Lesson planning can feel daunting. Where to start? The year? Month? Week? Day? Minute? I have found I like a combination of all of the above. Sometimes, when I’m stuck, I think of the bigger picture. This brings me to the skills and themes I’m teaching for September.
I have decided to map out my plan for the month so I can get an overall view of the month and so that my resources are organized. Here is my September Overview!
***If you click any of the following pictures it will take you to a downloadable file. You must SAVE it to your computer and open and then the resources you see will be CLICKABLE (aka lead you to where you can download/purchase)***
Since we start back to school earlier than ever before, by the time September rolls around we will have been in school for two weeks. Regardless, I will be going over routines and expectations ALL month long but we will start to dive into some REAL learning, too! And I cannot wait!
September Reading
I really love how A Teeny Tiny Teacher launches all of her centers by doing them whole group first. “This makes sense. I should have known to do this.” I said to myself as I read her post last year. But, then again, I was on maternity leave for the first 6 weeks of school so that was a bit out of my control (ha!). This year, I am doing it right. Slow and steady. I will focus on reading to self, reading to someone, comprehension and word work centers.
My school does not use Journeys but my old school did so I started making supplemental materials for all of the stories. However, I have *almost* a class set of the first Henry and Mudge books. I think it is a perfect book for the beginning of 2nd grade and hits on skills like bare-bones sentences and beginning/middle/end. We will also work on Story Structure. Read all about how I teach it and what books I use in this post.
Finally, I will introduce close reading. I plan to start this in temporary reading groups as we will still be DRA-ing and I won’t form my actual reading groups until October. I am in the process of updating ALL of my Holiday Close Reading Packets so that they include 3 differentiated passages! Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, and Election Day are COMPLETE!
September Writing
We are Writing Workshop for the first time this year! I took a reading/writing graduate course over the summer which was full of useful information about best practices for writing instruction. Writing fell on the back burner last year due to the implementation of a new phonics program. Sad, I know. But I hope to do it justice this year with the help of the top two resources.
I printed and laminated the writing process posters and had them hanging in order. Using clothespins with student numbers on them, they will move their clip based on which stage of writing they are on. This will help me plan conferences and see who is ready to share!
The “Cooking Up Small Moments” is a FREEBIE by Sweet Integrations. It has great resources for scaffolding idea development to help students choose a topic. I plan to use it with each of our “formal” writing pieces and I hope we can get three completely done the first marking period. What is the first type of writing you do with your students?
September Math
Math is my favorite!!! It was where I felt most confident in my first year, too! A balance of whole group and small group teaching is what I have found works best. I am replacing my current calendar time with a digital version to free up some wall space. I am excited about all of the options this PowerPoint Calendar Math offers!
We will start small math groups which means introducing centers as well. One of my centers will be dedicated to practicing basic addition and subtraction facts.
September Science
My plan is to start Science s l o w e r this year instead of not at all and then all at once. I have used this resource by Second Grade Stories for a few years and it works amazing for introducing what it means to be a scientist. I think our students often forget that science isn’t just about experiments but it also incorporates communicating ideas and results via writing and speaking.
Last but not least, Social Studies will be all about communities. These two resources are everything you need to teach this unit! They are packed with information and engaging activities.
I hope you found something useful! This is not in any way an all-inclusive list of what I will use…and I won’t use everything is all of these resources but it is a general overview of the direction we will go this September! What is your favorite upcoming resource?
Thanks for reading about the skills and themes I teach in September! Want to check out how I lesson plan by the day, week, month any year? Read this post!
