As teachers, we understand the importance of keeping our students engaged and enriched, even when they complete their tasks ahead of schedule. This is one of the reasons why having a variety of engaging early finisher activities is important.
What are Early Finisher Activities?
Early finisher activities are supplemental tasks made available to students who complete their assigned work ahead of their peers. They are typically independent, self-directed learning activities that help maintain an environment of continuous learning in the classroom.
What are the Benefits of Having Activities Available for Your Fast Finishers?
- Having these activities available for students helps provide them with enrichment opportunities that will keep them engaged and learning.
- These activities also help minimize disruptive behaviors in the classroom that can interfere in other students’ capabilities to finish their work.
Ideas for Early Finisher Activities
Coming up with a variety of activities for your fast finishers on your own can be challenging. Here is a list of a few activities that have worked for my students in the past.
1. Finish Incomplete Assignments
The school day moves quickly. This usually means that some students may fall behind on certain assignments. Think of that one perfectionist writer in your class who wants to get their paragraphs just right. Giving them the opportunity to complete an unfinished assignment is a great first option as an early finisher activity.
2. Journal Writing
Providing students with the opportunity to journal write has many benefits. Helping develop creativity, writing skills, and fine motor skills are just a few. You can allow students to do their own free writing, or you can provide them with prompt. You can provide them with a list of prompts to choose from or select a prompt related to current events in the world, at your school, or within your classroom.
3. Independent Reading
Offering students the opportunity to read independently a book of their choosing is a great option. First, there is no set up involved. Secondly, it increases the love for reading. Getting a student to love to read is the single most important thing a teacher can do. If a child loves to read, they will continue to do so which will lead to better fluency and comprehension.
4. Reading Reflections
Provide students with fun, out-of-the-box reading reflection opportunities. An example is having them draw out an image where the author provides a “show not tell” moment such as R.J. Palacio does in Wonder when she explains what August looks like.
5. Spelling Activities
Spelling practice come a long way from writing each word five times each. Create a list of spelling activities your students can do with their spelling words of the week. You can incorporate a file box with different engaging spelling worksheets they use to practice their words.
6. Grammar Work Mats
My students absolutely loved to grab a binder of grammar work mats and use Play-Doh to add the commas and quotation marks. Although, I incorporated dry erase markers as well, they truly loved playing with the dough. It truly was an engaging way to get them to practice their punctuation skills.
7. Boom Cards
Boom Cards are digital task cards available at Boom Learning. There is a free version and a paid version. I used the free version since I only had students work with these task cards as practice and not for testing. My students loved using Boom Cards and were engaged and focused when they would use them.
8. Idiom of the Week
Students naturally enjoy learning idioms. They find them so amusing. Adding an Idiom of the Week resource as part of your fast finisher activities is a great way to get students to learn the meaning of different idioms. Students write the idiom, its meaning, use it in a sentence, and create an image of it. You can also use a spot in your classroom to display some of their work as posters as well.
9. Would You Rather Responses
“Would You Rather,” sometimes called “This or That,” is where students are given two options to choose from. For example, Would you rather swim in a pool or in the ocean. As an early finisher activity, have students choose one and then write to explain why they chose that one.
10. Puzzles
Puzzles are not only fun, but they help develop critical thinking skills. Crossword puzzles help develop scanning skills. Crossword puzzles help develop vocabulary. Sudoku puzzles help improve concentration.
11. Boggle
Boggle is a great way to get students working with words in a fun and challenging way. It helps develop word association skills and helps strengthen their ability to look for patterns and repetition.
12. Finish the Drawing
Finish the Picture was born after implementing Think Outside the Box Thursday with my third graders. I looped with them the following year and they wanted to know if they would still be doing this particular activity. I didn’t want to repeat the same exact activity and wanted to help develop their critical thinking skills, so I created the 2 shapes and 3 shapes Finish the Drawing Activity.
Avoid Disruptions
Now that you have several ideas for early finisher activities, make sure to lessen the “I’m done. What do I do?” disruptions. You can help your classroom run more smoothly by incorporating one of the following:
1. Must Do / May Do
On a corner of the board, create a list “Must Do” and “May Do” activities. This way students know what they must complete after they are done with their original assignment and what they may do after that.
2. Anchor Chart
Choose the activities that will be a staple in your classroom. Create a “Once I am Done” anchor chart that lists all the different activities students can work on once they are done. Make sure to go over them in detail, so students do not have to come up to you for directions. At the start of the school year, you can add a few. Once students have mastered how to complete those, add a few more. Continue on until you have completed your anchor chart.
3. Student Choice Boards
Create a student choice board. Give it to the students and have them choose from those boards. They can work on getting three in a row or complete the entire grid.
Hopefully you were able to find a few early finisher activities within this post that you can implement with your students this year.
