The best way to differentiate learning for all students is to incorporate small group instruction. This enables the teacher to tailor each lesson to meet students at their developmental level. While it does require a little more work, it’s so worth it! I’ve tried to make it a little easier for you to implement small groups with your preschoolers by making a lesson plan template that will guide you through each step in a small group lesson. Check out the small group lesson plans below!
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Lesson Plan Template
Small Group Lesson Plans
In order to simplify the amount of time involved in planning for small group literacy instruction, I’ve created a lesson plan template that is seriously so easy to use. All you do is check the box! Literally.
You’ll notice there are columns to write the students’ names that are in the group. Underneath, I simply use a plus (+) or minus (-) to show if the students have the skill mastered or not. Also, in letter activities, I write the letters that I notice students have not mastered yet.
In shared reading, there’s a spot to write the book title of a Level A book. This set of books from Scholastic is a great price and includes that repetitive structure for our little learners. Believe it or not, my newly three-year-old picks these books up and “reads” them by herself because of that simple, repetitive text.
At the bottom of the lesson plan, there is a spot to write your sentence for interactive writing. I always use the repetitive text from shared reading to write a sentence stem to tie our learning together.
Materials:
Letter Activities
Small Group Lesson Plans
For letter activities, choose one or two from the list, and it should take about 1-2 minutes each day. Here is a list of letter activities that you can do with your small group:
- identify letters on ABC cards (this is where we reinforce our ABC It cards that were taught during whole group)
- sing the alphabet song pointing to the letters on an ABC It chart
- match uppercase to lowercase letters (each kiddo in the group has a letter bag with both uppercase and lowercase letters to match)
- match letters to an ABC chart (again, we use magnets on our ABC IT chart)
- name letters left to right (we use Fluency Strips - which you can grab for FREE)
- find a letter/sound on the ABC chart
- name the letter that begins the word
Materials:
Initial Sound Activities
For Preschool Literacy Groups
Next, for sound activities, choose one from the list, and it should take about 1-2 minutes each day. Here is a list of sound activities that you can do with your small group:
- clap the syllables (I choose words from our shared reading book or that connect to the book)
- name a word that rhymes with ___ (I choose a simple CVC word that we can take turns naming rhymes)
- identify initial sounds (we use one of the sound activities - you can read more about them here)
Materials:
Shared Reading
Preschool Small Groups
For shared reading, use Level A books that include simple, repetitive text. I got this set of 25 books for a great price from Scholastic. Keep in mind that this set only includes one of each book. It would be ideal if each child in your group had their own book to work on one-to-one matching.
When planning for shared reading, choose one or two skills from the list, and it should take about 4-5 minutes each day. Here is a list of skills that you can do with your small group:
- one-to-one matching (point to each word)
- find a letter on a page
- find uppercase or lowercase letters
- locate the period
- find the first or last letter in a word
- point to the first or last word on a page
- describe (or talk about) the illustrations
First, take a picture walk and talk about what the book is going to be about. Then, read the book aloud to your group, modeling how to point to each word. After reading, go back and find the text features from the list above.
Materials:
Interactive Writing
With Sentence Strips
Finally, for interactive writing, you will actually do all of the skills listed. It should take about 4-5 minutes.
- say the sentence stem aloud (I choose a sentence that ties into our shared reading book) and finish the sentence with input from your students
- make dashes on a sentence strip for each word in your sentence
- write the sentence with help from the students, stopping to focus on letter formation for a certain letter, and stopping to work on letter sounds for letters that have been introduced
- talk about punctuation
- cut the sentence strip apart and give a piece to each student
- put the sentence back together, saying it aloud
Materials:
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MORE Alphabet Activities for Preschoolers
After completing all of the small group activities and taking note of which skills students need more instruction with, the next lesson plan will be a breeze. Hopefully, you can simplify your small group lesson plans with some of these ideas and with the small group lesson plan template, which is included in this Alphabet Bundle as a bonus! And don’t forget to check out all of these alphabet activities in action by clicking the buttons above!
