Dance to a summer-themed tune as a part of your lesson.

Kids learn best with a combination of exploration and structure, and you can fit both methods into summer-themed lesson plans. During the summer, kids go on vacation, pools open for swimming, flowers bloom and the sun shines most of the day and makes the air warm, so there are numerous topics you can bring into your lesson plan. Don’t be afraid to involve art, music, science experiments and free play time into your day.

Make a list or create a calendar of the number of daycare sessions you have for the summer. Brainstorm topic ideas for each session.

Create a template for your lesson plans. Consider adding art, music, dance and science activities into each lesson. Start a lesson with a greeting or hello song, followed by reading the day’s weather. Do a couple songs followed by an art activity before snack time. After the snack, allow for free play. End the day with a science project, dance or story time before you say goodbye. You can structure your lesson plan however you like, but try to keep each lesson with the same basic elements at the same time, which gives kids the familiarity of routine.

Make a list of activities based on their type. For example, write a list of a few activities that count as art projects and another list of songs that work for your music portion of your lesson.

Print out templates for each session you need. Write one topic at the top of each template that will serve as that day’s theme.

Plug activities from your list into your templates, making sure each game corresponds with the theme. For example, if your theme is the sun, you can sing “Mr. Sun” for the music portion and have the kids paint a sun on a paper plate for art. You can also put black stones in the freezer for 30 minutes or more, take them out and put them in the sun, and come back 30 minutes later and let the kids observe how the stones got hot in the sun, an activity that serves as a science project.

Things Needed

  • ['Calendar', 'Pen and paper']


  • Don’t be afraid to repeat some popular songs or games; young kids love repetition. If possible, use one day to take a field trip to the beach or park, so children can observe and learn about the environment. Warm summer days make these kind of trips easy because you don’t have to worry about bad weather.