Getting into the classroom and starting off with a good vibe is really great, but what’s better is to get in there with a plan. Every teacher ought to have a lesson plan for the topic they will be teaching that day and the rest of the term.
A lesson plan puts things in perspective and lets you focus on the task at hand. With a lesson plan ready, even a novice teacher can handle a bunch of kids in the class.
Primary school children are at a learning stage where they are picking up and learning everything fast, and it is serving as their foundation of knowledge, which will ultimately serve them later in their lives and career.
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It is the quality of their education in primary school that will determine their performance and progress in secondary school and higher institution.
Therefore, it is imperative to have a solid foundation of knowledge and studying before they leave here, and one of the ways that can lead to successful primary school education is if the teachers employ the use of relevant teaching tools in their classes including the use of a lesson planner.
A lesson planner is there to help teachers arrange and organize their lessons before they even got to the classroom. So that they know exactly what to teach and how to impart that knowledge to the kids, and they know if their students have understood.
If you wish to write an ideal lesson plan for primary school children, you will need to know what a good lesson plan should contain. Here are some features of a good lesson plan below.
There are many methods and ways to create lesson plans, and there are many kinds of templates for lesson plans in Nigeria and abroad, created by educators to ease the work for teachers. Most of the lesson plans have different features but what most do have in common are these three elements:
The objectives of a lesson plan are what you want to achieve by the end of the lesson. What is it that you want the students to gain from the lesson?
Answer that, and you have an objective. For example, an objective can be “let the students learn about different types of rock” or “know the definition and types of first aid”.
This is when you decide how you want to achieve your objectives. Design a classwork or some activity in the classroom to sharpen their understanding more.
This could also be the part where you mention the textbooks to be used and other learning materials to be used for that particular lesson.
You will need a way to test their understanding, to assess them before every class lesson is over. By giving a classwork perhaps, or a simple quiz test, etc.
You can design the lesson plan to include assessing each student individually or the class as a whole.
If you are trying to find a lesson planner template or you want to design one that works for you, check below for tips on how to make it the ideal one for primary schools in Nigeria.
Keep your planner as simple as possible. It shouldn’t be complicated with a lot of zigzags to navigate its inner-workings.
Just a simple document to help you ace every class teaching like a pro. Do include all the state board requirements, and other prerequisites as ordered by the school, but don’t add too much detail or make it bulky.
That would just make your day’s work harder, which is counterintuitive to what a lesson planner is supposed to do. Remember, the best plan is a simple plan.
There are hundreds of free templates online, all you have to do is search them on Google and it will reveal plenty of gems you can use.
Some of them are available for download in different formats such as PDF, Word DOC, Excel Sheets, PSD and so on. We would suggest after downloading them you tweak it to fit your own personal style.
The template just makes your work easier and you don’t have to start writing a lesson plan from scratch.
For every class, make sure the class has at least one activity they must participate in that is associated with the subject topic you are trying to teach.
Primary school kids will get excited at the prospect of a class activity, especially if they have to do it as a team, it doesn’t have to be anything elaborate, it is simply to engage them while the lesson is still going on.
An example of a simple class activity you can introduce to a class includes telling the students you will be asking one random person from each row to present the topic in front of the class, after you are done teaching it, it will surely keep them on their toes during the whole period.
For each class or period, include the list of learning materials you will need to give your lessons without a hitch.
The list will serve as a reminder for what and what you need to carry to class for that day.
Usually a lesson planner can contain your lesson plans for the whole term, but while creating it, try to treat each topic separately, as an individual project before moving on to the next topic. Try not to create a one-size-fits-all lesson plan.
Be creative and individualize the content, because if focus your energy on one lesson at a time when writing the lesson plan, you will have more clarity when it comes time to teach it in the classroom.
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