A Lesson Planner Just For Science Teachers

Would you like to be a more organized science teacher? Have you been looking for a science teacher planner? Are you frustrated by how generic teacher planners don’t cover your extra needs? Do you have an overwhelming room full of materials? Do you teach multiple classes a day with few “free periods”?  Let me help you streamline your inventory and planning needs.

I prefer to do my lesson plans on my iPad, curled up with some tea and a pet.

At the end of a long week I don’t want to hang around my classroom to plan. That was my motivation to create this planner tailored just for science teachers. Having all of my materials organized, in my planner, is a huge help. I can arrive at school knowing what I need and where it is.

Science Teacher Planner: Hand Drawn Covers

I have many designs to choose from with my hand painted artwork on the covers and throughout the planners. You can choose from coral reef fish, birds, succulents and cactus, and butterflies.  Each of the planners comes with over a DOZEN different covers for those of us who like to change their planbook appearance each semester. 

Weekly Lesson Plan Grid

Each planner includes three different choices of lesson planning pages. You have a choice of blocks of five, six or seven class periods per day. There is plenty of room plus notes and weekend areas. 

Science Teacher Lab Planner

This is my exclusive Lab Planner that I have used for many years. I still pull them out as I go from year to year.

At a glance, I see which materials I need to prep plus what materials to have out on my tables before students arrive. I know if I need to send anything via Google Classroom to their digital science notebooks.

I make a quick summary of the procedure and what is expected as an outcome. It is easy to forget the general flow of an activity that I haven’t looked at for over a year. I keep links to the source available plus any standards that I cover. I choose the assessment that I will use such as a lab report, iMovie, Keynote or a debate. 

Reflection: Tracking Journal

This is probably my favorite part of my science teacher planner and I utilize it constantly. As soon as I finish a class, I jot down three or four sentences as to what I covered during that class.

I often have two or three sections of the same grade level. Because of this, I don’t always cover the same material due to time constraints or ability.

This also allows me to record whether an activity was successful or needs reworking. A new tracking journal is started for each unit so that at the end of the school year I can use these to fill out my unit planners for the following year. 

Monthly Plans: Pacing Guide

I like to do a more elaborate pacing guide during the summer. However, during the school year I have a monthly “at a glance” guide for each one of my grade levels. I jot down where I want to be in each unit per month. 

Classroom: Inventory

How many times have you finished the unit just to find a great item in the back of your closet that you had saved for a special lesson and completely forgot to use?
How many times have you ordered something just to find it in a drawer later?

Do you have a system for keeping track of what is in each drawer, cabinet and closet?

My classroom is relatively small and my storage space is crammed. As a result, I was continuously making the mistake of overlooking materials. Once I fill these out I can take them with me no matter where I am doing my lesson planning. There are charts for closet shelves, cabinets and drawers.

Note: I also like to add photographs of my closet and cabinets at this point in my planner.

Your room at your fingertips!

Classroom: Library

Do you have a classroom bookshelf with great books but no system for remembering what you have for each unit? This is a great project for those students that love to hang around during recess!

Organizing your books into your teaching units helps the students engage in supplemental reading easily. I like to guide my early finishers towards the books or set up a display during the unit.  When I first did this my students thought I bought a whole batch of new books! 

Bulletin Board: Posters Inventory

Do you have a box of posters, anchor charts and other bulletin board components and you have no idea what you have until you go digging?

I like to rotate my bulletin boards in my room frequently, but I don’t always have the time to go rummaging to see which posters I have for which units. Keep this with your unit planner to give yourself a heads up as to when to change boards. 

YouTube Videos

Students giggle when I scroll through my playlists, my many, many playlists, to find the video that I want to show them. Even when I get into my unit playlist I often forget the name of the specific video that I had saved for that point in the unit. As I am planning for the week I end up having to watch the videos again which is way too time-consuming.

With this chart, I put the names of the videos in the order I want to show them, how long they run, and in which playlist I placed it.

I often keep two copies of this form, one digital and one printed. The digital one(in the Trello app, see my post on this! ) has all of the video links ready to go. Again, this is very helpful at the end of the school year when I am filling out my online unit planner and adding all of the helpful links. 

Teacher Planner: Components We All Need 

I have included a To Do checklist, a student roll book and grade book, a chart for student emails, a chart for student birthdays, general notes, a chart with parent contact information and the all important parent conference notes.

Monthly Calendars

I have themed monthly calendars included with August through August. I put FREE updates in my store

every year.

Your Input

I would love to hear any suggestions you have for adding to my science teacher planners! This came about organically as I dealt with different issues in my classroom. I am on a very limited budget so utilizing what I have on hand is essential. I also share my room with a non-science teacher so I can’t be rummaging around while she is teaching. 

It has made me so much more relaxed now because my planning and set up doesn’t take as many hours as it used to!