How to Create a Yearlong Plan for Teachers (+ 8 Tips to Make It Easy)

As teachers, we plan so much, sometimes it can feel overwhelming! At first, I would plan month to month, hoping I could get everything in before the end of the year. Without yearly planning, I was stressed and never sure I would finish my entire curriculum. Once I started incorporating yearlong planning into my upper elementary classroom, everything changed.

What Is a Yearlong Plan for Teachers?

What exactly is a yearlong or yearly teaching plan, you may be wondering? It is simply an overview of what you will be teaching all year. Typically, teachers divide their yearly plan into quarters, grading periods, or semesters. Having all of this planned in advance will ensure you get through your entire curriculum while saving you time and energy!

Why Every Elementary Teacher Needs a Year-Long Plan

Why you need a yearlong plan is simple- it will make sure that you are teaching what you are supposed to be! It's a simple roadmap for your year that you can keep referring back to.

1. Yearly planning will help you easily teach all of the standards.

When your curriculum is mapped out from the start, you can see exactly what needs to be covered and when, no more scrambling before state testing, wondering if you'll make it through everything, or throwing material at them. Your content will be paced exactly as it needs to be. And while your curriculum may have its own pacing guide, you know best how to plan around holidays, vacation, and testing season!

2. It will SAVE you time and energy.

Yes, it takes a little upfront work, but once your yearlong plan is in place, your weekly and monthly planning becomes so much faster. You're not starting from scratch every few weeks.

3. It Keeps You Accountable for What You're Expected to Teach

A year-long plan is your built-in roadmap. It helps you keep track of where you are, where you are headed, and where you might need to adjust.

How Is A Yearlong Plan Different From Unit or Lesson Plans?

The importance of planning the year for teachers is that your yearlong plan is like your ROADMAP. It gives you an overview of the school year. You can then use this plan to create your units.

A great example of this would be at open house, when you want to let parents know what skills or areas will be worked on throughout the school year. You can simply give them a copy of the yearlong schedule.

8 Tips For Yearly Planning

1. Start with the big picture

To start making my yearlong plan, I typically use the plan outline that my district provides. This is my roadmap for the year on what I need to get through. I like to have this written out all on one sheet of paper in calendar form. I also give this to parents during back-to-school time, letting them know that it is subject to change.

2. Break down the standards into chunks

Now comes a little more fun. You get to expand on the big picture above. This step is where you figure out exactly HOW you want to teach each standard and make sure you are hitting all of the parts of it.

For example, if you know you need to teach Measurement & Data for 6 weeks, how exactly will you break it down?

You may plan out something similar to this, giving each topic one week:

Customary Measurements

Mr. Gallon Man

Metric Measurements

Area & Perimeter

Angle Measurements

Degrees in a circle

3. Think about themes for the year

Next, think about any fun themes that you may want to incorporate throughout the school year. Did you know students are more engaged and confident when they enjoy the activity? Think about different holidays, back to school, end of school year, special units, etc. For example, in my 4th Grade Math Transformation Bundle, I have tons of different themes that I incorporate throughout the school year, such as:

• Classroom hospital transformation

• Detectives

• Pizza

• March Madness Basketball

• St. Patrick’s Day Escape Room

4. Grab some fun ideas (Hello Pinterest!)

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE using Pinterest to help me plan! I always create a new board for each subject topic and gather all ideas on each board for that area. This makes it super easy to go back and find the ideas. This also makes it easy to just look at the board and grab a few big ideas for projects or activities throughout the year.

5. Use resources already available to you

When I first began doing yearlong planning during my first few years of teaching, I bought a ton of resources online to help myself get by. Then, once I understood more clearly what I was supposed to teach each year, I started creating my own resources that fit my yearly plans. It is so helpful to have these 4th Grade Anchor Charts and Notes Bundle or 6th Grade Anchor Charts and Notes Bundle each year.

If you teach either of these grades you'll want to check them out!

6. Fill in the weeks

Now, take all of the ideas from above and break down each week of planning. What activities will you teach and in what order for each standard? This is the part where you get really detailed and plan out the parts of the week and the order you will teach in. You can use your teacher planner here or a spreadsheet.

7. Build in formative assessments

Then, decide which assessments you will use and where during each lesson. When will you give quizzes or larger unit tests? I love to give quick formative assessments throughout my units. I have formative assessments already pre-made for you in the 4th Grade Common Core Math Assessments Bundle if you need them. One less thing to plan!

8. Review the yearly plan and finalize it!

As you go through the year, take notes of what worked and what didn't. Then, look back and assess! This is possibly the most important step. What worked? What didn’t? What changes should you make for next year for your students? Yearly planning doesn't have to be perfect, but it certainly helps, and once it's in place each year will get easier!

I also do a yearly plan for Science as well! You can check out my science year-long bundle on TPT!

Are you ready to start incorporating yearlong planning into your life?