Fast Finishers Activities - I'm Done, Now What?

The challenge of early finishers is all too familiar—those students who complete their work quickly and then eagerly await their classmates to finish. In this collaborative blog post, some of my favorite teacher friends (Marissa Despins, Tanya Marshall, Tiffany Schmidt, & Sherri Miller) and I help you tackle this issue head-on. You will find creative ideas to use as fast finishers activities. They are designed to keep students who complete their work quickly both engaged and excited.

Fast Finishers Activities in the Upper Elementary ELA Classroom

As teachers, we understand the need to keep students engaged throughout the day. This is especially true during our ELA block. Responding to reading and the writing process takes time, and students all finish at different times. Some of our students will finish their work faster than others. This makes it crucial to have tasks that not only help them continue learning but also avoid disruptions.

This post written by me, Your Thrifty Co-Teacher, provides various ELA-focused early finisher activities including implementation strategies to help you run your ELA block as smooth as possible.

Keep It Simple

It can be challenging to find “just right” early finisher activities for upper elementary. You don’t want something that’s too much fun, otherwise students will rush to get to that activity. But you also don’t want something that is too boring or time-consuming either. Tanya The Butterfly Teacher believes that skill-based activities are the sweet spot for your fast finishers.

She recommends that upper elementary teachers look for activities that fit the following criteria:

It’s low to no prep. Worksheets with a gaming aspect are great for this.
They review skills and standards that all students need to consistently work on.
Activities that can easily be completed independently!

She gives several specific examples for Grades 3 through 5, but I recommend starting with her post on 15 Fun and Engaging Early Finisher Activities for 4th Graders.

Gamify Fast Finisher Activities

If you have a group of students who are consistently early finishers, why not have them work on an enriching and engaging activity over a span of time vs giving them a worksheet they’ll quickly finish? Tiffany from The Learning Effect likes using hands-on activities that provide collaborative learning experiences to keep students engaged and learning. One way she does this is by having students create their own board games.

Create Your Own Board Game is the perfect fast finishers project for your students. It can be used with any subject and for review or as a way for students to show what they know. There are many different ways to use this project – as a final project after finishing a class novel, as enrichment for a specific math skill or science topic, or at the end of a unit of study to practice what was learned.

A project like this is fun, and students become fully invested in their work. It’s a great way for students to show what they know through writing questions and answers for their game and when playing others’ games. Plus, who doesn’t love a time filler that is educational but has complete student buy-in?

Prep Ready to Go Practice Pages

Marissa from Creative Classroom Core believes that teaching students to apply reading comprehension strategies is crucially important. These strategies are necessary for our students to grow to become self-monitoring and independent readers. Through active modeling and practice, reading comprehension strategies can have a huge learning impact for both our avid and reluctant readers.

Having ready-to-go reading comprehension practice pages handy is a great way to incorporate reading strategy practice with your early finishers. Marissa likes to have a folder of these pre-printed in her classroom. This gives students easy access to them when needed. Read more about reading comprehension strategies (and grab some great early finisher activities!) by visiting the Creative Classroom Core blog!

Use No Prep Digital Options

“I’m done. Now what?” You will always have students who work at different paces and you need something for those fast finishers to do. Incorporating math puzzles as early finisher activities is a highly effective strategy for teachers looking for motivating and educational options for students who complete tasks ahead of their peers. Math puzzles not only offer a welcome challenge but also serve as a valuable tool to reinforce math concepts.

That’s why Sherri from The Techie Chick loves digital math puzzles. She uses a variety of math puzzles to promote problem solving and critical thinking that keep students highly engaged. Since the puzzles are digital, they are easy to use and time-saving, as well. Moreover, the self-checking nature of many puzzles empowers students to assess their own progress and doesn’t require grading… win-win! Read more about the types of digital math puzzles she uses in her post, 5 Engaging Math Puzzles to Boost Learning.