What to do with early finishers?
Some kids are early finishers. They finish early and generally complete their tasks quickly and do a great job.
Other children rush through their work and need encouragement to go back and complete sections or add more details and effort.
Another group is seldom finished in time for the next activity! So how does a teacher juggle this?
Setting boundaries
If you do not want students to leave the activity tables for a certain length of time this method may help. It prevents the early finishers from distracting their peers by leaving the table, and works for kids who do not know how to tell time.
- Remove the plastic cover from a large classroom analog clock, put some Sticky tack™ on a small circle of bright colored paper and attach it to the minute hand
- Replace the cover then attach a matching colored circle on the outside of the clock near the number when the children are allowed to leave the table.
- For example, if the children start a table activity at 9:15 and you do not want them to leave the tables until 9:35, put the matching circle beside the 7 (see image).
- If a child finishes early before the dots match, they can look at a book from a small pile in the middle of the table or draw.
- This method seems to slow down children who rush through their work to get to the fun stuff.
- After the minute hand passes the 7, take the dot off and anyone that has finished their assignment can leave the table.
If coloring is part of the activity, ask children to save it for last. Some children would rather spend 15 minutes coloring than go to another activity. If they want to spend more time coloring than most children, let it be their choice.
General guide for early finishers' activities...
The trick here is to present activities that do not appear "too fun" or many children will hurry their work to make sure they have a turn.
Do not present early finishers:
- with activities that involve a lot of cleanup
- with brand new activities or all children will be curious and will want to try them
- with activities that are noisy or cause the children to laugh or get excited
- with learning activities that all the children should experience or the children who generally take longer to finish their work will never have an opportunity to try them
Some activities that work...
As I value center time as a learning experience that ALL children should participate in, I hesitate to use it for early finishers only.
Try these activities for short periods of time.
- completing puzzles
- looking at books or mini book sets
such as the one on the right
- examining the science observation table items
- drawing
- Plasticine™ table or other modeling clay activity that all children will get to experiences at a later center time
Good reads...
To eliminate much of the above problem, teachers look at differentiation of the curriculum, making tasks more complex or having higher expectations of product for various students.
There are excellent books available that provide guides for how to teach to different ages and abilities and foster independence.
| No More "I'm Done!": Fostering Independent Writers in the Primary Grades Dillar discusses how to link small group work with the rest of the day, how to have a balance between whole group, small group, one-on-one instruction and individual work and how to fit it into a busy day. |
This book includes reproducible sheets - how to choose a lesson focus, suggested lesson sequence, a chart correlating reading levels and skills needed, whole group lesson ideas, scoring rubrics, prompts teachers can use for each skill they teach and sources for reader's theater. |
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| Making the Most of Small Groups: Differentiation for All This book answers questions regarding small-group instruction in elementary classrooms such as:
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This book is structured around the five essential reading elements: comprehension, fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, and vocabulary. The book provides practical tips, sample lessons, lesson plans and templates, suggestions for related literacy work stations, and connections to whole-group instruction. |
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Math Work Stations: Independent Learning You Can Count On, Diller explains the process of creating meaningful and engaging math stations that help students understand the concepts being taught in whole group, further their thinking, challenge them to cooperatively work together to solve problems. |
Stations are organized by grade level (K-2), and provides ideas to implement in the classroom that work on specific concepts and skills. Uses many cheap or free resources. |
