Preschool teaching is one of the most rewarding jobs in the world. It can also be a very stressful job. When you’ve got your hands full with 10+ preschoolers bouncing off the walls and causing chaos, the last thing on your mind is how best to format your resume or if an AI cover letter will do the trick for
Fortunately, you don’t need to think about it too hard. We analyzed countless preschool teacher resumes and determined what helps and what doesn’t help teachers get job interviews.
We then compiled this information and created seven preschool teacher resume samples to help preschool teachers know how to build a resume for free, from entry-level to senior.
Why this resume works
- Pack your preschool teacher resume with quantifiable metrics.
- Metrics make it easier for principals, heads of school, or senior faculty (hiring managers) to quickly understand your impact on your current school and what you’d contribute to another, especially if those stats are mentioned within your resume summary right at the top of the page.
- It’s not always easy to figure out what types of metrics to list, though. As a preschool teacher, we recommend you include metrics on the number of students in your classroom, the teaching methods you employ, parent feedback, the structure of your lesson plans, standardized test scores, and developmental milestones.
- If you lack quantifiable metrics or don’t quite know the breakdown of your lesson plans, don’t fret. You can incorporate easy metrics, such as the number of children in your classroom or how many learning strategies you employ.
- When it comes to complex numbers to find, such as the percentage of parents who approved of your work, say something you know to be true. For example, instead of saying, “Received 98% positive feedback,” say, “Received positive feedback from 5 parents.”
Why this resume works
- When reviewing preschool teacher resumes, we commonly find that teachers don’t take advantage of their resume skills.
- Your skills section should contain six to ten skills to give hiring managers a feel for your capabilities without giving them a laundry list to read through.
- The skills you include should be as highly tailored to the job as possible. For example, “web surfing,” “MySpace,” and “baker of great cookies” do not belong in your skills section.
- Instead, include essential preschool teaching skills such as lesson planning, patience, communication, and empathy.
- But, your preschool teacher assistant resume skills section isn’t just an important place to sum up your proficiencies for hiring managers. It’s also a critical element to include if you want employers to see your resume at all.
- A preschool teaching job posted online frequently receives over 200 applicants. And since the hiring manager tasked with reviewing applicants is also a teacher or principal, they often can’t look at every resume.
- That’s why they use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to automatically filter out candidates who don’t have enough skills that match the job description. To avoid being automatically rejected, you need a skills section ideally matching 80 percent or more of those listed in the teacher job description.
Why this resume works
- The role of a parent in child development and learning can’t overemphasized. That’s why your preschool director resume must show how you ensured the involvement of parents to a holistic approach to curricular and non-curricular activities.
- Go ahead and mention how you used technology tools (read Brightwheel and Childcare Manager) to improve parents’ involvement in school activities.
Why this resume works
- Your early childhood educator preschool teacher resume (along with your preschool teacher cover letter) should emphasize, above all else, a love for working with and teaching children.
- Patience and a positive attitude are essential skills, but hard skills like lesson planning and proficiency in a second language are also crucial to hiring managers.
- If you have limited experience working as an early-education educator, that’s okay!
- Focus on relevant projects or jobs:
- This might include running a summer camp, babysitting, running an after-school program, or working at a daycare.
- If you have limited experience working with kiddos, focus instead on work, projects, hobbies, activities, and interests on your resume that require a high degree of patience, kindness, and attention.
View more early childhood educator preschool teacher resumes >
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Why this resume works
- It’s not just the students who look up to you for guidance. Even the teachers will rely on your leadership and mentorship to grow in their profession. In that case, your lead preschool teacher resume must stand out in your roles to lead staff members.
- Show how you led educators to adopt technology to improve their skills and support the growth and performance of your students.
Why this resume works
- As an entry-level teacher, getting your foot in the door can be challenging. Fortunately, hiring managers understand that you won’t have much experience if you’ve just graduated from school or are going through a significant career change.
- If you have any relevant work history, include it in your work experience.
- Note: even though your job title might state “assistant,” your work experience bullet points should minimize the word “assisted” or “helped.” When you’re looking to move out of a supervised role and take a more independent position, highlight instances when you took the initiative or implemented ideas.
- Other relevant work experience might include nannying jobs, volunteer positions, internships, or even school projects where you worked with children.
- If you lack relevant experience, you can always include less relevant work demonstrating time management, patience, and communication. These soft skills are needed in all fields!
- You can also consider a resume objective. While optional, it’s a good idea when you’re changing careers or need to fill up space.
- If you decide to include an objective in your entry-level preschool teacher resume, list specifics about the job, such as the job title and school name.
View more entry-level preschool teacher resumes >
Why this resume works
- As a senior-level preschool teacher, order your work experience in reverse-chronological order, with your most recent job toward the top of the page.
- This helps you in three specific ways. First, it lets employers quickly see the most relevant (and likely most important) job you’ve held.
- Second, it demonstrates growth in your career.
- And third, the reverse-chronological resume format works best for Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to properly synthesize your resume. If your information is out of this order, ATS could mistakenly label your most recent job as your oldest.
- Always use active language when you write your resume. This includes action words (such as led, accelerated, assessed, implemented, and spearheaded), active voice, and metrics. At the same time, ensure that you have two to four work experience sections, each with three to six bullet points not exceeding 200 words.
- There are tons of rules to building a resume that gets you your dream job, and our free resume checker can reassure you that your senior preschool teacher resume is up to the task.
Related resume guides
How to Write a Preschool Teacher Resume

While writing your resume, you’ll need to focus more on specific sections, like a cheerful kid going to town on their favorite snack. Here’s a list of what you should pay most attention to:

Format your resume right
Finger painting and singing rhymes may be fun, but you know the real effort and patience it takes to foster fun energy in a classroom of toddlers. Now, if your resume looks like it was scribbled in crayon, you won’t even make it past the ATS system, let alone being evaluated by an employer.
That’s why your preschool teacher resume should reflect your expertise in classroom management in a proper format. Below, we’ve listed the best formatting tips to help you get hired:
- Reverse-chronological format: Start with your most recent job at the top, work downwards with older roles, and show your career growth.
- Length: Brevity is your one-way ticket to getting hired. Keep a one-page resume and showcase only your best bits.
- Bullet points: Paragraphs may work for morning stories, but not your resume. Add at least 4–5 bullet points for each work experience, each showing a unique achievement.
- Key sections: Avoid skimping on your skills, work, and experience sections; they make 90% of your entire resume and are the first impressions employers have of you.

Demonstrate relevant work experience
This section is basically your center stage so don’t waste it by writing about what you were responsible for. Instead, highlight measurable impacts you made in children’s performance scores or behavior improvement.
The list below shows a few impacts you can consider adding to your resume:
- Planned extra classes for specific children, helping them improve their monthly test scores by 27%.
- Leveraged ClassDojo to offer incentives for appropriate behavior, mitigating classroom disruptions by 36%.
- Held development assessment to identify 3 cases of early learning challenges, prompting parents to intervene and provide early support.

Showcase your teaching skills
You may be good with kids, but that doesn’t mean you list “Loves Kids” as an actual skill. From technical expertise to soft skills, use words that are directly mentioned in the job description. A few skills that are commonly expected from preschool teachers are:
- Lesson Planning
- Parent Communication
- ClassDojo
- Google Classroom
- ABCmouse
- Compassion

Add education and certifications
Having a bachelor’s in education works well, but a more specific degree like a Bachelor’s in Early Childhood Education will do wonders. Pair this with any certifications, such as a Child Development Associate (CDA), to be the preferred candidate on any principal’s list.

Key takeaways
- Use a one-page resume and list all your work experiences in reverse chronological order.
- Create a mix of tech and soft skills relevant to early childhood education and include certifications that prove your expertise in handling toddlers.
- Tailor your entire resume to match the job description by picking out keywords and presenting yourself as the best candidate.
Preschool Teacher Resume FAQs

To create a strong preschool teacher resume, you’ll need to highlight critical teaching skills and experience that prove your ability to handle infants and incorporate learning in a fun environment.
One top role for a preschool teacher is creating fun-filled environments for children to play, learn, and grow socially and intellectually. Other crucial roles include classroom management, lesson planning, the ability to identify exceptional cases, and ensuring that every child is part of the entire progress of the class.
While there’s no thumb-rule to how many skills your preschool teacher resume needs to have, it’s always a safe option to list at least 6-12 skills. These can be relevant to communication, teaching, or education software.











