Monthly Planning Strategy

I have tried so many different planning strategies over the years!  My naive 1st-year teacher self thought I would do all my plans on Thursdays for the following week and enjoy my weekends.  Then the school year slapped me in the face and I was playing catch up all the time on Sunday evenings trying to figure out what in the world I'm going to do 10 hours from now with 20 little kindergarteners.

Then my niave 2nd-year teacher self thought I could just reuse all of last year's plans and not have to do most of the work again.  WRONG!

By my 3rd year, I knew something had to change.  I spent a very long time reading through pages and pages and pages of previous plans to make a document that contained ideas (not plans) of what activities I did during each month.  This document allowed for a big picture view of where classes are now and where they are heading but also allowed for lots of flexibility and changes.

I put categories to help me organize the information and with just one set of pages open, I can see my potential activities for the whole school.

Let me be clear: THESE ARE NOT MY LESSON PLANS!  This document simply helps me see what I've done in years past and the progression of activities. As the year goes on, I find new resources and adapt to my students so I adjust my planner too.  I pencil in new things (or cross out others) and update my document for the next year!

As you can see, my monthly planner is bound (a couple bucks at Staples)  and at the front, I also have calendar pages.  My friend Sara from Music with Sara Bibee has a great set of Calendar and planning pages and I love the simple yet colorful designs!  You can check them out on her TPT Store!

Planning is still (and will always be) a tedious event, but being able to see options for my whole school at the same time has really helped me stay focused and keep consistency!  You can check out my editable Monthly Planner Template (with and without categories) on my TPT Store!