I'll explain this a bit so everyone understands what it is:
Below is September, Week 1, Day 1 lesson plan. I have a prayer for the day written, 2 calendar songs to get us started with calendar time, and 2 nursery rhymes/songs that relate to our themes this month--apples, trees, and the character trait of self-control. Below that are 2 activities. The first block simply mentions that we'll make applesauce (Sid the Science Kid style, using it as a science lesson almost). The second block says we'll make a letter A in the form of an alligator. For these two activities I simple printed out the pages from their original sites and slipped them into my September, Week 1 file. The last block at the bottom lists 2 book choices that relate to the theme. I'm not 100% thrilled with this section so I would love any ideas about how we should handle books since we have such a big age range (infant-5 years old).
My thought for how that last block can work is to also create a small (index card size) print-out with the total book list and materials list for each month. This would be what we could each keep with us when we go to the library to check out books and the store to get any materials we might be missing. That way there's no last minute searches for a glue stick or googly eyes in the morning before doing a craft :) In this case that last block would be a suggestion only of which books from the list might work best for the corresponding activities, but people with older/younger kids can choose what books interest them and which ones are easiest to find at the library that month.
Note that this is the entire week's lesson plans, 3 days of learning time and would fill anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours depending on the family and how in depth you want to go with the activities.
Also look at the prayer for the day, calendar, and songs. I repeated all of those for the entire week and that is not a mistake! Kids love repetition, it's how they memorize those cute songs so please don't feel the need to come up with new songs for every day or even every week. Repeat the same songs for at least an entire week at a time, if not more! Really the only things unique to each day are the 2 activities and the books can change somewhat but again, kids LOVE repetition, I can't even tell you how often I've read Adios, Oscar this past month to Tobias, he insists on it every single night. So while it looks like a ton of planning, it's really just finding 2 songs, 6 activities, and a few related stories for each week.
I think that looks great! I think it would be helpful if the person who does a month's plans could make a monthly supply list, so that we can shop ahead for that month. Could we make a form for that? Or just plan on doing a post for it? or something? Just an idea.
ReplyDeleteGood idea Rhianna! I'm working on that right now actually :) One neat idea I found is to use library pocket cards stapled onto each month (or week)'s file folder. Then we just make an index card sized template with the supply list and book list to be printed on index cards and slipped into the pocket. The library pockets are available on Amazon.com for $4.99 for a pack of 50, or I also found a template to make your own.
ReplyDeleteLooks great, Thanks! Do you have a blank one of these posted that I'm missing? If not can we get a blank one to fill out please? Also, do we just sent it to you when they are done or post it on here? I'm trying to work on my asap with the baby coming soon.
ReplyDeleteThanks Manda! This is very helpful! A couple quick questions:
ReplyDelete1. How do we download the template so that we can enter our information in it? (Sorry, I'm not the exactly tech savvy here!)
2. I think I will also need a tutorial on how to then upload it back on the blog! Also, if we have any type of document or something that goes with an activity, is there a way to upload that? Or should we just not have anything that requires an additional document?
3. In your example I see that you have one activity for the fruits of the spirit. Should we leave one activity a week blank for that and the Spanish activities?
4. It also seemed that there was one "theme" related activity, and then the other was something different, like the Letter of the Week. Is that the general format we should follow? Are we just doing letters, or are we doing numbers too (or colors, shapes,etc.)?
Thanks so much! I'm so excited and already have a lot of October planned =). I'll try and get the book list up soon!
Sorry, I thought of one more question! As I've been planning, I'm having trouble picking which activities I want to do. I was wondering if I could include some "extra" activities for the month, or if that would be too confusing? Some of the ideas are things that may only be appropriate for our older kids, or they might be more family activities, so I didn't really want to have them in the regular lessons, but thought some people might be interested. I thought maybe I would just add a little list of some "extra" optional activities for each week? What do you think? I don't want it to be too overwhelming or confusing though, so if you think it's better to just stick with only the daily lessons that is fine too =)!
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