Six Weeks Detailed Lesson Planning # 2 | 2021 School Year
It’s already time to do my next six weeks of planning! I have found that I prefer looking at just six weeks at a time. It makes it easier somehow to follow the child. I know what comes further out than 6 weeks in the scope and sequence. I have done my yearly planning and have my tracker/planning tool. I can easily look at what she’s interested in at the moment, what questions she’s asking, what works she’s gravitating towards, how she’s doing with sound games, counting, etc. and know with more certainly where we need to go in the next 6 weeks vs. where we will go in the next quarter.
Looking back at the last six weeks I realize I may have planned too much. Between family fun, homeschool activities, and unexpected health issues that popped up, we had quite a bit on our plates outside of school. We still did SO much in our homeschool preschool this summer. We just did not have space for everything planned.
The sowing sequence, sensorial work, and cultural work are the categories where we did not get through the planned lessons. I honestly think the biggest issue here was simply not being prepared for all of it. I need to make a Hobby Lobby Run and prep for the rest of the pre-sowing lessons.
Sensorial. This is where I tried to do too much. I wanted to revisit materials that had already been introduced to ensure we did all the activities and that she had fully mastered/explored them. I also wanted to introduce new sensorial materials. There just wasn’t space for both. It was too much to plan at once.
I also realized I had an unconscious limiting belief impacting my planning: sensorial work precedes mathematical work. Or at least, the sensorial work from period two (as described by Gettman) should proceed the number rods. That isn’t a “thing” and I didn’t consciously choose to make that a “thing”. In fact, this is just a list of works that the child typically works on at the same time. The same time. Not a list of must do items before one is ready for the mathematical materials… But I wanted it all in this summer before she was ready for the mathematical rods. I didn’t consciously realize this until I reviewed my lesson plans and really gave space to why it bothered me that we were not through the entire (unrealistic) plan. It’s helpful to explore our expectations.
I bumped out some of our cultural studies a bit. I had planned a lot for this as well. We had several units (including unplanned units and units that went longer than originally planned) and were leaning into the geography sequence. We bumped out the later a bit.
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 6, 2021
- Advanced Geometric Cabinet Work
- Number Rods
- Sound Games
- Landforms
- Ocean Unit
- Bead Stringing on Pipe Cleaner
- Turning Bean Bag with Spatula
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 13, 2021
- Advanced Geometric Cabinet Work
- Sandpaper Letters?
- Sound Games
- Ocean Unit and/or Landforms (Still on the Shelves)
- Bat Nature Study/Unit
- Continent Globe (Monday)
- Continent Cards + Continent Song
- From Globe to Flat Map
- Orientation to Four Directions
- Necklace Making Tray
- Sound Boxes (DIY)
- Felt World Map Play (1-2 Animals we have per continent?)
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 20, 2021
- Sun Lesson (Monday)
- Sun “Reader” DIY (Tuesday)
- Seasons Mat (Wednesday; First day of Fall)
- “All Energy Come from the Sun” Story (Thursday)
- Fall theme on the shelves (apple or general fall? May decorate for fall Tuesday evening.)
- Sandpaper Letters
- Sound Games
- Bracelet with Pipe Cleaner
- Constructive Triangles
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 27, 2021
- Sandpaper Letters?
- Moveable Alphabet?
- Sound Games
- Parts of a Biome Jars
- Introduction to Biomes (2-3 Touches)
- Bows and Laces (Review again)
- Hand bells
- Constructive Triangles
- Fall Theme
WEEK OF OCTOBER 4, 2021
- Sandpaper Letters?
- Moveable Alphabet? (Lean in for 2-3 days)
- Sound Games
- North American Unit
- North America Continent Map Lesson
- North America Tracing
- Flags of North America (3 part cards) (bring me game; wait on pin it maps)
- Animals of North America (Schleich animals + 3 part cards; Matching and playing “Bring Me” game: level one and two Waseca)
- Play “Knock knock” game with animal cards (Waseca Level two)
- Square of Pythagoras
WEEK OF OCTOBER 11, 2021
- Moveable Alphabet (Lean in for 2-3 days if new… play games if not new)
- Sound Games
- North American Unit
- Biomes of North America 3 part cards
- Biome map + Photo book/DIY Continent Readers with real life examples
- Animals of North America Biomes sort
- Sandpaper Numbers?
- Object Box
- Binomial Cube
Looking Ahead
- Wild Turkey Nature Study/Unit
- Thanksgiving week: Thanksgiving Mini Unit (3-4 days)
- *Advent starts November 28th*
- Week of November 29: Last Week of North America Unit
- Week of December 6 and 13 Nutcracker Unit/Christmas Shelves; Decorate the 4th and Nutcracker Ballet December 11
- December 21 is the winter solstice; 20-22 Winter Mini Unit
- December 27 New Year Unit
- January 3 Artic Unit/Antarctica Study
This is clearly subject to change but I feel it is more in alignment with where we will be than the first 6 weeks plan this year was. I can’t believe we are three months into the 2021/2022 school year. We’ve had so much fun so far this year. Year Round Homeschooling for the win!
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