How to Create a Daily Classroom Schedule

One question, I constantly get from my elementary students is “What’s next?” This may not be too annoying if I only heard it a couple times a day, but I hear it constantly. I recently set up a daily classroom schedule in the rooms where we work and believe me it has made a huge difference in the number of times I am asked that question.

Teachers, I am sure you can relate to this story since more than likely you get asked the same question about 100 times a day. As it is asked by every single student that is in their class multiple times. This is why a daily schedule is so important and believe me you definitely need one.

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A Daily Classroom Schedule Will Help You Keep Your Sanity

If you have a daily schedule for your class it is easier for you to be able to lesson plan. It makes it so your lessons can be easily planned because you do the same type of thing every day.

If you are scheduled also your students will be scheduled. If they know what is coming next they will be able to transition well from topic to topic. However, they do have to be trained in this.

The first couple weeks of school you need to be teaching your students the schedule and making sure they know how to transition from thing to thing. This means that you need to schedule more time at the beginning of the year to teach proper transitions. You may have to have students reset if they don’t come to line quiet or if they don’t put their backpacks where they belong etc. The work that you put in at the beginning will save you so much insanity later in the year.  

One of my teacher friends was telling me she knew that she was doing things right when this week (the second week of school) her kids were coming in the class saying we have to sit on our mat and do our morning song. Your kids knowing your daily schedule means that you have prepared them right.

A Daily Classroom Schedule Will Help With Classroom Management

If your students know what is coming next they will more than likely be prepared and not act up as well. Also, when setting up a schedule especially with younger ones you can make it so you are switching to different tasks every 20-30 minutes. If you constantly keep them busy with new concepts they will also not have time to get bored. If students are not bored then they will not act up.

The best class that I worked with as a sub was a 2nd-grade class where the teacher had them switching task every 20 minutes or so. Since there was always something new to do they were less likely to misbehave because they knew they needed to be doing something.

Unless it is very very hands-on and active, I would shy away from having a schedule that has huge blocks of time for one subject. Even upper elementary schoolers do not have that long of an attention span. There is only so much that you can do to constantly be bringing their attention back to you and the less you have to do that the better.

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A Daily Classroom Schedule for the Entire Day

It is helpful to have a schedule for the entire day in your classroom at some place. This will allow students to get an overview of what is happening that day, what to plan for, and even what to get excited about.

The daily schedule should be revealed at morning meetings, which needs to be near the beginning of your schedule. This will allow you to focus the students for the day. A morning meeting is great for all elementary grades. With the younger ones, you should have circle time on a rug. For older, students maybe they are at their desks, but you still should prepare them for the day with a morning meeting.

There are many great templates for daily classroom schedules, which you can use to dress up your classroom. 

A Daily Classroom Schedule for what is Happening Now, Next, and After.  

Even though a daily schedule is amazing for setting up your class. I have found that even having the whole schedule kids still ask what is next. One way to help this is to narrow the schedule down even more for them.

If you have a smaller schedule that only has three things on it is even more manageable for your students to focus on. This is why I created Now, Next, After.

Now, Next, After is a daily classroom schedule that focuses specifically on the next three things that you will be doing.

I have included a display mat to have your schedule on and 24 subject cards. I would suggest printing them on card stock. You may also put adhesive pockets on it to hold the different cards. If you can’t find adhesive pockets velcro is great for this type of thing.

In the couple weeks that I have used this system, it has worked perfectly my students. I have not had to answer the question of what we are doing next as much and they have been much more focused knowing what is coming next.