Lesson Planning

A friend of mine asked for more details about my lesson planner, and I thought that I might as well share with answer with all of you. :) I love lesson planning. I love knowing what I need to get done that day, week, month, and year. I love being able to look back on a week and see that everything got done. Nothing energizes me more than having an open lesson plan book ready to go at the start of a day. In fact, after I quit teaching I had a mini-panic attack. What was I going to do? Sit at home with my 8 month old daughter all day long? Where was the structure? What were the goals??? I hadn't been out of a classroom two days before I was headed to the nearest teacher supply store and picking out a lesson planner. I still have it if anyone should doubt me. I mapped out our days with trips to parks and the library, playgroups, crafts/art (all edible), and story times. I was much happier and haven't been without a planner since. :)

I have a few requirements of my planners these days. The first is, they need to customizable so I can have different sized boxes for various subjects. Secondly, they need to be simple. I don't want a quote of the week at the top of the page because I will end up reading it practically every time I look at the planner and forget what I was previously thinking. (Yes, I can be that scatter brained.) Finally, they need to look pretty as they get filled in. Remember, checking things off is my favorite part. I want the planner to reflect my joy in accomplishment. :)

This year I bought Carson-Dellosa's The Green Plan Book. It was big, customizable, simple, and I quickly came up with a plan to make it pretty. I filled it in Bug's with a green pen and Boo's with blue, their favorite colors. That way I would know at a glance who's planner I was looking at. I spent at least two solid weeks planning the year for each girl. First I figured out how many math assignments would need to be completed in order to finish the program by the first day of STAR testing. I don't "teach to the test," but if I'm going to ask my child to go in and take a test, I think the least I can do is have her fully prepared. Then I planned out the history. This is going to have to be redone for Bug because things shifted on me and I'm waiting to see her new curriculum and then figure out how to partner it with a literature based one. (Next week's post will cover my curriculum choices for the girls. Promise.) Boo's history took roughly an hour because I didn't want to use some portions of it and had to see how the rest of it would work together. Turned out that I could create a seamless new plan and she's off and running with it. Science and writing simply required copying out the learning goals for each day from the books. Took time, but very little brain power. :) The remainder were even easier. These were for books where all they do is turn to the next page and complete it. I just put the subject heading in, and if there was a weekly topic wrote that at the bottom of the column. I left reading blank because the girls will fill in the boxes with the titles of the books they choose to read (from a given set of books) and then note when they did a book report and the literature aspect being focused on for that report.

Then I bought some sparkle star stickers and square stickers to use in the planner. Bug got owls and Boo picked out fairies. Now comes the fun part. They get to place a sticker in the book once an assignment is completed. The star stickers are for subjects that require directions for each day. I don't want the words to get covered up so they have to use the small stickers. The square stickers are for their daily assignments where all they have to do is turn to the next page. Those appear as blank squares in the planner and so they can use big stickers to fill the empty space.

Bug's planner showing how she filled in her reading assignments, and then put the owl stickers in for geography. It also shows how I had to change the book for history because I couldn't find the one called for by the program at my library, and I just liked the other one better anyway. :)







More of Bug's planner, this time showing how the stars are used for the math column's, and the larger stickers for Daily Language Review.
















After a week of using this system I have to say that it worked perfectly! The girls like putting the stickers in their planners and I love the way they look. Win/win!