Activities for Students Who Finish Work Early
The goal of providing extra activities for children who finish class assignments early is to prevent them from distracting the other students still working. These extra activities may take some time to prepare but, once put together, will provide hours of quiet attention to prevent class interruption from these idle students. These activities are also excellent for substitute teachers who need further support in classroom structure.
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At the Seat Checklist
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A favorite among teachers, this prepared folder for each student contains a checklist of tasks that each student can choose to work through, while waiting for classmates to finish. The teacher can provide an extra incentive by promising a reward, once the list is complete. Some items on the checklist could include recheck your work, write a thank you to a teacher or student, read a book and clean your desk.
Busy Board
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Create pockets out of folders filled with a selection of age appropriate paper activities; one contains picture puzzles, another word finds, another topical worksheets or coloring pages. Attach these folders to a bulletin board for easy student access.
Once their initial assignment is completed, each child may pick one activity from the folder of their choice, and return to their seat. As the activity is completed, the work can be displayed on the board above the files. If a student does not have time to finish the project, she can return the project to the file so it can be completed another day.
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Catch-up Folder
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This is a simple folder designated for each student, which contains work that needs to be redone or was not completed due to time constraints. This could also be used for homework that was not properly done that also needs correction or further reinforcement practice materials. The goal is for each child to complete whatever is in the catch-up folder when there is extra time. Provide an incentive for students to finish these activities by allowing them to enjoy earned free time.
$1.00 Word Activity
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This is an interesting activity that reinforces math and reading skills. Assign the early finishers to choose a book and find words that equal $1.00. To determine these dollar words (value of 100) each letter in a word equals the value of its standing in the alphabet. For example; a=1, b=2, f=6 etc.
When the letters of a complete word equal 100, a reward should follow. Some teachers give extra credit, others may choose a certificate of achievement or pass out play money that the children can save and use later to buy teacher provided items at a "Reward Store."
Tangrams
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Tangrams are an ancient Chinese puzzle that involves seven individual shapes that can be combined to create images, either copied from a sample picture or original works. The seven puzzle pieces are two large isosceles right triangles, one medium isosceles right triangle, two small isosceles right triangles, a square and a parallelogram. These are perfect for developing simple spatial reasoning and more complex problem solving. Teacher supply stores have various sizes and difficulty levels in pre-made and ready to use packaging, but for the more frugal teacher, tangram patterns can be downloaded from the computer and made with cardboard cut outs and then laminated. Several web sites offer free tangram software for classroom computers.
Jigsaw Puzzle Table
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Not all children enjoy putting a jigsaw puzzle together but those who do will enjoy this quiet time activity over and over. Be sure to choose an age appropriate puzzle with a reasonable number of pieces to maintain interest. Once the picture is done, the room could be decorated with the puzzles completed by the children, by gluing the completed image together with puzzle glue.
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References
Resources
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