Lesson Plans and a printable!

If you remember from last weeks to-do list post I started listing things that I needed to get accomplished before school starts back. This weekend I successfully completed one of them:

I was so excited to carve out a few hours of time on Saturday evening to sit down and 1. decide what I wanted out of my lesson plans and then 2. start designing them. 

Let's start with step 1.

What did I want to get out of my plans?

One thing that was crucial to have in my plans was a week at a glance option. One thing that I absolutely hated about my plans from last year was that I had each day written individually which didn't allow for a 'quick look' at all. 

My first step was to decide how I wanted my week at a glance to be laid out and what I need on it. 

I knew that I wanted to keep it pretty simple and only include the important information so I narrowed it down to these key elements:

5 rows for each subject:

*Daily Routines

*Language Arts

*Math

*Science

*Social Studies

and 5 columns, one for each day of the week.

Under each day of the week I included titles for things I will write in each day (ex: question of the day, number of the day, skills being taught, indicators, etc. 

Here is what complete week-at-a-glance lesson plan format:

and here they are individually:

(click on the image to view in a larger size)

so you can see I have adequate space for all of my needs.

In addition to this I also needed a separate plan for each subject. My school requires you to have any Higher Order Thinking questions, assessments, differentiations, etc included in your plans. In order to have space for all of these I came up with this format:

I created this for each of my subjects and it will allow me to open it up each day, type out my plans, and then just hit print.  

I am working on my lesson plan folder this week too so be anticipating that. 

Now for the goodies:

To kick off my first available printable I have decided to offer my weekly-at-a-glance template (without my name of course!) and my language arts plan template FREE! Just click the links below and they are yours!

Download the Week-At-A-Glance template here

and here

Download the Language Arts template here


What system do you use for your lesson plans? Do you use a daily or a weekly approach? 

To-Do List

With summer break in full swing at our house my mind is on overdrive with all of the things I need to accomplish before school starts back to get ready for my 2nd graders. In order to keep myself more organized as well as preview things to look for coming up on my blog I decided to create this:

this way you can see some of my goals and I can keep myself accountable. I am almost complete with number 1 after spending most of today knee deep in curriculum while cleaning out and organizing. I should be completely finished after Monday and I can mark that one off.  You can expect some printables (some free ones even!) based on things like the word wall and focus wall elements as well the newsletter and lesson plan templates.

I have a lot to do, but it's going to be so cool when it all comes together!!!

My color scheme!

Ever since the moment I found out I was going to be teaching 2nd grade my brain has been swimming with thematic ideas for my classroom decor! I first thought that I wanted to go with a Sweet Shoppe/Candy type theme. Then I decided that it would be too expensive to have to buy everything that is related to that theme and started pondering ways to simplify. I thought about what I liked most about the theme; the colors or the actual picture elements. I decided that it was definitely the colors that I liked the most so I began looking at pictures and paring down the specific colors that I liked the most. 

For example I love the pinks in this picture:

and I love the subtlety of the colors in this photo:

and then I saw this photo and knew I had found "the one":

so based on all of this I came up with this color scheme for my room and I couldn't be happier!

I am going to try and pull in all these color while also incorporating the grey's and blacks that are already a part of my room. 

I already have a list of DIY projects that are in the works for my room. I can't wait to start sharing them with you! 

Endings and Beginnings

As I sit here typing this I am surrounded by the quiet of my 5th grade classroom.  So much has happened in this room this year. We have definitely had our share of laughs and tears, along with some pretty hysterical moments. As I am closing the book on my first year of teaching there are so many things I don't want to forget. There are so many things I do want to forget. There are things that I have taught to others, but there are also so many things I have been taught. 

The purpose of this blog is to document my journey from 5th grade into 2nd grade; where I believe my heart is. I can't wait for the bright colors, the bright eyes, and the young spirits that I will be blessed to teach next year.  I hope that you will join me as I document my hopes, my fears, my anxieties, and my excitements. I will include lots of information from printables that I am currently creating, classroom decor ideas that are also in the works, and how my classroom develops throughout the course of another school year.

I am leaving 5th grade with a bright outlook on the future.

I can't wait to meet my 2nd grade sweethearts!

But, for now:

BRING ON THE SUMMER!