Creative curriculum preschool lesson plans are plans that integrate interactive teaching methods. It is not rote teaching where the teacher stands in front of the classroom talking, but it includes all modalities under a theme. When making kindergarten lesson plans or plans for any early childhood classroom the teacher first needs to decide on the unit or theme she (or he) is going to concentrate on.

As this is an art website the art activities that go along with this unit are bolded below.  Art is as I see it, the best way to solidity and concertize the knowledge that the children are gaining from this unit. What I have done for you is created a complete lesson plan as I would do for a fall unit. This is to show you how one can incorporate many parts of the curriculum from one topic.

You can use this for creative curriculum lesson plans for toddlers as well as nursery and kindergarten age. It is also a good idea to have a master list for the whole year. When you are doing the math section you can look up what you want to accomplish in that area to add it in to this type of lesson plan. I have not expounded on the list and there are just points listed below each heading.

A Fall Unit:

Visual aids:

• Fall pictures
• All kinds of tree pictures
• Acorns
• Colorful leaves
• Seeds from trees
• Fall vegetable like pumpkins, squash and gourds.

Field Trips:

• Botanical gardens
• Apple or pumpkin picking
• Market place to see all different fall vegetables
• Fall walks

Math:

• Classify different kinds of apples
• Classify different vegetables
• Graph: 1- seeds from apples 2-which is their favorite leaves 3-apples they like 4-seeds
• Count the leaves and match up amount with numeral

Science

• Add a magnifying glass to view collected leaves and seeds
• Cook vegetable soup
• Cook apple sauce with collected apples
• Make dyes from various fall vegetables
• Chart differences in colors of dyes, have children predict what will happen and record what they say. When activities are over have them match up recording with what really happened.
• What can be done with an orange, an apple, a pumpkin etc.
• Plant seeds and chart growth
• Peel vegetables and fruit, string them and dry them predict and record observations

Literacy

• Record observations from science experiments
• Make experience charts about trips
• Make large recipes for cooking and dying experiences
• Write early reading books about trips and experiences
• Write stories using inventive spelling (using phonetics) to write their own stories
• Label everything brought home from the trip
• Create seed charts
• Where do things grown chart
• Record fruits, vegetables and their differences

Art

• Crafts: make pillows with white cotton material dyed with vegetable dyes

• Make fall collages using precut different shape trees and an assortment of fall color materials

• Nature collages with found materials

• Give children papers in shape of leaves to paint on or real leaves to paint on
  

• Use fall color tissue paper to collage with tissue paper

• Paper mache fruit bowls and fruit

• Leaf collages and rubbings

• Fall mural

Music and movement

• Teach songs like “Squirrel gray with the bushy tail”
• Do movement activities with children using scarves to move as the wind
• Let them use instruments to mimic the sound of the wind and rain and leaves falling

Good luck and I hope this helps you for other units and themes.

If you would be interested in checking out some cool kindergarten teacher websites you may find some ideas there that will help you as well. Or you can check out some of these resources on The Creative Curriculum.
The Creative Curriculum for Preschool,
Creative Curriculum for Early Childhood

Is The Creative Curriculum the only method you use in teaching?