Year Plan

For now, I have a plan of the year.

I have a list of every week of the year with the social-emotional curriculum focus, the books I'd like to read during the week, the songs and rhymes that I plan to introduce, the math activity, what I'll do for literacy, for cooking, for craft, the handwriting focus and what I plan to put into the sensory tray.

I consider it a draft plan or a list of ideas which I can pick and choose from as the year goes by. I do not stick with the plan but I use it as a list of possibilities. Maybe the books will change, depending on the interests of the children. Maybe they show no interest in one of the books so it won't stand a repeated reading. 

Maybe someone will start to talk sing one of the songs I have listed for later in the year. We'd sing it then, no need to wait. 

The math activity is based on a sequence of objectives from the engageny curriculum. We use engageny as a resource, not a program that we follow. We use their outcomes as our weekly focus.The activity which is planned and done in small groups over the week is open enough for the children to focus on the outcome as well as extend it in other ways.

Literacy is more open. I have a list of ideas based on stories, or from the food they are using in their cooking, or ideas for what they may write in their journals. The children are always free to write their own ideas in their journals. And I can decide if the activity I'd written on the year plan is something I think the children would engage with that week. I can also present it in terms of something that may interest them in discussing and lead to more investigation.

Cooking (for now) is laid out in a recipe book from A-Z. See previous blog post. One of the assistants works for a small group to cook in our kitchen. This may change. We are considering new ways of giving the children an experience related to cooking in the classroom.

For craft, I have a list of process art activities, basically a list of materials that will be available for the children for each week of the school year. These include slowly introducing new colors for them to mix and explore.

For handwriting we use Handwriting without Tears so that is pretty set for us. We look for ideas in the teacher's guide and let the children play with the blackboards and chalk, magnetic boards and sticks. There is the handwriting book for them to write the letter for that week. I have a hard time with having a book for the children because some of them want to keep going and finish the next page. Why would we say no to that? Something for me to think more about.

The sensory tray has sand and water rotated on a monthly basis but I will gauge the children's interest and change it when I feel they are ready for a change. But I'd like to think I can add interesting variations to the sand or the water to keep them interested in it over a four week period.

It's a draft. It's a list of ideas. It doesn't have themes. It has what I consider the essentials of the play-based program we offer.

I call it a year plan. Maybe I should call it something else.