Sunday, October 23, 2011

Long Term Planning

Does anyone else get caught up in reading all the wonderful blogs out there and want to do it all in their classroom? I get so many ideas and it's so hard to include it all in. I sat down today to looked at what I was suppose to do for the next nine weeks until Christmas break. I think I figured out ways to fit in what I want to do. Here's a rough outline of my plan:

Oct. 24-28 - The Letter t and transportation - I'm going to work on tractors and trucks and hopefully the at and am word families.
Oct. 31-Nov. 4 - The letter i and more transportation is what I'm suppose to do. I want to fit in Mo Williams and his pigeon books to work on writing. And also the it word family
Nov. 7 - 11 - Review week for letter i and t and still more transportation. We're suppose to read the David Shannon book - Duck on a bike so I'm thinking a David Shannon author study.
Nov. 14-18 - the letter N and food. I have been dying to do a farm unit after seeing all the cute stuff online. My boyfriend is a vet and he's been through a lot of agriculture classes and is a big advocate for agriculture education for students. an and in word families
Nov. 21-23 - Thanksgiving Unit
Nov. 28-Dec. 2 the letter c and food. I'm thinking a cupcake unit that would lead into healthy eating habits
Dec. 5-9 - Review of n and c, food - nutrition and noodles
Dec. 12-16 - The letter o and animals - A living organism unit
Dec. 19-21 - Christmas/Gingerbread Man
I recognize these are super ambitious plans. But it seems a little more manageable to see it written out with a plan. I think some of it flows well into each other. The David Shannon book Duck on  Bike takes place on a farm so it will lead into a farm unit well. Food and Thanksgiving seem to go hand in hand. The hardest thing I've had to try to fit in was a Mo Williams author study. I have really been wanting to include this somewhere in my plans. I thought about the letter p but then I got caught up in pumpkins and Pete the cat. But I think buses go with transportation and we really need to be working on our writing skills.
I also have been working on literacy stations and small groups. I'm hoping to start having the kids rotate to two different stations a day and meet with 3 reading groups a day. This week will be an interesting trial in it. I'm going to be out Monday and Tuesday. I'm really excited because I'm going camping with my boyfriend. No school or thinking about school for a couple of days. Well at least I can't be on the computer working on school stuff. I wish I could get it out of my mind sometimes.
How do you cope with all the fantastic ideas out there in blog land? Do you do long range plans? This is my first go at it in this kind of detail. Hopefully I'll be able to carry it out. If you have any advice, I'd love to hear it.

No comments:

Post a Comment