Montessori Lesson Plan
Decide which lesson each child gets today and across the week, let illumine suggest the next lesson in sequence, and keep an eye on children who need attention.
Where to find it: Learning & Progress → Lesson Plan
How the page is laid out
The Lesson Plan is one row per child. Two switches at the top decide what the columns mean.
Switch | Options | What you see |
Today / Week | One day, or Monday to Friday | Today shows what is planned for the chosen day plus a summary of the week. Week shows a column per day. |
By Student / By Lesson | Rows are children, or rows are lessons | By Lesson groups the same plan by lesson, useful when one presentation is given to a small group. |
Today view, By Student: who still needs a lesson today, what is already planned, and each child's lessons this week by area.
The date control steps a day or a week at a time. Today jumps back to the current day.
Search, Classroom, Groups and Areas narrow the rows. The pin next to a filter keeps it on the bar; Filters holds the rest.
The caption above the table, for example 4 of 9 children need a lesson today, counts the rows in view. Show only these hides the children who are already covered.
Lessons this week shows each child's planned and given lessons grouped by area, so you can see at a glance whether a child has had nothing but Practical Life all week.
Each row has View analysis, which opens the child's snapshot (below).
Plan a lesson for one child
Press Add a lesson in the child's row (or Plan a lesson at the top right and pick the children).
The Assign Lessons panel opens for that day. The Next for … card at the top is illumine's suggestion: the next lesson in the child's sequence, based on what has already been introduced, practiced or mastered. Press Add to take it, or browse the sub-areas below and tick other lessons. The area and stage selectors narrow the list.
Press Assign Lessons. The lesson appears in the child's row for that day with the stage Planned.
The Assign Lessons panel with the next-in-sequence suggestion at the top.
How "Next for" is worked out. illumine looks at the child's last lesson in each area and proposes the lesson that follows it in the sequence. When a sequence is finished it says so and starts the next group or sub-area. When a child has no history in an area yet it asks you to pick where to begin.
Plan the whole week
Switch to Week. Each day column has a + in its header and a checkbox.
Week view: one column per day, a + in each header to plan that day for several children at once.
Tick children (or tick a day header to select every lesson on that day), then use the bulk bar to Plan all for… a date, Move to… another day, Set stage or Remove from plan.
Click a planned lesson chip to open it, change the stage, or remove it.
The caption switches to N of M children have nothing planned this week.
By Lesson: the same week grouped by lesson, so a group presentation is one row.
Unscheduled plans
A lesson can be planned without a day, for example from the Progress Grid with I don't know yet. These sit in the Unscheduled strip above the table with a count. Open the strip to give each one a day, or remove it.
The child snapshot and "Needs attention"
View analysis on any row opens a panel that answers "where is this child, and what should I present next?" without leaving the plan.
The snapshot: Needs attention flags, stage counts per area with the date of the last lesson, three suggested next presentations, and this week's plan.
Needs attention lists up to six things worth a look, most actionable first. The rules are: no lesson recorded, or the last one was long ago; nothing planned from today to the end of the week; a planned lesson that was never given and is not on this week's plan; a lesson left at Introduced or Practiced for a long time with nothing since; every recent lesson coming from one area; an area the child used to work in with nothing recorded recently. Press the i next to the heading to read the rules in the app.
Where they are shows, per area, how many lessons are Introduced, Practiced and Mastered out of the total, and when the child last worked in that area. Plan on a row opens the planner in that area. View detailed progress opens the Progress Board for the child.
Present next suggests three lessons with the reason (Sensorial · after 7 Building the Pink Tower). Plan puts one on the plan.
This week expands to the child's plan by day.
Plans count as intent, not as lessons given. A lesson only becomes Introduced when you record it on the Progress Grid or in an observation.
After the lesson is given
Planning is only the first half. When the presentation has happened, record it so the child's history, the suggestions and the reports stay right:
On the Progress Grid, click the cell and set the stage to Introduced (or higher).
Or write an Observation tagged to the child and the lesson with the stage chosen. The stage is written to the child's record at the same time.
Unless an administrator has turned it off in Lesson Settings, every stage change also creates a short staff-only observation, so the child's timeline shows when each lesson moved.
Common mistakes
What people do | What happens | Do this instead |
Plan a lesson and never record it | The child stays at Planned; Needs attention flags it as "planned, never given" | Set the stage on the Progress Grid or in an observation once presented |
Filter to one area and wonder where a planned lesson went | The row shows a hint that lessons are planned in other areas, hidden by the filter | Choose All Areas, or press Clear all |
Plan the same lesson again for a child who already mastered it | It is planned "again" and the chip says so; the mastered stage is kept | Fine for a deliberate repeat; otherwise take the Next for suggestion |