Aaaaaahhh!

Tomorrow is the first day of school and I feel so unprepared! I'm starting to think that I don't have the mindset of how to teach little ones yet. I'm not all that worried about my 4th-6th graders. I also have a lot of information and resources on the K4-1st grade range, but I feel absolutely clueless on how to teach my 2nd and 3rd graders.

I have heard that for elementary kids in general you need to plan lots of different activities and keep them moving. I can definitely do that.

My questions are mainly: how long is their attention span at these different ages, what concepts are they capable of grasping (the NC standards are helping here), what discipline challenges do they have at these ages, what activities do they usually enjoy?

I know that it's different with different kids and that I'll learn a lot as I go. I would just like to get an idea of where I'm going in the next few weeks and plan a little.

I have a plan for getting me through tomorrow and a start on Thursday (the next day I teach). There is a TON of information and ideas that I have found online...I'm just not sure what to pick yet.

I'm basically asking for those of you who have or had kids in this age range (4-9 yrs) to give me some observations you've made of them (esp those of you who teach them)....even if it doesn't pertain to music. And again, I fully realize that your child(ren) is unique (and highly gifted, of course) and may not fit with the kids I'm teaching, but anything is better than nothing!