Tips and Ideas for Early Finishers Activities in 1st Grade
Do you ever have students who finish their work in .5 seconds and ask, okay what do I do now? Or you give directions and hear “I’m done!” before you can even take a sip of coffee? 🫠
Today, I wanted to share 4 quick tips for how I manage Early Finishers during math centers (but these tips can also be applied to any part of your day!) I’m also sharing my favorite fast finisher activities that are designed to keep students learning and be super low prep and easy to keep on hand!
💡 TIP 1: Make Math Centers open ended
I try to have as few math centers as possible that can be “done.” For most of our centers, I utilize dry erase pockets and markers so that students can just erase and do it again.
For our math tubs, students work with a partner. If they are playing a math game and they finish before time is up, they know that they can just play again!
You can grab my favorite low-prep Addition Math Mats for FREE here! They make perfect open ended math centers that can be played again and again!
Click here for Addition Math Mat Freebies
💡 TIP 2: Have a Grading Station for Early Finishers
For math centers that have a recording sheet (like our weekly Solve the Room center) I like to have my students visit a Grading Station. When students complete the math center, they can take their finished work to the grading station and check their own work!
They LOVE being the teachers and using a special “teacher pen” 💗 If they miss any, I have them go back and correct it. I love this routine because it holds students accountable and saves me time!
Read more about our Grading Station and grab one for your classroom for FREE here!
💡 TIP 3: Have a few easy early finisher activities ready to go!
For times when students actually do need something else to do, I like to have a couple of really easy early finisher activities ready to go. I use my rainbow cart so students can access everything independently!
Early Finisher Activity 1: Task Card Drawer
The first activity is a Task Card Drawer. I keep sets of task cards that we’ve already used for Solve the Room in a drawer, plus extra copies of recording sheets. Students can choose any set of cards to work on!
They LOVE choosing and it is great spiral review of past skills!
Early Finisher Activity 2: Color by Code
The second drawer activity is Color by Code! 🖍🌈
I keep a few different seasonal addition and subtraction color by codes for students to choose from! I LOVE these because they have differentiated options for each picture and they are perfect fact fluency practice!
Find a whole year of Addition and Subtraction Color by Code here!
Early Finisher Activity 3: Use a Choice Board
I started using a digital early finisher choice board when students are working on something independently. I love that I can give my students option to choose from that are all independent and no prep for me
! I can my Digital Center Rotation Slides to quickly change out the activities to make the perfect board!
Find the Digital Early Finisher Choice Board here!
I hope this gave you a few ideas for managing early finisher activities in your classroom! Will you try any this week? Comment below to let me know!
Want to learn more about how we manage our math centers in 1st grade? Check out this blog post all about our Guided Math Rotations!
