Emergency Sub Plans

Many teachers refuse to work on school stuff in the summer.  Some teachers love to do school projects in the summer. Some of us are in the middle somewhere.  I see too many posts with strong opinions either way. Who cares what others do???  Personally, I do nothing work related in June, and then in July I slowly start thinking and planning, but it is minimal until I actually go back.  

Except for one project-emergency sub plans. 

Every summer I have worked on these- trying to tweak them by pulling activities from here and there. These are genuine emergency plans in the event that I cannot get anything ready in time for school.  But then, I stumbled upon an awesome resource on TpT, where Melissa Moran designed an entire day's worth of activities around one read aloud.  The beauty of this is she has multiple options for different books.  The format is exactly the same for each packet.  Why is this so great?  I spent a good chunk of time using her resources for The Very Hungry Caterpillar to make detailed emergency plans.  After that, I was able to make a second, third, and fourth set quickly by plugging in the same activities, but for different books.  In no time, I had four days' worth of plans ready to go!

I am going to USE these this year.  If I wake up sick, I am not going to spend an hour getting sub plans ready for what was supposed to happen that day.  If I am sick the night before-same drill.  I am just going to be sick, knowing these are all ready to go at any moment.  

Click here to access her packet for If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Below are some examples of my template that I just change a few things based on the book that day. 

Easy Spring Bird Craft

Sometimes I just need an easy, low prep, quick directions craft, especially in April.  I copied the bird bodies on pink, blue, and yellow and students chose their color with feathers to match.  I showed my kindergartners the steps all at once, and they were able to complete this on their own.  Pro Tip: give them a specific number of feathers they can use, or else some will go wild! I told them three for this craft due to the amount of feathers I had on hand.

These looked really cute hanging in the hallway. 🐦

Click here for free template.

AR Word Count Awards

One of the most powerful motivators I have found in kindergarten is setting word count goals with AR.  If you aren't familiar with AR, it stands for Accelerated Reader, through Renaissance Learning. AR has its haters, but I strongly feel that what is done WITH AR in classrooms is the problem and not the platform itself. Quick explanation: kids read books and take comprehension tests on the computer. I have over two decades of reading success with my kids and AR is a huge part of that. 

AR keeps track of words read through a report you can run.  Starting in January (you can start sooner if you teach older students), I start a "Word Count Club."  Once students get to that word count for the month, they write their name on a poster (a real fancy piece of plain construction paper) and earn the monthly award. As soon as I show students where AR tells them how many words they just read in their book they get so excited.  They will tell me "I got 100% and read 272 words!"  Plus they practice reading numbers, so bonus! The majority of kids can make it into "the club" with effort.  Struggling or nonreaders can take tests on books read to them, books they listen to on Epic Books, etc.  It's some extra work on the teacher, but trust me, the ends justify the means.  Last year I had several kids reading 3,000-4,000 words a month.  Some were over 12,000 consistently.  All that practice is what I think is the missing link for tremendous growth in student achievement in American education.  This is my forever soapbox! 

You can purchase a packet of 15 different awards on my TpT store for $1.50 by clicking here.  Thank you for supporting my small business. 

Sample Awards:

Morning Meeting Game

Over break, I found this reel with a game I am exited to try with my kindergartners for morning meeting. Click the picture for the link. 

You can call it the Animal Game, Zoo Game, Habitat Game, etc.  The teacher shows her students six different motions for animals.   On the count of three everyone makes one of the motions.  Students who did the same motion as her are out.  The goal is to be the last one standing to win the game.  Simple and fun.

In reading the comments, I saw someone suggest teaching ASL for the animals, which I thought was a brilliant idea.  Kindergartners are fascinated with sign language.

There was some criticism in the comments that creating one winner isn't fair or this game isn't set up for kids with slow processing.  I think kids need to learn that they won't win every time, to be happy for your classmates, and that you won't be good at everything. If we never do things because it's not fair to every single student every single time, what exactly will we be doing?