Early finisher activities is an important aspect in your classroom. When I began teaching I used to have a box of worksheets which the children could select if they were finished and return it to the ‘completed work’ box. This did work well however, as the dreaded ‘photocopy limit’ began to get imposed on the photocopier and as we strived for the Green Flag I began to rethink my approach to early finisher activities.
My first change was my Busy Bags creation and I must say they work a treat! I purchased colourful zip bags from Amazon about three summer ago (which cost a fortune so I wouldn’t recommend) and I place an activity in each bag. If markers are needed and an eraser I also include these in the bags. Activities range from tracing letters, fine motor skill activities, math activities, matching and many more. The kids really enjoy them and never tire of them. There are many ways to organise your busy bags. One year I had the bags in a box and the children selected whichever bag they wanted. Last year I left the bags in their trays on their table and they were rotated each day. This year I am rotating them each week, at least this ensured the more ‘popular’ bags weren’t always gone with the children who finished first regularly. It does take a while to print and laminate all the activities but they will last throughout your time with infants if they are taken care of, and if you speak to your principal, they may let you print the activities without having it put through your printer profile and leave it in the classroom whenever your time with infants is up so it will always be available. Below is an example of the bags in action and they are ON SALE today and available to purchase on the Primary Teaching Ideas store here.
STEM Boxes: I added STEM boxes to my early finisher activities last year. I bought boxes from Dealz (invest in sturdy lunch boxes as I initially bought real cheap ones and they were cracked and broken within a few week), and placed activities into them. As I had 4 table groups I had 2 boxes on each table and rotated them daily. Playful Classroom on Instagram also has fantastic STEM ideas. Again, I rotate these activities weekly. Activities included:
- Placing velcro on the top and bottom of lollipop sticks so stick them together.
- Unifix cubes to build with.
- Plastic snowflakes (I think I bought these on wish or amazon) and they absolutely loved this box.
- Dominoes to build with.
- Cut up straws and plasticine, play dough or blue tac to stick them together.
- Lego
- Cut up pipe cleaners
- Match sticks and plasticine play dough or blue tac to stick them together.
You can really put anything into your STEM boxes that allows the children to make and create.
Maths and literacy tables: I have maths and literacy tables set up in my classroom and two children can sit at them when they are finished their work. I leave resources, pages, laminated sheets, markers, pencils and whiteboards on the tables with activities that tie into our themes that week. I also make it very clear that they must be practising their writing or letter formation when at the writing table and the maths table as some of them will happily sit drawing pictures and not actually engage with the activities on the table. I have table groups assigned to the maths and literacy tables for the week this year to help curb the spread of covid.
Reading Boxes: This year I have a reading box assigned to each table. I try to include books on themes we are working on that month also. On Friday the books are wiped down and the boxes are rotated.
I explain our activities for finishing early very clearly at the beginning of the school year. It is best practice not to have children sitting idle once they are completed their work or conversing with another child which results in them getting distracted.
If you have any other ideas for early finisher activies in the infant classroom please let me know or if you have any questions you can contact me through email, Facebook or Instagram. Don’t forget to sign up to our email list at the right to ensure you are receiving all our freebies and are up to date on resources from Primary Teaching Ideas.
Take care,
Sarah
