For some, back to school means buying backpacks and supplies to fill them as the kids head off to school. For others of us, it means buying our own new school supplies! (This is one my favorite times of year. I love new school/office supplies. 🙂 )

Today I’m going to introduce you to the school planning notebook I’m in the process of setting up. It’s in this heavy-duty Avery binder (which I haven’t put a “real” cover in yet). I like this ring shape, because pages don’t get stuck at the bottom of the rings very easily. And heavy duty is good, when this takes lots of daily abuse. 😉 (Note the Boxtops for Education on the spine there, as well.)

Here you can see all of my tabs.

These particular ones are extra-large, but I didn’t type my words extra-large, so I’m not sure it really made a difference. They do have pockets in them, which is important for me. I need to be able to stick stuff into certain sections without necessarily having to hole-punch them.

 

The Front

In the very front, I have a pencil pouch, which contains a pencil, a pen, a dry-erase marker, tissues (for erasing the marker), and any assignment cards which aren’t currently in use. This is followed by an overview of our general schedule. (This particular schedule isn’t even current, but hopefully it will at least serve as a reminder to put a current one in here!)

 

Section One

The first tab is “Teaching Tools.” It holds anything I need to refer to for actively teaching the girls (except books, obviously). This includes things like the booklet from our phonics program.

 

 

 

Section Two

The second tab is for the “Current Week.” This is where it’s really helpful that the tabs include pockets, because any worksheets, etc. that will go into the girls’ workboxes later in the week go here, and I don’t have to punch them. Theoretically, this section (along with the few that follow) could also include notes, but at the moment it doesn’t. This section is also where my workbox schedule grids reside.

 

 

Section Three

The next tab is for our “Current Unit.” This is where I place items that are part of the current unit, but beyond this week. Obviously, during a one-week unit this won’t get use. But most of our units are 2-4 weeks long.

You can see here that I have a map and a list of explorers whose routes should be mapped. (We’re studying explorers and the Age of Exploration.)

 

 

Sections Four and Five

After the current Unit is the “Next Unit” tab. Here is an example of some of the items that are in the pocket for our next unit. (Sheep/Animals, in case you were wondering.) I suspect that this section will sometimes be used and sometimes not. I have an accordion file where all of the maps, handwriting assignments, worksheets, etc. for the year are divvied up by the months in which their units start. It’s helpful to be able to split the current month’s pages among the “Current Week,” “Current Unit,” and “Next Unit” tabs. But anything that is in next month’s section of the accordion file will probably just stay there.

After the “Next Unit” is “This Year.” Because I have the accordion file, there probably won’t be worksheets and such in here, but it does give me a place to make any necessary notes.

Section Six

Now that we are past the unit tabs, we come to a section for “Workbox Ideas.” This contains lists of activities that I could put into the girls’ workboxes (beyond their obvious schoolwork) : manipulatives, educational games, etc. Some of these are lists of items we own; others are general idea lists printed or compiled from various discussion boards or email groups.

 

Section Seven

The “Reference Tools” section has items in it for general reference – a Dewey Decimal chart, lists of Newbery and Caldecott Award winners, a list of book genres, etc. (I’m pretty sure it has some non-book-related reference tools, as well, but none immediately come to mind.)

 

 

 

Final Section

The eighth and final section of the notebook is one I’ve simply labeled “Archive.” This is basically just a place for me to store any papers which have been completed, but which haven’t yet made it to their proper locations (such as this picture my daughter colored of the Mona Lisa).

 

 

 

 

 

This works for me. 🙂

 

Disclosure: I received this binder and dividers, along with a package of self-adhesive Note Tabs, from Avery in exchange for writing this post. I did not receive any monetary compensation, and all opinions are my own. And I probably would have used an Avery binder and dividers, anyway. 😉