Creating lesson plan themes for toddlers involves thinking about what toddlers are capable of learning and where their interests may lie. Toddler lesson plans should be created with the notion that at their age, they may not have the attention span of older children. In addition, toddler lesson plan themes should stimulate their imaginations and work on important skills such as motor skills and learning names for objects.
Colors
Color themes can be done in a number of different ways. The preschool teacher may want to give each color its individual lesson plan, or deal with several colors at once. Children could color with specific colors, use finger paints and read books about the colors. While some things, such as spelling the colors, may be too advanced, most toddlers can grasp the differences between colors, even if they can't necessarily pronounce the colors.
Animals
Many different lesson plans can be dedicated to the theme of animals. Children can look at books about animals, color pictures of the animals and watch videos about animals. Some teachers may even want to have students dress up as their favorite animal; this may work well if the animal theme is used around Halloween time. One lesson plan theme can be centered around circus animals, while another can be animals found on specific continents, such as Australia or Africa.
Holidays
Each holiday lends well to a toddler lesson plan theme. Holidays like Valentine's Day, Christmas and Halloween all have different activities that can be done by toddlers. For Easter, toddlers can color Easter eggs or have a small Easter egg hunt within the classroom or on the playground. Thanksgiving lesson plan themes may have the children decorating their own pilgrim hats or eating a special Thanksgiving-themed lunch. The children can sing songs about the holidays, or watch videos involving the holiday themes.
Seasons
Each season can become a separate theme for toddler classrooms. In winter, the children can decorate snowflakes with glitter and hang them around the classroom. Spring can give the children a chance to decorate the classroom with flowers and sing songs about blooming. In the fall, toddlers can play in leaves or pretend to rake. Summer themed lessons could include playing in sprinklers or coloring suns.
Nursery Rhymes
Nursery rhyme themes may prove popular with toddlers. The nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle" gives several different possible activities, such as coloring cows or decorating dishes and spoons. There are also many different specials about nursery rhymes that the kids could watch. Reading the rhymes to them or singing them would be a fun way to help the children learn.