Does anyone have any ten minute activities to occupy a third grade class when teacher is pulled away?

Question

I will be starting student teaching soon and I have been told that sometimes the teacher must step out of the class. I don't want to just stand at the front of the room with nothing to say, but during the first couple weeks, she teaches the lessons. I've thought about making my own brain quest questions to review past grade lessons, but other than that I don't know what to do. I don't want them to get bored or restless, lose control, and then look incompetent. Help!

Answer 1

I make my kids continue to working on whatever they were doing. Typically, I don't do a lot of direct instruction so most of the times I have to leave or get pulled out is in their independant time. I have popcorn points in my classroom where the kids earn points for good behavior towards a popcorn party. I offer 2 popcorn points if they get a good report while I'm out of the room. I assign 2 kids as "in charge" and they determine whether the class earns them. It works

Another thing I do if I have whole group. I play the number line game.

Write 1 ------------- 100 on the board. Have kids guess a number (I'm already thinking of one in my head). Let's say kid one says 27. I will say, "Too Low" and I change my number  line to this 27---------100.  Continue the process saying too high, too low and eventually they guess the number and it's that kiddos turn to lead the next game.  Fun, the kids are involved. etc...

Answer 2

There are brain quests that you can buy at the teachers' supply store, or even at a general store. They're fine if the children aren't working. Most likely if your teacher leaves you will be expected to carry on the lesson that she is teaching. Be prepared to just pick up where she leaves off and continue without a break. The children will be fine with that. Good luck to you.

Answer 3

get teh kids to write the laphabet down their page-

pick  a topic or subject like school or feelings or home

get them to brainstorm on their own as many words as they can.

in 3 min.

then get them to come up to the board with chalk/ marker til u have at least one word per letter. no child can come up twice and they have to add to the list on their page.  

Answer 4

7-Up is a fun game that kids love.

Pick 7 (or less) kids to come up to the front of the room.

Have the rest of the class put their heads down on their desks with their thumbs up.

When everyone's head is down, have the 7 kids you picked go and each tags ONE other person's thumb and then goes back to the front of the room.

Tell the kids who are at their desks to remain sitting with their heads down even if they get their thumb tagged.

Once all of the 'taggers' have tagged one person and returned to the front of the room, then have the entire class sit up and the tagged kids can stand up. Then, one at a time, the tagged kids get 2 guesses as to who tagged them. If they guess right, they get to be the taggers in the next round, and if they guess wrong, they sit back down.

Answer 5

It sounds like the teacher leaves the class even when she doesn't have a student teacher - this is absolutly wrong.  A class can not be left unattended.  With that said - you will be there now so the teacher can leave.  However, the teacher cannot leave for long periods of time.  You are there to learn too - you are student teaching, you don't know everything yet.  The teacher has to be there to guide you and evaluate you.  Don't get taken advantage of.

Ok, with that out of the way....if the teacher is still teaching the lesson in the first few weeks, and she leaves, then she is responsible for giving them work to do.  Most likely they will be in the middle of an assignment or lesson - you may have to continue the lesson, or the students will be able to work independently.  If they are working independently then you can circle the room and be available to help with work.  If you are really stuck review the work they had just been doing independently, review the homework from the night before.  Take a copy of their vocab list for that week and have a spelling game.  Draw a tic-tac-toe board and write a spelling word in each box.  Divide them into teams..and choose a team to go first.  They say a word, you erase it, then they spell it.  If they get it wrong it goes to the other team.  Award points as neccessary.

Lastly, bring up your concerns to the teacher.  She may have procedures in place for this kind of thing.  She'll tell you the routine of the classroom.  She may also know already what works with the kids and what doesn't.  Communicating is very important when you student teach.

Answer 6

i will ask a interesting questions that i had been asked b4 in my class when they were oledy finishing their homeworks n still have 20 minutes to leave the class. n that was, "do any of u got any nickname? do u like ur own nicknames or not?" they r totally like it n like me when i were in their class!

Answer 7

They love to talk about themselves and to have all the attention.  Ask a question, related to the lesson or previous lessons, about them.  It's applying what they learned; they won't forget it as easy.  Like if you were teaching about chemistry and asked the class, a student might mention that him and his family almost died from carbon monoxide or watev, you know?