Updated October 2026. About 6 minutes to read.
Where a lesson plan comes from
A lesson plan is one row of your scheme of work, expanded into a plan for a single lesson. The strand, sub-strand, outcomes and inquiry question should match the scheme. If they don't, either the scheme or the plan needs fixing.
The parts of a CBC lesson plan
1. Administrative details
School, grade and stream, learning area, date, time, and roll (number of learners, often split by girls and boys).
2. Strand and sub-strand
Copied from the scheme of work row for this lesson.
3. Specific learning outcomes
Start with "By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to:" and list two or three outcomes you can observe in this lesson, covering knowledge, skills and attitudes where it fits.
4. Key inquiry question
One open question that learners will explore during the lesson.
5. Core competencies, values and PCIs
Name the competencies the activities develop (for example communication and collaboration, critical thinking, creativity), the values the lesson promotes (such as respect, responsibility, unity), and any pertinent and contemporary issues it touches (such as environmental conservation or safety). Pick the ones your activities really develop, not all of them.
6. Learning resources
Books with page numbers, materials and local resources.
7. Organisation of learning
How learners will be arranged: individually, in pairs, in groups, or outdoors.
8. Introduction
About five minutes. Connect to what learners already know, or pose the inquiry question.
9. Lesson development
The main part of the lesson, written as numbered steps. Each step should say what learners do. Give each step a time, and check the times add up to the lesson length.
10. Conclusion
About five minutes. Learners summarise, share or demonstrate what they've learned.
11. Extended activity
A short task to continue learning at home or in the community.
12. Assessment
How you'll know learners reached the outcomes during the lesson.
13. Reflection
Written after the lesson: what worked, what didn't, and what you'll change. This is often left empty, and it's the part inspectors notice.
A short example
- Sub-strand
- Kitchen garden
- Learning outcomes
- By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to: identify vegetables grown in a kitchen garden; prepare a small seedbed; enjoy working with others.
- Key inquiry question
- Why should every home have a kitchen garden?
- Introduction 5 min
- Learners name vegetables eaten at home this week.
- Development 20 min
- Groups sort vegetable pictures into leaves, roots and fruits.
- The class visits the school garden; each group clears and levels a small bed.
- Conclusion 5 min
- Groups share one reason a kitchen garden helps a family.
Tips that save time
- Plan from the scheme, not from scratch: the outcome and inquiry question are already decided.
- Reuse good activities across a sub-strand, changing the context.
- Write the reflection the same day, in two sentences.
Let Nyota draft it
With the CBC lesson plan generator in NyotaSkul, Nyota drafts every part of this format from your approved scheme row. You review, edit and save, and finishing the lesson fills your record of work.
Lesson plans in minutes, not evenings
Watch Nyota draft a plan for your class in a 30-minute demo.
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