I took a year off from full time teaching to have my hip replaced and some other small medical procedures. Also the last school I taught at was just WAY TOO vicious! I will begin my sub teaching on 10/1. I want to use the next month to develop my bag of tricks - educationally relevant things I can use when things don't go well or too quicky. I am looking for ideas and websites to use so that when I walk into the classroom, I am prepared to keep students meaningfully busy until the end of class. Any ideas? Should I post this in the other forums, at each grade level?
I had those when I use to sub too. I sometimes needed them to get attention of a difficult class or if I had some extra time after lesson plans completed. I found fascinating facts about animals did wonders for grades K-4. It really got their attention and sometimes it led to discussions of other animals they had learned about. This is little prep as there are tons of information on the web about fascinating and unique animals. I am sure if each teacher shared one idea with you in this site, you'd have far more than enough. I hope it happens for you.
1 thing I'd put on the Smartboard or overhead are optical illusions. Kids from 2nd grade and up seemed to be drawn into telling what they see and looking for any other things it could be. Also, I loved to put a meaningful idiom up for grades 3 and up to see if anyone could figure out the meanings. Since you'll be doing different grade levels, you could explain that you'd like to learn about them 1st thing too. You could make grade level papers where they write down or draw a few of their favorite things or let you know some things about them. The older kids tend to think the papers asking the ridiculous questions where they have to pick between 2 awful things like: Liver or Brussel sprouts? Bee sting or stub your toe? If the kids are rowdy, that activity can get out of hand though! I hope you recoup soon and have a good year!
Let me suggest that you add some of the Brain Quest games for the grades you teach. They are educational, are available routinely, and you can divide the class into teams and keep a tally on the board to see who wins. Of course, you win, because you used the extra time in a fun, educational manner, and it doesn't throw off lesson plans because the game is over when the bell rings. I've used them educationally, too, when I teach, because students need to learn to come up with an answer sooner rather than later on tests, too. These are available K-8, if memory serves me right, with different subjects to choose from. I must have about 20 of the sets, and they have served me well when subbing, as well as in my regular classroom.
