Teachers are always looking for innovative new ways to keep students who finish early in class busy while other students can continue focusing on completing their work. Scroll below to see some simple strategies you can implement in your classroom to keep those kids busy with meaningful, life skills themed tasks that require minimal to no prep on your part!

PROVIDE THEM WITH CHOICES AND MEANINGFUL WORK

It is extremely important to provide these students with the power of CHOICE. By ultimately giving them the choice to pick an activity to do after they have finished their previous one, they are more willing to complete it because they have a variety of options to choose from. I also make sure to give my students work that is meaningful to them in these choice options so they can see value and merit in completing it. By relating these choices back to their real world, students are more willing to buy into this classroom management strategy.

ROTATION OPTIONS

Here is a sample rotation option you can use in your classroom

• Dollar Up Lessons
• Movie Times
• Writing Thank You Cards
• Addressing Envelopes
• Reading Menus
• “How It’s Made” Videos

DOLLAR UP LESSONS

For this activity, students can practice real world math skills by using the dollar up strategy to help with budgeting skills. Although traditional worksheets are great for rote practice, students tend to get easily bored with this method of “work.” Instead, consider switching up students’ learning and assess their understanding of this skill by using a variety of digital tasks instead! Mystery pixel art, pictures,  coloring pages, and digital task cards are just some of the many ways I have students practice showing me their dollar up skills. Best part? All are NO PREP and extremely easy to setup for independent centers.

MOVIE TIMES

Who doesn’t love going to the movie theater to enjoy watching a movie? Have students practice functional skills like calculating elapsed time by looking up a local theater and picking 2-3 movies they would like to watch. Have them select a time for each movie, and then determine what time the movie will be over. This is great to help independence as parents can drop their kids off and students can practice estimating the time they would need their parents to come back and pick them up. 

WRITING THANK YOU CARDS

Sometimes students can forget how many people are in their corner cheering on all their successes. Giving them an opportunity to write thank you cards to these people would be a great way to practice functional reading and writing skills AND show gratitude for the people around them as well. I like to have blank thank you cards I order from amazon (you can get a variety pack for a very affordable price). Students that get to decide who they would like to write a thank you card for and pick a card from the pile that they would like to give to them. For this, I like to have them write a draft copy on a piece of paper first. Then they show me and I can suggest edits. The final copy gets written on the card after teacher feedback. Truly a simple way to help students show the value their words can hold for other people. 

ADDRESSING ENVELOPES

To piggy back off of the last letter writing rotation, you can also have students address envelopes to the person they wrote the letter for. Addressing envelopes is such an important skill for students to master. Whether is practicing spelling, formatting, or something as simple as writing small enough to fit on the envelope, these types of functional skills help to promote leading a more independent life outside of your classroom walls.

READING MENUS

Let’s face it - who doesn’t love going out to eat? Grab some takeout menus the next time you’re out in town and bring them back to your class. Students LOVE planning meals and it is a great opportunity for them to practice functional reading and math skills. For this rotation, you can give them budgets on post it notes for specific places they can eat. They can then read the menus to figure out what they’d like to order and make sure they are within their allotted budget. This rotation also helps to build community awareness by exposing students to the wide range of places they might be able to enjoy a meal other than the handful of places they might be accustomed to eating at. Truly a fun way to keep kids busy and entertained!

HOW IT’S MADE VIDEOS

Finally, my students love youtube and I found a fun way to keep them engaged with meaningful work while still utilizing their favorite video platform. In this rotation, I have students look up the term “How It is Made.” They get to select one video of their choice that shows how something is made. The HOW IT'S MADE youtube channel has a bunch of fun, school appropriate videos students can select from. I then have them write a brief summary of what they watched and learned about. With hundreds of videos to choose from, there’s something for everybody to pick!

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