How do you keep those students engaged who continually finish set tasks before others in the class? Finding quality ways to keep them exploring and pushing their learning boundaries is one of the holy grails of teaching. I get it! After all of the weekly planning, and other jobs that arise each week as a teacher, thinking about what students are going to do when they call out – ‘I’m done!’ can just be another task on your ever-increasing to-do list. That’s why I have put together some of my favourite ways to incorporate a fast finisher activity routine in your classroom with these engaging and purposeful fast finisher activities.
The best thing about spending a bit of time setting up a classroom routine for when students finish their independent work (the best they can) is that it’s routine. Technically the students don’t need to bother you, which leaves you time to spend with students who may be struggling with the set task.
Meaning fewer hands up…
Fast Finisher Activity Set Up Ideas
Make sure your students are fully aware of the routine or what to do when they finish a set task. Of course, they will need to be reminded to ensure they check their work before handing it in and ensuring they have done the best they possibly can before they move on to the early finisher rotation.
Fast Finisher Task Cards are the perfect mix of usability and set-up simplicity for your classroom, especially when they fit in the famous Rainbow Storage Set by Elizabeth Richards.
Set up these containers in an area that is easily accessible for your students to go and grab an activity.
You can even colour code them so that you can specify a subject area they need to pick from. What teacher doesn’t like colour coding??
Fast Finisher Activity Task Cards
The beauty of our range of Fast Finisher Task Cards is that they cover a range of learning areas and year levels.
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Check out the full range of Fast Finisher Task Cards.
Create a Fast Finishers’ Folder
Creating a folder full of meaningful and purposeful activities for students to complete and stick in their workbooks is also another fantastic idea! At the beginning of each term, fill the folder with fast finisher goodness.
Simply copy a number of the same activity and place each in their own plastic pocket in the folder! Voila!
Create your own folder with chosen activities or utilise our already put together folders:
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Create an Enticing Fast Finisher Classroom Display
Your students will be begging you to get through their set work with a display like this in the classroom. You can create little pockets separating the topic of fast finisher activities.
With this set up you can either point your students in one particular direction or give them a choice. For example, before students begin an independent task you can let them know when they complete their set task they may pick from the ‘Read it’ or ‘Solve it’ activities from the early finisher pockets.
The beauty about this set up is you can create it so that it suits your class.
To create this display I used the Colours of the Rainbow Letter Set and the Colours of the Rainbow Word Wall templates. I also used some bright eye-catching pocket folders to easily store the activities.
Here are a collection of task cards or activities that you could use in these pockets. Really the world is your oyster with what you put in these pockets…
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Make it Fun (But Still Purposeful)
Such a simple idea, but a slight change and mix up can really get your students excited to learn more! Write some simple fast finisher activities on ping pong balls and put them in a container at the front of the classroom. Students pick a ball and complete that fast finisher activity.
You can also write the activities on large pop sticks too!
Do Some Teach Starter Stalking
We have such a range of activities that could easily be used for which every fast finisher set up you decide to go with. All you have to do is search ‘printable task cards‘ and you’ll be shown a collection of 179 different sets of task cards that could be easily used for early finisher activities.
Our Bloom’s Taxonomy Fast Finisher Task Cards – Lower Years are just one of these downloads and include a collection of activities that cover the following Bloom’s Taxonomy learning objectives:
- remembering
- understanding
- applying
- analysing
- creating
- evaluation.
The perfect collection of activities to use for those early finishers in your classroom!
Spending a bit of time setting up a fast finisher routine is sure to help you in the day to day running of your classroom! Go on… give it a go!
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