers and submit your own. Membership is free.

K–12 Reader

Reading Instruction resources for teachers and parents.

K6edu.com

K–6 elementary education lesson plans. Plans are downloadable as PDF files.

Kids Activity blog

Activity inspiration for kids of all ages.

Learning Reviews

Links to resource pages, rated by users.

Lesson Planet

More than 400,000 online lesson planning resources reviewed and rated by a team of credentialed teachers. Search for lesson plans and filter results by grade level.

Living Montessori Now

Inspiration for Montessori activities in class and at home.

Making Learning Fun

Fun theme-based children’s activities.

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Math Drills

Free and customizable math worksheets for all grades K–12.

Mr. Printables

Free printable arts and crafts.

National Education Association

A list of free lesson plans with searchable database.

No Time for Flash Cards

Resource for parents and teachers filled with fun activities for young children.

PBS Learning Media for Teachers

Thousands of free teacher resources, including current event lesson plans, interactives and videos, from PBS.

PreKinders

Blog with resources for Pre–K teachers, including activities and printables.

Pre-K Pages

Age-appropriate learning activities for Pre–K students.

Preschool Lesson Plan Pinterest boards

A listing of all Pinterest boards for preschool teachers.

Read Write Think

Hundreds of standards-based lesson plans written and reviewed by educators.

Scholastic 

Thousands of free lesson plans, unit plans, discussion guides and extension activities from Scholastic.

School Express

Free worksheets, math activities and fun games.

Share My Lesson

A space for educators to share free K–12 learning materials, including activities, worksheets and lesson plans. More than 260,992 free teaching resources.

Smithsonian’s History Explorer 

Free history lesson plans developed by The Smithsonian Institute. Searchable by grade level and topic.

Soft Schools

Free math and language arts games and worksheets for preschool through middle school students.

Spelling City

Vocabulary lessons for students in elementary through high school, including word lists, articles, videos, research and a members-only message board.

Standards Toolbox

Comprehensive standards toolbox for teachers, parents and administrators.

Teacher.org

Lesson plans designed specifically for kindergarteners.

Teach-nology

A variety of free printable worksheets.

The Teacher’s Corner

Free lesson plans for all subjects, grades K–5. Printable worksheets, seasonal color pages, bulletin board resources and more.

teachers.net

Thousands of free lesson plans.

Teachers First

A free collection of lessons, units and web resources designed to save teachers time by delivering materials in a user-friend, ad-free format.

Turtle Diary

Games, worksheets, puzzles, experiments, stories and crafts for kids in Pre-K through second grade.

Worksheet Works

Customizable worksheets made to your specifications. Free PDF worksheets you can easily create to fit specific needs.

Prepare for Success as an Early Childhood Educator

Concordia University, St. Paul’s online education programs are designed to prepare educators for success. Our child development and early education degrees prioritize relevant coursework specifically for teachers of young children in schools, child care and other learning settings. We combine theoretical and practical approaches that emphasize advocacy, leadership and real-world application so you can help young learners achieve more. With offerings at the associate, bachelor’s and master’s level, you can choose the program that’s right for your career goals in the early education field. Explore our degrees today.

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