One sheet for a mixed-age group

Daycare Lesson Plan Templates

A home daycare or small center has a two-year-old and a kindergartner at the same table, and a plan per age group is a plan nobody writes. The mixed-age weekly sheet here plans the day once, with a box for how each activity changes by age and a school-age row at the end of the day. The toddler and preschool grids are here for programs with separate rooms.

Mixed ages first, then by room

3 daycare lesson plan templates

Landscape daycare weekly plan for mixed ages with nine rows from arrival to school-age homework, a time column, five weekday columns, and boxes for age adjustments and family notes

Word Google Docs

Daycare Weekly Lesson Plan — Word & Google Docs

One sheet for a mixed-age group — home daycare, family child care or a small center — with an adjustments-by-age box and a school-age row at the end of the day.

Download Word Open in Google Docs

PDF

Daycare Weekly Lesson Plan — fillable PDF

One page, landscape. Type into the fields or print it blank and handwrite.

Download fillable PDF

Landscape toddler weekly plan with nine routine rows including songs and story, sensory play, two outdoor periods and nap, a time column, and three note boxes below

Word Google Docs

Toddler Weekly Lesson Plan — Word & Google Docs

Short group times, long play and two trips outside, with the active-play minimums printed at the foot so the plan passes an inspection as it stands.

Download Word Open in Google Docs

PDF

Toddler Weekly Lesson Plan — fillable PDF

One page, landscape. Type into the fields or print it blank and handwrite.

Download fillable PDF

Landscape preschool weekly plan with a time column and Monday to Friday columns across nine rows from arrival and free choice to a second outdoor play, three boxes beneath and a domain-code legend

Word Google Docs

Preschool Weekly Lesson Plan — Word & Google Docs

The posted activity plan: nine activity rows from arrival to closing with a time column, five days across, and boxes for individual children, materials and families.

Download Word Open in Google Docs

PDF

Preschool Weekly Lesson Plan — fillable PDF

One page, landscape. Type into the fields or print it blank and handwrite.

Download fillable PDF

Specifications: US Letter, 8.5 × 11 inches. Word files are editable .docx that open in Word 2007 through Microsoft 365, including Word for Mac; the Google Docs link makes a copy in your own Drive; the PDF has real form fields and prints as plain hairline boxes when blank. Free to use in as many classes as you like, no account, no watermark.

Why it is laid out this way

About the daycare templates

Family child care is the part of early childhood that templates ignore, and it is a large part: roughly a third of licensed care in many states. Its planning problem is unique — one adult, several ages, one day — and the usual answer, a separate plan per age, does not survive the first week. The mixed-age grid plans activities the whole group does together and uses the adjustments-by-age box to say how: the toddler scribbles, the four-year-old traces, the school-ager writes the sign. Lunch and rest are rows because a nap for the youngest is quiet choice for the oldest, and the plan should say what that is.

Licensing for family homes mirrors the center rules in most states: a written plan covering every child in care, posted where parents can see it, kept for a period after. The sheet carries those notes. Where a provider runs separate toddler and preschool groups, the two single-age grids on this page are the ones to post for each.

Questions teachers ask

Daycare lesson plans, answered

Does a home daycare need a written lesson plan?

In most states a licensed family child care home needs a written activity plan or daily schedule on the same terms as a center — Texas's Chapter 747 parallels its center rule, for instance. Registered or license-exempt homes often do not, but a posted weekly plan is still the single thing that most reassures a parent touring the house.

How do I plan for infants and school-agers on the same sheet?

Plan the group activity in the cell and the age adjustments in the box underneath; infants join where they can (floor time during art, stroller during outdoor play) and their own routines run alongside. School-agers get the last row — homework, a project, a job — because the after-school hour is where a mixed-age plan usually falls apart.

What about summer?

The same grid; summer weekly plans in daycare are mostly a theme change and more outdoor rows. Relabel the two outdoor rows as morning and afternoon outside time, drop the school-age homework row to a project row, and keep the posting footer — licensing does not take the summer off.