Lesson plans serve as a teacher's daily roadmap, outlining what students need to learn, how the material will be taught, and how learning outcomes will be assessed. These plans consist of daily activities that help teachers stay organized and effective by providing a detailed guide for each class period.
🚨 Your school's administrator can choose to require approval for lesson plans created by teachers.
View Lesson Plans on Web
🚨 Staff can only see the lesson plans for their assigned classroom. If you have questions about the lessons you can view, please contact your administrator.
From your Teacher Dashboard, click Lessons and then Overview.
Your lesson plans for the current week will open.
Click Week Of and use the calendar to select a different week to view.
View Approved, Pending, and Rejected Lesson Plans
If your school requires lesson plan approvals, you can toggle between your approved, pending, and rejected lesson plans. Click the tabs at the top of the Lesson Plan page to change your view.
View Lesson Plans and Activities on Mobile
Lesson plans and activities can be viewed on the mobile app, making it easy for teachers to reference the lesson plan while they are in the classroom.
Open your Playground mobile app, tap the three lines at the top left corner of the screen, and tap Lesson Plans.
Today's lesson plan will open. Tap a date at the top of the screen to view the lesson plan for that day.
Tap an activity to view the details and instructions.
If you would like to post an observation for this activity, click Post in the top right corner of the screen.
Create and Edit Activities
Activities are the foundation of lesson plans. Add new activities to Playground so you can build out lesson plans.
View and/or Edit Activities on Web
From your Teacher Dashboard, click Lessons and then Activities.
A full list of your activities will appear in a table.
You can filter this list and/or add additional columns to the table.
Click the three dots next to a lesson plan, View, Edit, Archive or Delete.
If you select View, the activity will open in a side panel where you can review its details.
If you select Edit, the activity will open so you can make updates. Changes made to an activity will apply everywhere that activity is used in lesson plans.
If you select Archive, it will prevent the Lesson Activities from being added to new lesson plans. Existing lesson plans will not be impacted.
If you select Delete, the activity will be removed from all existing lesson plans and can no longer be added to new lesson plans. This action cannot be undone.
The activity will open, and you can view and/or edit it depending on your selection.
Click Save to return to the full list of activities.
If your program is part of an enterprise, activities that were created at the enterprise level can’t be edited, archived, or deleted from a location's Activities page. If you try, you’ll see a message letting you know the activity must be managed from the Enterprise Dashboard. To make changes, reach out to your enterprise administrator.
💡 Editing an activity will change that activity for all lesson plans it is included in.
Create a New Activity
From your Teacher Dashboard, click Lessons and then Activities.
Click the blue Add Activity button in the top right corner of your screen. Fill out the information in each section:
Click Plan with Camber to generate your activity using AI! After clicking Plan with Camber, type what you want your activity to be about.
Once you have entered your prompt, click the blue button or tap Enter on your keyboard.
You will then have the option to accept, deny, or remix Camber's activity. Clicking Remix will prompt you to enter additional notes and make changes to your original prompt.
Activity basics: Specify the details of the lesson activity and add any required resources
Add the name, brief description of the activity, materials, and age range for the activity. Categories and internal notes are optional.
Click Add more details to add additional information to your activity. This information includes:
Summary
Unit
Duration
Location (Indoors or Outdoors)
Group Size (Small, Medium, Large, Individual)
Tags
Classrooms
Click Attach a file or URL to add additional resources
Attach required resources such as a video, PDF file, or other media/documentation.
Click Next: Select Milestones if you want to add milestones to your activity. This will only show up if your school utilizes learning curricula in Playground. Reach out to your admin for more information if needed.
Suggested milestones will be visible toward the top of the screen based on the activity details you added on the previous page. Click Deselect all to deselect the suggested milestones and choose your own. All milestones will be listed towards the bottom of the page and they can be added by clicking the checkboxes next to each one. You can also search for specific milestones.
Click Finish and create to complete.
Create and Edit Lesson Plans
Prefer to watch a video? Click here.
Lesson plans are created week-by-week and are made up of activities.
On Web
From your Teacher Dashboard, click Lessons and then Lesson Plans.
Click the blue New Lesson Plan button in the top-right corner of your screen.
Add the required information for the lesson plan:
Lesson plan title: the title that will be visible to staff
Week of: the week the lesson plan will take place
Classroom: the classrooms this lesson plan should be visible to
[Optional] Add a note for each day by typing in the text box that says Enter Note For The Day.
Click on Add Row to start adding the activities you created to the lesson plan.
Each row allows for a section title and one or more activities.
To delete a section, click on the red Trash Can icon.
To duplicate a section, click on the Multiple-box icon.
Click on + Add Activity under each day to add activities for that day.
The Select Lesson Activity window will appear
Search for the activity by the name you gave it.
Click into the search bar to bring up all of your created activities.
You can create new activities on the fly by clicking on Create New in the window.
Select the activity you wish to add and click Save to add the activity to your lesson plan.
You can view additional details about the lesson by clicking on the Eye icon
To delete the activity, click the three dots and then click Remove.
Continue adding as many activities as you'd like.
Click on Settings to customize your lesson plan.
Show Weekends For This Lesson Plan: If your school is open on the weekends, select this option.
Set the Teacher's Visibility.
Editable - teachers can view and edit the lesson plan
Visible - teachers can see the lesson plan but cannot edit it
Hidden - teachers cannot see the lesson
Click Save to create your lesson plan.
If your school requires lesson plan approval, the lesson plan will move to the Pending Approval tab until approved. Once approved, the lesson plan will move to the Approved tab.
💡 You can edit a created lesson plan by clicking into the Lesson Plans tab and then clicking on the lesson plan you want to edit. Make sure to confirm edits made by clicking Save.
On Mobile
From your Playground mobile app, tap the menu icon in the top left-hand corner of your screen and select Lessons.
If no lesson plans have been created for the week, you should see the option to Copy a lesson from a previous week, or Create one from scratch.
If you tap Copy from previous week, a list of previous lesson plans should populate. Select the one you want to copy.
Tap Create from scratch or the blue plus sign in the top right-hand corner to create a plan from scratch.
If lesson plans have already been created for the current week, you can create a new lesson plan by tapping the pencil icon in the top right hand corner. Select Create a new lesson plan to create a new one.
Enter a Name for your lesson plan.
Select the week you want the lesson plan to apply to.
Select the classrooms you want to add the lesson plan to. All classrooms will be selected by default.
Optionally add an internal note that will only be visible to other staff.
Add at least one section so activities can be added later on. Tap Add section to do so.
Enter a Section name and click Save.
Tap the pencil icon to edit the section name or the trash can icon to delete it.
Additional sections can be added by clicking the blue plus sign.
Tap Save in the top right-hand corner to create your lesson plan. You can also delete the lesson plan at any point by tapping Delete lesson plan.
Tap Add a daily note to add a daily note to your lesson plan. These notes are visible to families and other staff.
Tap Search for activities or the blue plus sign to add activities to your lesson plan.
Search or filter to find and select an activity to add it.
You can filter by an activity's Location, Category, Group Size, Unit, and Tags.
Tap the activity and tap the Add button in the top right-hand corner to add it to your lesson plan.
Add more activities to your lesson plan or tap the back arrow in the top right-hand corner to return to your lesson plan.
FAQs
Why don't I see the option to create a new lesson plan or activity?
Why don't I see the option to create a new lesson plan or activity?
If you don't see the option to create a new lesson plan or activity, your role may not have the necessary permissions to do so. In this case, please reach out to your admin and have them grant you access to create lesson plans and activities.