DIFFERENT CONCEPTS IN PLANNING LESSONS AND ACTIVITIES

Six Early Childhood Concepts that Lay the Foundation for Future Learning

1. Adaption. A child’s ability to modify a skill to suit the environment. Adaptation is the highest level of
achievement in early childhood. If a child learns to masters this skill during their foundational years, it will only
become heightened throughout the rest of their life, leading to increased skill and knowledge acquisition.
2. Temperament. Your child’s temperament is made up of personality traits that will ultimately shape their
overall personality. It is during early childhood that positive personality traits such as resilience and curiosity
form. These traits can play a huge role in the future, as they help students learn at exponential rates.
3. Socialization. The ability to learn and execute the social norms and expectations of society. Without the ability
to socialize with others, our learning curve is limited. Think about all the things that we learn from other people,
whether they are family members, friends, classmates, teachers, mentors, etc. If we didn’t learn to socialize in
early childhood, the skills and knowledge base that we have would probably be significantly diminished.
4. Emotional intelligence. The expression, understanding, and regulation of emotions. This skill is acquired in
early childhood education and helps us to form the intrapersonal and intrapersonal skills that it takes to participate
in a learning environment and in the world in general.
5. Communication rules. Rules and characteristics of a conversation that must occur for there to be order in the
exchange. Without these rules in place, communication will break down.  We wouldn’t be able to learn via
conversations with others, because we would violate the basic rules of communication, and the conversation
would end or become unproductive.
6. Imagery. A strategy for memorizing new information wherein a child superimposes images of one or more
stimuli so that the relationship between the images helps with recall. Without this skill, we wouldn’t possess the
spatial awareness that it takes to play sports or drive a car.

Lesson plans for daycare cover three key elements of a learning activity:
 Learning objectives (why the lesson is taking place and what kids should know by the end)
 Methodology (what specific activities and materials will be used)
 Assessment (how you will check the students’ understanding and the lesson’s efficacy)

Why is Lesson Planning Important?

 Planning lessons in advance is indispensable for teachers. A well-planned lesson ensures you are covering all the
necessary ground, making effective use of time and meeting the needs of every learning style.
 Your child care lesson planning will let you provide a structured learning experience for your students, and
make sure that they receive adequate opportunities across all learning domains. And an expertly-planned lesson
lets you handle the unexpected with grace, including seizing on spontaneous learning opportunities.

Learning Objectives
A daycare teacher creating a lesson plan must begin with the end in mind. Clearly defining your desired
learning outcomes lets you effectively plan and prioritize your activities, as well as measure your success. 
Not only do you need to know what your students will learn, but also, you need to know why it’s important for
them to learn it, and how they will demonstrate that they have learned it. That way, your activities will be tied in to the
relevant learning domains and you can easily assess progress.

To plan learning objectives, think about:

 The topic of the lesson

 What your students likely already know about the topic
 What you want students to know at the end of the activity
 The most important takeaways, and what is of secondary importance
 What will be gained in each learning domain as a result

Related Requirements
 Once you know the learning objectives, tie them in to your state’s early learning standards, your curriculum, or
any other requirements that may be relevant. That way, you can document your compliance over time.

Lesson Materials
In conjunction with developing your lesson procedure, detail what you’ll need to complete the lesson: handouts,
visual aids, arts and crafts supplies, learning toys, etc. Then you can ensure everything is on hand well before the lesson
begins.

Lesson Procedure
The lesson procedure describes what you’ll actually do during the lesson. This should be the longest and most
detailed part of your lesson plan. Your lesson procedure will address each learning objective so you can plan activities
that will effectively help your students reach those objectives.

A good daycare lesson procedure includes:

 Introduction or motivation, to get students interested in and thinking about the topic
 Learning activities to help students explore the topic from multiple perspectives and meet different learning needs
 An opportunity for students to practice or apply what they learned
 Reflection activities where students summarize what they learned and why it matters
 Progress assessment according to your objectives
 A conclusion and preview, where you summarize, answer lingering questions, and link the lesson to past and
future activities

Thoroughly prioritized lesson objectives will guide you in time management. Make a note of what parts of the lesson
are crucial and cannot be skipped, what can be omitted if there is not enough time, and what can be added in if there is
more time than expected.

Evaluation & Assessment

Depending on your objectives and the needs of your students, different evaluation methods may work for your
lesson. Quizzes and homework are common methods of evaluation for older kids, but for younger kids, less formal
assessment methods are often appropriate. This usually means making notes on the students’ classroom behavior and how
well they completed the activities.  Your assessments should be objective, recording facts, not opinions. Report on
the expected milestones in each learning domain according to your state standards. You can also involve parents in your
assessments by sharing learning outcomes via a parent engagement. 

Reflection
Although it’s part of a lesson plan, a lesson reflection takes place after the lesson. By reflecting on your lesson
and its success, your lesson plans can become records of your teaching, too. Take a few minutes after every lesson to ask
how well you met your learning objectives and time goals. What went right? What could be improved for next time?

ACCOMMODATIONS AND MODIFICATIONS FOR CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Accommodations and modifications are tools used by your child’s IEP team to help level the playing field for kids
with learning difficulties • Understanding the differences—along with what the options are— can help ensure that your
child’s needs are met at school
The difference between success and failure for students with LD and ADHD often comes down to how effectively the
curriculum is adapted to individual needs. Accommodations and modifications are the tools used by the IEP team to
achieve that end.

ACCOMMODATIONS
Accommodations allow a student to complete the same tasks as their non-LD peers but with some variation in
time, format, setting, and/or presentation. The purpose of an accommodation is to provide a student with equal access to
learning and an equal opportunity to show what he knows and what he can do.

Accommodations are divided into four categories:

 Variations in time: adapting the time allotted for learning, task completion, or testing
 Variation of input: adapting the way instruction is delivered
 Variation of output: adapting how a student can respond to instruction
 Variation of size: adapting the number of items the student is expected to complete

Common examples of accommodations include extended time to complete assignments, provision of notes or

outlines, untimed tests, and reduced number of test questions.

MODIFICATIONS
Unlike accommodations, which do not change the instructional level, content, or performance criteria,
modifications alter one or more of those elements on a given assignment. Modifications are changes in what students
are expected to learn, based on their individual abilities.

Examples of modifications include use of alternate books, pass/no pass grading option, reworded questions in
simpler language, daily feedback to a student.