Are you trying to get your elementary daily schedule down for the next school year? I spent years playing around with schedules, so I get it! Today, I am going to share the schedule that I truly believe works best for the 2-4 grade range students in a self-contained classroom. This elementary daily schedule can be switched around to work for your classroom!
Morning Routine: 20/30 Minutes
Having a strong morning routine is essential for classroom success. It is where students really change from at-home mode to school mode and if you don’t give them the tools they need to do so, you will be trying to do it all day.
An easy morning routine looks like this…
- Go to the bathroom, turn in papers, put away folder
- Complete morning tubs for 10 or more minutes
- Morning work for 5-10 minutes
- Morning meeting for 5-10 minutes
Read more about each section of the morning routine here!
Whole Group Reading: 1 Hour
The beginning of the day is where students are most engaged and most focused, so I highly suggest starting with reading. Reading requires students to focus more and be at a higher level of concentration than math and other subjects.
Whole group reading in particular requires students to really focus. This is why I ALWAYS teach reading first.
Read more about how to teach reading here!
Break/Recess: 20 Minutes
Students get tired after reading. I highly recommend finding some type of break whether that is recess, specials, etc. before going into small groups.
Small Group Reading: 30 Minutes
Now, it is time to do small groups. This is the magic of reading instruction in my opinion. Read all about how to teach small group reading here!
Writing: 20 Minutes
If you have time to do writing for longer than 20 minutes, I highly recommend it. But if you don’t I believe making sure it is on your schedule is important. If you only get 20 minutes, that is enough! You can teach and practice so many valuable skills in 20 minutes!
Read all about writing instruction here!
Lunch
Math: 90 Minutes
I always put math after lunch because math is so collaborative and typically it is easier to engage students in math content than reading and writing.
Read all about math rotations here!
Grammar: 10 Minutes
I like to end my day with grammar because it is an easy setup for each day and typically quick and fun for kiddos.
Read all about how to teach grammar in an organized and quick fashion each day here!
Content: Friday Only
This is truly what always works best for me. I needed a longer time to really teach my content each day and something was always falling short. So, I started doing social studies and science on Friday only. It is highly engaging to kiddos and so it made for an easy Friday activity.
How did I schedule this? Because I was teaching a longer math period during the week, I could slack on math on Fridays. So, we would do a quick math assessment on Friday and then I would teach content during the math time.
Hannah Wilde
I am so glad you’re here! I love helping 3rd-5th grade teachers by providing ideas, engaging resources, and professional development they need. I am a literacy coach who is here to help lessen the workload for teachers while making them more confident! I want students to be continually engaged in a rigorous environment!