Preschool teachers, home school teachers, and daycare providers are increasingly turning to the internet for free educational resources such as lesson plans, worksheets, crafts, and activities.
Online resources provide a free and simple alternative to costly curriculum books and software and are a good solution for enhancing your curriculum when you are in need of additional ideas.
The following list is a directory of some of the best free preschool activities and lesson plans available online:
First Preschool Activities and Crafts
First Preschool Activities and Crafts provides a wealth of preschool lesson plans by theme, and offers craft ideas and activities for preschool teachers, daycare providers and home school teachers. Activities can be modified for use with toddlers, preschoolers and kindergartners. A great feature is their Alphabet Activity Index which provides lesson plans by letter. As a bonus, activities, lesson plans and crafts are also available in Spanish.
Preschool Express
Preschool Express is a charming and creative train-themed website by Jean Warren, the previous owner of Totline Publications. This well maintained site includes fourteen “stations”, such as the alphabet station, the story station, and the music & rhyme station. Each station offers activities organized by category. The toddler station is quite expansive and includes toddler activities, art, and rhymes. Warren provides new preschool appropriate skill-enhancing activities each month.
Gayle’s Preschool Rainbow
For educational preschool activities and early childhood education lesson plans, try Gayle’s Preschool Rainbow. The site includes suggestions for pre-k and kindergarten teachers arranged by theme. Visitors can search for activities by keyword and also submit lesson plan and activity ideas.
Preschool Education
Preschool Education is an award winning website with excellent resources for preschool related activities, songs, games, themes and book reviews sorted into easy categories. Check out their “useful recipes” section for homemade everything from bubbles and dye to play dough and slime. Also visit their sister site Preschool Printables for free printable forms like lesson plans, awards and calendars.
EduPuppy
EduPuppy, another award winning website, provides resources for the education of preschool aged children. All of the resources in the database our prescreened so that they are useful and relevant for early childhood educators. EduPuppy’s activities and lesson plans can be searched by keyword or category. Also take a look at EduPuppy’s caregiver resources, which provide information about business management and supplies, developmentally appropriate practice, and lesson plans.
Please remember that it is OK for individuals or organizations to make copies of website materials for individual or classroom use only. Reproduction of the materials for the purpose of commercial use is strictly forbidden.
For more activity ideas, see Nutrition Activities for Daycare.
Carla Snuggs - As a writer for Suite101.com since 2005, it is a privilege to continue on as theTopic Editor for the subject of Day Care. I received a ...
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