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Friday, September 23, 2016

September favorites 2016

Time for another monthly favorites post! This month has flown by for sure, and I have had plenty of moments of feeling completely overwhelmed, but it has been good to start settling back into the groove of things.


My first favorite of the month is the new sticker books that came out recently at Michaels:


I can't even, you guys. They came out with new books for fall, Thanksgiving, Halloween, winter, and Christmas. Several of them are reboots of my favorites from last year, but there were a bunch of new ones as well- the picture above is of what I got after MUCH restraint. If you want to see how I'm already using them in my planner, head on over to my Instagram account. If you're interested in seeing more planner stuff (and lots of other random-ness), then be sure to follow! I post most of my planner spreads over there.

My next favorite this month is my new monthly lesson planning routine. Many of you know that I started sending out an overview of the skills and concepts I am covering in each K-6 grade for the upcoming month as a freebie in my monthly newsletter this year (click here if you want to sign up). I've been mapping my yearly plans for each grade for years (read more about that process here), but I've never really typed anything up formally in advance in a way that is understandable to others before. Besides the newsletter overview, I've also been typing up more detailed plans for all of the lesson activities I'll be doing, with accompanying visuals, worksheets, and resources, in my store as well.

I know I sound like a commercial right now but what I'm trying to say is this process of typing everything up and creating all of the visuals and printables in advance has been amazing for my teaching! My weekly lesson planning is a breeze now, because everything I need is organized in one place. I'm so glad I've started doing this, and I am happy to have this resource that I can continue to add to and modify each year as well. I highly recommend blocking out some time each month to do this- it's a lot of work but it pays off in the day-to-day big time! Check out my curriculum bundle here to see how I've been putting everything together:


Another favorite: my TOMS! I know I'm a little late to the party but I got my first pair last spring when they came out with the rainbow glittery music ones. They are seriously my perfect shoe in every way imaginable. So when they had a big sale recently I got myself another (more grown-up looking) pair, and they are my go-to shoes for teaching and pretty much everything else! They are so comfy and I love the fun patterns :)


Time for some of my favorite music education blog posts! There were a lot of great ones this month! Check out the posts by clicking on the pictures below:





I hope you all have had a wonderful September and are looking forward to a wonderful October! It's fall y'all! :) What things have you been enjoying this past month? I'd love to hear about them in the comments below :)

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