Sharing my Long Range Plans

Confession: I've never had a long range plan. Ever. Not ever. For real.

Then one day my amazingly talented and uber generous and inspiring friend Amanda Madden from Teaching Maddeness shared hers and a light bulb went off! Here's her post on Long Range Plans. And while you're there, please read through her series on homework {AMAZING!}

I've always taught a non-traditional class (Dropout Prevention, ESOL, Specials, Gifted) and I liked the "freedom" I thought I was giving myself by not having a plan to follow. I was like a little teacher hippie skipping through the year doing whatever I felt like doing whenever I felt like it. I covered what I knew I was supposed to and I don't doubt for a second that I provided great experiences for my kids, but I was perpetually stressed about what I was doing next and trying to plan for it.

That stressful feeling became my normal. Not good. I knew I needed a change so my goal was to create at least a guideline of where to go through the year. When Amanda shared her LRP's I knew that's what I needed to do.

First, I created a template that would cover all of the main areas of my day. That took about a bazillion different tries. But this was my end result.


Then I just duplicated the pages to have enough for the year and added our school dates and days off/testing days/etc.
Then I just started plugging things in! On our team some people use the basal and some do Daily Five, that's why there's a column for both. I still have a lot of things to add, like actual writing activities, STEM projects, Tasty Tuesday Recipes, etc. but this is a really good starting point! 

When I shared this earlier on Instagram, a lot of people asked me if I could share it. I'm happy to!
Here's what I've got:

My Year at a Glance - personalized to my year, my team (with lots of holes that need to be filled) which you won't be able to change. Get that HERE.

An editable Year at a Glance - you should be able to edit the dates and content boxes. That can be found HERE.

The font I used is KG Part of Me, so you'll want to snag that at tpt HERE

Here's where it gets a bit more complicated. If you are a Mac user and have Pages, you can download this document which has all of my plans that you would be able to go in and edit. (I create everything in Pages) You can get that HERE, but make sure you have that font from above, or it will look like a total wonky mess.

*To get those pink titles that go sideways, I used this powerpoint file to make the titles, then cut and pasted them into the Pages document - but you will need this font in order for it to look the same.

I sure hope that makes sense. That's about as many different ways I can think to share it! I hope one of them works for you :)






27 comments

  1. Wow! It is so nice of you to share your template with us! I love it and it has motivated me to start organizing my own long range plans! Thank you!

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  2. I am in love with these plans - thank you so much - this is going to help me knock a big one off of my to-do list and it will look super cute at the same time : )

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  3. Thank you so much for sharing! This is totally awesome! I am going to be using this for sure!
    Rambling About Reading

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  4. Thanks Denise! I am a Pages girl too and this looks fabulous!

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  5. Teacher Hippie! Bwaahaahaa! I LOVE IT! Thanks for sharing your template! I get a little giddy about planning of any kind! I am nerdy that way! These made my day!

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  6. WOW!! These are amazing. Thank you so much for being willing to share. Definitely will be using this to help lessen the stress!!

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  7. FaBulOus!!! I'm a total LRPer!! I love this template. I've created a few of my own but it's fun to see other's and realize what you can add to your own or simplify. Thanks for sharing!!
      Lory’s Page

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  8. LOVE it! Thanks for sharing!! I'm a Pages guru, too! In fact, I'm gearing up to present at our county's Tech Expo. Working on a tutorial now. :-)

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  9. Thank you for sharing this! I'm in the process of doing my own long range plan. So much more work than I expected. Thank you for the ideas.

    Krystyn
    Ms Richards's Musings

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  10. Thank you so much! You got me motivated to start planning for the year! I love your blog :)

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  11. I love your version!! Thank you for sharing!!

    Rachel
    A Tall Drink of Water

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  12. This is amazing! Thank you, as soon as I know what grade I will be teaching this year I am going to start filling it in. :0)

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  13. Thank you so much for sharing your planning tools!! It is incredibly helpful to hear the breakdown of how you made everything as well :)

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  14. Great template! Thanks for sharing.

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  15. OMG!! I just wrote out my LRP (on notebook paper - sad, I know). We have the SAME Journeys and Go!Math so I can totally relate!! I am over the moon that you are willing to share such a time consuming task! I love the template you shared - so easy to read and use. And it looks so professional! Thank you very much for sharing and making me look good!!! Incredible

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  16. OMG this is wonderful!! Thank you for sharing this amazing resource!!! :)
    Aris

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  17. This is wonderful Denise! I love the setup and layout. I teach 4th, but I definitely need to make one of these for my team! Thanks for sharing your ideas!
    Joanne
    Head Over Heels For Teaching

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  18. I do something sorta like this but I like yours better! Thanks!!
    Elyse :)

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  19. I saw this pop up somewhere on Facebook the other day, and ever since then, I've had "Sunny Days long range plans" on my to-do list to find and save! My goodness this was the best to-do ever!! THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing this!! LOVE LOVE LOVE your layout!

    Ashley
    Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd

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  20. How can I change the red line for the end of the grading period to another week?

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  21. Love your long range plans. Just curious... How do you integrate the genre studies you have in your plans (going sideways) along with Journeys and Daily 5? Thanks!

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  22. Hi! I have used this template to create LRPs for next year and I love it! I have a question, though. Could you email me at lmsox05@gmail.com if you get a chance? Thanks! Lindsey

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  23. Hi! I have used this to create my LRP for next year and I love it! I have a question for you, though. Could you email me at lmsox05@gmail.com if you get a second? Thanks!

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  24. Thank you! I can't even tell you how excited I was to see this! I'm looping with my first graders to 2nd & we use Journeys for our LA curriculum! This will help my planning immensely!

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