Every teacher hears this at least once a day (if not a million times) – “I’m done, what do I do now?” Well a few years ago I saw this idea on Pinterest called the “I’m Done” cup. See how I used this here. While this worked for awhile, I’ve decided to try a different approach for how kids choose and allow the choice to be theirs not up to what stick they draw. This also will solve some behavior issues that would come from multiple kids trying to draw sticks at the same time.
Here are their options so far…
-Read a book
-Take an AR Test
-Practice math facts on Xtra Math
-Write a story
-Bucket Filling
-Practice spelling words
I’ll add more as the year goes on, but this is a good start and isn’t too overwhelming. Students have the options up and visible and they can pick one option from the door. Multiple kids can be working on the same option which is fine unlike with the cup.
Here’s what it looks like…
So, I got this fantastic idea for Pinterest as a way to end the endless question of, “I’m done….what do I do now?” that you get as a teacher. The teacher who I got the idea from had an “I’m Done” jar, but since I teach first grade and have an accident prone class, a glass mason jar didn’t seem like the best idea. I got my craft sticks, jewels, and stickers from JoAnn’s and I found some great plastic tumbler cups from Target. For this project, I wrote activities for the kids to do once completed with their work on the stick. Now, when kids finish they know they can go to the “I’m Done Cup” and pick out an activity to work on.
I have had this in my classroom for about a month now and I love it! The kids are so much more independent and it’s great too because there doing different activities each time. I used to say, “oh, just go and read a book” which got boring to them after a while, but now they have multiple things that they can do. Below are some examples of the activities they can choose from.
“I’m Done” Cup Activities
I know this may seem like a lot of activities, but the variety of the choices actually helps with management. Before I’d have all of the kids in one area trying to get books and it typically turned into an issue. Now, they are doing a variety of tasks in different areas of the room so it gets rid of the congestion. I also decided to have two cups. Both cups have the same items in them, but this way the kids aren’t all waiting to grab their stick from just one cup.
See pictures below…
