Weekly Lesson Planning Tips and Tricks

Are you tired of bringing arm loads of books home every night and into the weekend and still not being prepared for the following week?
​

In this post, I’m going to share with you my tips and tricks to get you organized for your weeks’ worth of planning needs. 
​

Get your planning done at school and on time, with these few simple tips and tricks.
​

Tip #1 Have a Yearly Plan

The most important part of the planning process is making a yearlong road map or framework of what you plan to teach for the year.  When I have a plan for the year everything seems to falls into place.   
​

whats_planned_year_at_glance.pdf
File Size:	703 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

---

Tip #2 Organize your Curriculum into Monthly Guides​

Each year my yearly planning map is similar, so I have a general idea of what I do each month.  I have organized all my curriculum units and ideas into monthly binders.
When we sit down for our planning meeting it makes it easy to thumb through the binder to plan the weekly plans.  
​

Tip #3 Planning Schedule ​

Make the most of every minute at school by creating a planning schedule that you can stick with throughout your allotted planning time at school.
​

Monday – Team Planning Meeting

changing_centers_sample2.pdf
File Size:	573 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

---

During our team planning meeting, we discuss-

• Children’s interest and how we can create invitations to learning based on their interest. 
• We look to our curriculum guides and how we can enhance the learning experiences in the learning centers based on the unit of study.
• Plan small group activities and assessment opportunities.
• Assign tasks through the office 365 planner to be prepared for the following week. 

Tuesday – Hunt and Gather
On Tuesday pull out activities and materials needed for the following week.

Wednesday – Copy and Laminate

• Copy and Laminate small group activities if needed.
• Make copies for needed assessments.
• Make copies for communication folders.

Thursday – Plug into Plan using office 365 Onenote

Friday – Finish touches on the plans and forward to administration.

Friday is also set aside to put everything where it needs to go for Monday. 

• Items from the small group trays are put away and all new activities are added for Monday.
• Materials are rotated in the learning centers and new labels are added.
• Invitations to learning are organized onto trays so that they can be set out on tables during work time.

​The last thing to do before leaving on Friday is to copy and hang my lesson plans on our teacher command center board.
Start taking back your weekend with these lesson planning tips and tricks.
​