First Time Lesson Plans

The first time I ever made a lesson plan, I plagiarized. I'm terribly guilty, remorseful, ashamed, and embarrassed, but I had no idea what I was doing!

• The reason I felt guilty: Plagiarism is no joke (Don't do it!) People's lives are destroyed because of it.
• The reason I felt remorseful: I've never done it before in my whole life.
• The reason I felt ashamed: I disappointed myself by breaking one of my moral codes.
• The reason I felt embarrassed: I realized shortly after that the teacher whose plans I copied had actually copied from the teacher before, but never changed anything to fit what she was actually doing.

The bitter end: My lesson plans didn't even match my classroom agenda, so it was back to the drawing board for me!
After hours of Pinterest and Google, I finally found a decent lesson plan template. It sucked, took forever, and looked like a disaster. I used it for 4 months! Can you believe it? Four agonizing months of having to erase half of my supplies and procedures to insert new ones EVERY WEEK! I'd had enough.
Another long story short, I stalked the lead teacher of the pre-k classroom's plans, asked permission, and tweaked it to fit my organizational style. It works! Finally, something easier than 6 pages of a complete disaster.

Lesson Plan Tips from the Dummy Herself 

1.  Ask around, sometimes people are nicer than you think. 
2. Set it up horizontally, not vertically. You want to be able to see what's happening all on one line or in a blocked section. It's more pleasing to the eye and makes life easier when you're changing centers.
3. Don't summarize everything! You take a five minute break for water at 11:30 AM? Write it in the lesson plan! Play a certain song every morning, nap, wake up time, and afternoon? Write it in! Children love schedules and knowing what to expect. Write your plans as if you'd want them if you were substituting. Every detail counts.
4. Post a schedule down to the minute or at least close to the minute of when important things happen.
5. Throw your schedule out the window! Never anticipate anything to go as planned! Kids aren't robots and their emotions change by the minute. You won't always have a wonderful circle time day where kids sit still (especially if there's no outside time). Always have a backup center, movement activity, or substitute book/song for when the kids are all hyped up on Mt. Dew. (not that I'd do that or anything)
6. Finally, sharing is caring! Post, share, download: my favorite motto