Although Joy School lesson plans have gone through four major and several minor revisions over the last 30 years, this revision is unique because it has completely overhauled the original format of the lesson plans. Using a team of Joy School veterans, educators, editors, and graphic designers, we were able to significantly improve the already fantastic lesson plans and program. Of course, you can still use the great old lesson plans, but everyone in your group should be using the same version, whichever one you choose.
The new lesson plans offer the following upgrades, and much more:
- Lesson plans are now easier to prepare, whether you read them off of your tablet device or print them out. You can now teach the lessons easily from your phone or ipad, clicking on the included links to play a song or show an illustration when needed. Of course, you can also print out the lesson plans if that works best for you.
- The “Joys” have been consolidated into 10 Joys, and each lesson also has a specific name and number for easier reference. They are now much easier to follow and easier to plan out: all the changes were carefully considered through research and discussions with veteran Joy Schoolers.
- All the lessons now also follow the same format so that the children can feel comfortable with an easy flowing routine from house to house, week to week. Plus, teachers know what to expect and how to plan the day, again, drastically reducing the needed preparation time.
- There are now more activities and crafts contained in each lesson plan, so parents can choose which ones will work for their group at that time and save the unused activities or crafts for subsequent years or for at-home follow up with their own children. Also, activities and crafts continue with the original Joy School focus on keeping the crafts simple, but purposeful.
- All of the needed links, songs, and illustrations are embedded in the pdf so you can easily click to the material to play/view it, and then click back to the lesson plan.
- The main “Lesson Plan Outline” allows you to click down to the section you are on in the lesson: no more scrolling up and down through the lessons.
- The lesson plans include all of the lyrics for the songs.
- The Joy School 2.0 lesson plans will also be constantly updated, so please let us know what we can do better to serve the wider Joy School family!