My Kind of Teaching: Fun Activities for the Month of October

It's time to get ready for another month of lesson plans with units and activities for the month of October. Planning for the entire month is a time management tip that can help you get things done and get out the door in a timely manner each day.

Taking the time one or two days at the end of the month to plan out your entire upcoming month is a great way to stay organized. While it might mean that you have to stay late at school for a couple of afternoons now, you will be so glad you did as the month rolls on and you find that you can actually get out the door on time most afternoons.

Keep reading for a roundup of all things October and how to plan for maximum learning and engagement.

First, ask yourself these questions:

1) What standards and concepts are listed on the curriculum map for October?
2) What holidays, special days, and school events are taking place during the month?
3) What activities have I included in past years that were successful that I want to repeat?

Keep all of the answers to these three questions in mind as you plan out your month.

Center Activities:

Centers are such a very important time of day! Students are engaged and learning, and you have much needed time to work with needs-based groups to meet all of those individual needs. The use of centers is a great strategy to make sure that you have the time to work with ALL students and meet ALL of their different needs in your classroom. Keep your centers easy, simple, and fun!

Planning centers for the entire month using activities to both practice and review concepts will take care of a lot of your lesson plans.

Concepts and Standards for All Subjects:

After planning your center activities, plan out your core academic subjects. If your district uses a curriculum map, this should be fairly easy to fill in the days for the month of what subjects, skills, concepts, and standards you will be using. Keeping a fall theme can help keep things fun and interesting for your students.

Don't forget to add activities for math fluency in your classroom. Helping your students become fluent with addition/subtraction or multiplication/division facts just makes teaching all other math concepts so much easier!

All of the "EXTRA" Parts of the Day:

Keep activities ready for students to use immediately upon arrival. Students will be engaged and excited to come to your classroom each and every morning. It's a great way to start your day and sets the tone for success for your students.

Add a little extra science and social studies to your day with a different kind of morning work.

Having some easy activities at your fingertips for your early finishers will help keep your classroom moving smoothly during the entire month. Click here to grab some FREE activities for October.

If you have other items for the month of October, collect them together and plug those in. Make your copies, and organize them in a way that works best for you.

If you are in need of items to fill your monthly lessons, click on the pictures below to see if any of my products will be a good fit for your classroom. The important thing is to finish your planning and enjoy time outside of the classroom.