Occasionally you may find yourself in a situation in which the lesson plans left for you by the teacher do not fill the entire class hour or day. The teacher may have had to leave in an emergency and may not have had time to leave good notes for you. The teacher simply may have overestimated the amount of time the lesson takes. You now have a problem, but it is one that you can handle if you are prepared. When you enter the classroom, be prepared to teach in a situation such as this. Come prepared with a lesson that is age appropriate. Below are some ideas you can take with you into the substitute classroom.

Grades K-6 Ideas
Put together a bag to take with you every time you sub. In your bag, include some of your favorite picture books and maybe a few chapter books (if you are subbing for an extended period). Also include addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division flash cards.  With these flash cards, you can play around the world. Or, if you print 10-12 copies or have 10-12 different sets, you can pair the students so that they can practice their facts. Be specific about expected behaviors and the consequences for not following directions.  First grade focuses on addition; second grade, subtraction; third grade, multiplication; and fourth grade, division. You might review facts with the children or incorporate junior trivia games in your lesson.

Below are four picture books and writing lessons, plus discussion questions, that are excellent resources for you.  Read the book once aloud to them without any discussion or questions. Then, reread the book and ask the children to answer the questions you pose to them.

Miss Rumphius
H is for Hoosier
All the Places to Love
Link to other great authors

Grades 7-12 Ideas
You may be teaching different subject areas in grades 7-12. For that reason, it is more difficult to provide content specific time-fillers. But here are some ideas based on the time you have left in class:

5-10 minutes left over
    1. Write a brainteaser exercise on the board.  Ask the students to give the answers to the problems on the board.  You can keep it informal or keep track of student answers. (Kids are usually good at keeping track of the score).
    2. Play a trivia game or a question/answer game.

20 minutes left over
    1. Divide the class up into groups of 4 (contestant #1, #2, #3 and #4). Ask them to write down three of the most important facts they learned recently, while you write the group numbers on the board (ex. Group 1, Group 2). Then have them write questions that would be asked to generate the facts they have listed. Give them 5 minutes to generate the questions. Travel the room to make sure the questions are appropriate. Play a game using the questions they have made. A person from group 1 asks a question, then identifies someone from a different group who has raised his/her hand in response to answer. If he/she answers correctly, then that team gets the point. If they answer incorrectly, the team that asked the question gets the point.

---

Updated 01/14/08tf