I'm done. What do I do now?

How many times have you heard that question?  It has been the bane of my existence in the classroom for going on 28 years now.  No matter how many times I tell the children what they can do when they finish their work, they just can't seem to do it.  I've seen these "fast finisher" boards and whatnot around for a while now, but when I look at them, they just seem to hard for first graders, especially at the beginning of the year.  Plus, a lot of them involve me checking work when it is finished, and I just don't want to make that extra work for myself.

Enter Dollar Tree.  Every few days I stop in and browse around just to see what they have.  Last time I stopped, I spotted these.

Those looked interesting.  And the little picture up in the corner got me thinking.  I bet I could make a fast finisher activity choice board to use with these.  So I got to work and came up with this.

I printed it out at 190% and carefully cut and lined up edges, glue pieces down, added some tape, and tried it out.

I love the way it works! I will make two more, laminate them, and use them on the side chalkboard every morning, spinning them to tell the kids each morning what they should do if they finish their work early.  I like the idea of switching it up a bit each day, but there will be lots of overlap of activities as well. 

I really hope this does away with the "I'm done.  What do I do now?" question!

If you'd like to print out the board, you can download it by clicking on the picture below.

Have a great weekend!