30 Lesson Plan Examples for Every Grade Level and Subject

Lesson plan examples including an elementary history plan and a 5E model plan

Lesson planning: Most teachers either love it or hate it. Either way, it’s something every teacher has to spend at least some time doing, so it’s worth learning to do well. Whether you’re a brand-new teacher or an experienced educator looking for some new ideas, these lesson plan examples offer inspiration for every subject and every grade level.

Lesson Plan Sections

Many lesson plans include some or all of the following sections.

Preschool Lesson Plan Examples

Some people think preschool is just playtime, but pre-K teachers know better! Here are some of the ways preschool teachers plan for their lessons.

Weekly pre-k lesson plan broken down by day and activity type

Weekly Lesson Plan

Weekly preschool lesson planning helps you plan each day and ensure you’re tackling all the most important skills.

Caterpillars and Butterflies pre-k lesson plan showing activities in various categories (Lesson Plan Examples)

Pre-K Theme Lesson Plan

If you like to plan by theme, try a template like this. It includes space for a variety of activities that fit your topic.

Preschool weekly lesson plan for teaching the letter S (Lesson Plan Examples)

Alphabet Letter Lesson Plan

If you’re focusing on a new letter of the alphabet each week, try lesson planning like this. You can see the week at a glance, including all the materials and books you’ll need.

Lesson plan examples for elementary classroom learning centers

Centers Lesson Plan

Your centers need some planning too! Whether you change them out weekly, monthly, or as needed, use plans like these to stay prepared.

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Weekly lesson plan for pre-K unit on teaching weather (Lesson Plan Examples)

Weekly Unit Lesson Plan

Adding pops of color and a few images can make it easier to locate the lesson plan you’re looking for in a snap.

Elementary School Lesson Plan Examples

Since elementary teachers tackle multiple subjects every day, their lesson plans might look like a general overview. Or they may prepare more detailed lesson plans for each topic to help them stay on track. The choice is up to you.

Open lesson plan binder to show lesson plan examples

Weekly Overview Lesson Plan

Don’t be afraid to write out your lesson plans by hand! A side-by-side setup like this lets you see a whole week at once. We love the use of color to highlight special things like fire drills.

Color-coded lesson plan for a unit on forest life, with learning objectives, activities, and outcomes

Unit Lesson Plan

Planning out a unit helps ensure you cover all the important topics and meet your learning objectives.

Detailed guided math lesson plan example on adding three-digit numbers

Guided Math Lesson Plan

This example on adding three numbers together can be altered to fit any math lesson plan.

Lesson plan example for teaching art in elementary school

Art Lesson Plan

While these are elementary art lesson plan examples, you can easily use this style for teaching art at upper levels too.

lesson plan example for special education

Special Education Lesson Plans

Lesson planning for special education looks different than general classroom lessons in that the lessons have to cover specific IEP goals and include lots and lots of progress monitoring. The Bender Bunch starts each lesson with independent work (read: IEP practice) and then heads into mini-lessons and group work.

Detailed social studies lesson plan for elementary school on rules

Social Studies Lesson Plan

Including images of your anchor charts is a great idea! That way, you can pull one out and have it ready to go in advance.

A detailed and colorful lesson plan example using the 5E planning process

5E Lesson Plan for Elementary School

The 5Es stand for Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaborate, and Evaluate. This type of lesson planning can be helpful for students as they work through each of the 5Es related to the topic you’re studying.

Elementary science lesson plan example for building a bridge

Science Lesson Plans

If you like to plan your lessons in more detail, take a look at this elementary science lesson plan example.

P.E. lesson plan example for throwing and catching

P.E. Lesson Plan

Gym teachers will love this lesson plan idea, which includes directions for playing the games.

Music class lesson plan example for first graders

Music Class Lesson Plan

Plan out the skills and songs you’ll need for a meaningful music class with a lesson plan like this one.

Middle and High School Lesson Plan Examples

At the middle and high school levels, teachers often need more detailed plans for each class, which they may teach multiple times a day. Here are some examples to try.

Google Sheets template for high school lesson planning

Google Sheets Lesson Plans

Google Sheets (or Excel) is terrific for lesson planning! Create a new tab for each week, unit, or class.

Handwritten lesson plan with highlighted lines and more notes

Handwritten Lesson Plan

Some people really prefer to write things out by hand, highlighting important parts and making notes as they go. You can always convert this kind of plan to a digital format later if you need to.

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Weekly History Plan

This example shows how you can plan out a week’s worth of lessons at once, and see the entire week all in one spot. This example is for history, but you could use this for math, ELA, or social studies too.

Outline and Pacing Guide lesson plans for A Long Walk to Water

Outline and Pacing Guide Lesson Plan

A pacing guide or outline works for both you and your students. Share it at the beginning of a unit to let them know what’s ahead.

Example of a 5E lesson plan that includes engagement, explanation, exploration, evaluation, and elaboration for lesson planning for science

5E Lessons in Middle and High School

5E lesson plans (Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaborate, Evaluate) are great for middle and high school as well. This example is for science, but you can use the 5E structure across all lessons.

Example of using sticky notes to plan lessons

Sticky-Note Lesson Plan

At some point, you’ll know what students are doing each day, you’ll just need some reminders for questions to ask and key points to cover. The nice thing about using sticky notes for lesson planning is if you get ahead or behind schedule, you can move the entire sticky-note lesson to another day. (Find more ways to use sticky notes in the classroom here.)

Example of an understanding by design lesson planning template

Backwards Planning Lesson Plan

If your school uses backwards planning, you’ll be thinking about the outcome first and working back from there (rather than forward from an activity or task). Backwards planning lesson plans are intensive, but they’re also something you can use over and over, modifying them slightly for each group of students you have.

Two-page lesson plan for middle or high school visual arts on creating from recycled materials

Visual Arts Lesson Plan

Detailed lesson plans take longer to prepare, but they make it easier on the day (especially if you wind up needing a sub).

A lesson plan example for teaching ESL speakers to give personal information

ELL or World Language Lesson Plan

Whether you’re teaching English-language learners (ELL) or a world language to English speakers, this lesson plan style is perfect.

Detailed music lesson plan example

Music Lesson Plan

Use a lesson plan like this for choir, orchestra, band, or individual music lessons.

Blended learning lesson plan example

Blended Learning Lesson Plan

If your instruction includes both computer-based and in-person elements, this lesson plan idea might be just what you need.

On sentence lesson plan stating what students will learn, how they will learn, and how they

One-Sentence Lesson Plan

This kind of lesson planning isn’t for everyone, but the extreme simplicity works well for some. Describe what students will learn, how they will learn it, and how they’ll demonstrate their knowledge.

Need more help with lesson planning? Come ask for ideas in the We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook!

Plus, check out Ways To Make Time for More Creativity in Your Lesson Plans.

These lesson plan examples include pre-K, elementary, and middle and high school, in a range of subjects and styles. So many smart ideas!

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Author spotlight

Jill Staake is a Contributing Editor with We Are Teachers. She holds a B.S. degree in Secondary English Language Arts Education and has taught in both middle and high school classrooms. Her background also includes vocational training and performance support, curriculum design and development, and museum education. She’s written hundreds of articles across the web on a vast array of educational topics including her top passions: reading, writing, and science. You can reach her at jill.staake@gmail.com.