What Does a Preschool Teacher Do? Duties and Job Description

A preschool teacher plans and leads the classroom day for children younger than age 5 who have not yet entered kindergarten — the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) definition of the occupation — and does the care work that keeps a room running around that teaching: meals, routines, clean-up and constant supervision.

O*NET's task list for preschool teachers names the teaching core: teach basic skills such as color, shape, number and letter recognition, personal hygiene and social skills; serve meals and snacks according to nutritional guidelines; meet with parents about their children's progress; and maintain student records.

The childcare-worker occupation (SOC 39-9011) — the other federal code behind daycare classroom roles, whose reported titles include Daycare Teacher — adds the care tasks on O*NET's list: keep records on individual children, including daily observations and information about activities, meals served and medications administered; dress children and change diapers; sanitize toys; and communicate with parents about daily activities and behaviors.

Where the job sits shapes what it looks like.

In 2025, 65% of preschool teachers worked in child daycare services, 16% in educational services (state, local and private), 13% in religious, grantmaking, civic and similar organizations, and 2% in individual and family services, according to BLS — so one title covers both year-round center classrooms and school-year school programs.

This page stays on the duties.

For the occupation as a whole — settings, ages, requirements and pay — the preschool teacher career guide covers the role end to end.

The duty list groups naturally into five areas, and O*NET's task lists for the two federal occupations behind daycare classroom roles — preschool teachers (SOC 25-2011) and childcare workers (SOC 39-9011) — name the tasks behind most of them.

• Care and daily routines. Serving meals and snacks according to nutritional guidelines, dressing children and changing diapers where the room's ages call for it, and sanitizing toys — the physical work that keeps a room safe and moving from open to close.
• Teaching. Colors, shapes, numbers, letters, personal hygiene and social skills, in O*NET's wording, delivered through circle time, small groups, learning centers, stories and play that the preschool teacher plans and leads.
• Supervision. Watching the room, indoors and outside, so children stay safe while they play and move between activities — the duty that runs underneath every other task on this page.
• Records. Keeping records on individual children — daily observations and information about activities, meals served and medications administered, in O*NET's wording — plus maintaining student records on the teaching side.
• Family communication. Communicating with parents about daily activities and behaviors, and meeting with them about their child's progress. Daily reports and the word exchanged at pick-up are where that contact happens in a center day.

None of these five stands alone.

A meal is a nutrition task, a supervision task, a records task and a conversation with a family all at once — which is the honest description of why the days go fast.

The frame of the day depends on the setting.

BLS notes that preschool teachers in public schools generally work school hours, often on a 10-month year, while preschool teachers in daycare settings may work year-round with longer hours — and childcare centers are usually open year round with long hours, with some covering the whole day on staggered full- and part-time shifts.

Within whatever hours the program runs, the duties arrive in a recognizable order.

Here is how the task list above unspools across a center day:

• Arrival and greeting. Receive each child, note how they arrive and swap a quick word with the dropping-off adult — the first of the day's family contacts. Table activities or breakfast fill the room as it fills.
• Morning meeting and circle. Calendar, songs and the day's focus — a letter, a number, a shape or a color — delivered to the whole group at once.
• Small groups and learning centers. The teaching block: rotate children through activities aimed at the skills on O*NET's list — letter and number recognition, shapes, social skills — while supervision continues across the whole room.
• Outdoor play. The same duties in a different room: gross-motor play outside, with active supervision the entire time.
• Lunch and rest. Serve meals according to nutritional guidelines, then run nap or rest time — and use the quiet to sanitize toys, reset the room and write down the day's observations, meals served and any medications administered while they are fresh.
• Afternoon block. Snack, a second activity or story time, and clean-up routines the children join in.
• Pick-up. Hand each child back with a word about their day, pass on daily reports and anything else the family needs, then finish resetting the room for tomorrow.

The mix shifts with the children's ages — a room of three-year-olds means more dressing and toileting support than a pre-K room — but the rhythm of care, teaching, records and family contact runs through every version of the day.

In a room with more than one adult, the preschool teacher is accountable for the program: what gets planned, what gets taught, how the day runs, what goes into each child's record and what gets said to families.

Everyone in the room shares the care and supervision of the children; the difference is who owns the plan.

• Lead / preschool teacher. Plans the activities, leads the group, keeps the records and answers to families and the director for the classroom as a whole.
• Assistant teacher. Carries out pieces of the same day under the lead's direction — supervising, running an activity or a small group, helping with meals and routines, and flagging what the lead should know.
• Aide. Supports the room's routines, clean-up and supervision alongside the lead and assistant, with the least program responsibility in the room.
• Floater. Not assigned to one classroom at all: covers breaks, transitions and the hours when a room needs an extra pair of hands.

Titles drift from center to center, so read a posting for its duties rather than its job title.

One term has a federal meaning only in public schools: paraprofessional.

In Title I-funded programs, federal rules (34 CFR 200.58) define a paraprofessional as someone who provides instructional support — a definition that excludes people with only non-instructional duties, such as personal care or clerical work.

The same rules require Title I paraprofessionals to have a high school diploma or equivalent, and those hired after January 8, 2002 also need two years of college, an associate degree or higher, or a passing state or local academic assessment.

Center aides and assistants are hired under state licensing rules and each employer's own requirements instead.

What an assistant or aide may take on in the room, and how a room's staffing is counted, are questions for the state's child care licensing agency — the body to ask when a posting's wording is unclear.

A posting compresses the duty list into hiring language: a summary, a responsibilities list and a qualifications block.

Here is a sample preschool teacher job description in that shape, so you can see how the work above reads from the hiring side and map your own experience onto it.

Sample: preschool teacher — job description

Position summary. We are hiring a preschool teacher to plan and lead a preschool classroom: daily activities that build early literacy, early math and social skills; attentive supervision throughout the day; and clear, regular communication with families.

Responsibilities.

• Plan and lead daily circle time, small-group activities, learning centers and outdoor play
• Teach early skills — colors, shapes, numbers, letters, personal hygiene and social skills
• Serve meals and snacks according to nutritional guidelines
• Keep records for each child, including daily observations, activities, meals served and medications administered
• Sanitize toys, equipment and surfaces as part of the daily routine
• Communicate with parents about daily activities and behaviors, and meet with them about their child's progress
• Work with the assistant teacher and floater staff to keep the day running
• Follow the center's curriculum, daily schedule and reporting procedures

Qualifications. Set by each state's child care licensing rules plus the employer's own requirements, so read the posting closely and confirm anything unclear with the state agency.

Credentials a posting may name for this role include the Child Development Associate (CDA) — the Council for Professional Recognition's credential, whose center-based Preschool CDA covers children ages 3 to 5 — or an associate degree in early childhood education.

BLS describes the occupation's typical entry education as at least an associate's degree, with requirements varying by setting and state regulations — a statistical description of the workforce, not a legal minimum.

The direct way to put duties on a resume is to mirror the responsibilities list in the posting, in the same words where they are true of you: action verb first, then what you led and for whom.

The duty sections above translate almost one-to-one:

• Plan and lead daily circle time, learning centers and outdoor play for a preschool class
• Teach early literacy, numbers, shapes and social skills through play-based small-group activities
• Serve meals and snacks following nutritional guidelines
• Keep daily records for each child — observations, meals served, medications administered — and share them with families
• Communicate with parents at pick-up each day and in scheduled progress meetings

Use the titles the industry searches under, not just the one your badge said.

O*NET reports Pre-Kindergarten Teacher, Montessori Preschool Teacher, Infant Teacher and Toddler Teacher among the titles used for preschool teachers, and Daycare Teacher, Infant Teacher and Toddler Teacher among the titles for childcare workers — so match the posting's exact title in your headline.

For a skills line, O*NET's essential skills for childcare workers are a defensible checklist where they fit your experience: Monitoring, Active Listening, Critical Thinking, Speaking, Active Learning, Learning Strategies, Reading Comprehension and Writing.

Do not hide the care half.

Meals, sanitizing, records and family communication are the job's daily substance alongside the teaching, and a resume that shows both halves reads like someone who has actually run a room.

When yours is ready, preschool teacher jobs on ChildcareHires list early-education roles only.

This page is career information, not licensing or legal advice. Qualification, training and staffing rules for center classrooms are set by each state's child care licensing agency — confirm the current rules there before you make a decision that depends on them.