Emergency Sub Plans

These past couple of weeks, I have been linking up with the Clutter-Free Classroom to help organize my classroom a bit.  I've already purged old teaching materials and files, cleaned off an entire rack that now can house student materials,

re-organized a bookshelf for my teacher resources,

gotten rid of two half size filing cabinets, gave away my rolling cart of drawers to another teacher in my building.  I actually gave it away!  Woo to the hoo!

Adios!

And I started cleaning up my desk {can you believe I found 3 boxes of staples in my top drawer - 3! I don't think I need that many staples on hand!}.  I'll blog more about that process as it unfolds.  I'm about half way finished with my desk cleaning.

Ahhh!!  This desk will eat you alive!! :)

After reading this post over at the Clutter-Free Classroom and reading posts from the Sub Hub {awesome blog!!}, another thing I started working on is making a Sub Binder full of resources for my subs to have and an expanding file of Emergency Sub plans for when I have to be out last minute and don't have time to run down and get everything ready.  I usually have my subs continue with my regular curriculum, but when I can't be in the room to write my plans {"turn to page 453 in the math TE", "copy blackline 45", etc}, I need to have a back-up plan.  I usually take HOURS prepping for a sub, making sure the copies are ready, the TE's are opened to the right page and labeled with the subject, posters needed for the day are ready to be used, guided reading materials are waiting at the teacher table to be used with groups, and the classroom is clean and orderly.  It's exhausting.  I'd honestly rather teach for the day instead of spending all that time, just to have a random sub who has never been to my school not do the activities and have the kids do whatever they want all day long. 

Cute binder cover is a freebie from The Clutter-Free Classroom.
I made the sign for my expanding file, laminated it, and hot glued it to the front.

So, in an effort to be more efficient and organized, I set up my Emergency Sub Plans expanding file.  I have 5 different sets of basically the same structure, just different worksheets and books to read aloud.  I made the copies for Plans #1 and they are ready to go, organized by subject.  After I use these, I'll copy off Plans #2 so it's ready to go for the next time I have a last minute sub.

In my actual Emergency Plans, here are the resources I used:

• Morning Work - I use worksheets and lessons from Time For Kids {my class has a subscription paid for by Donorschoose} or crosswords and word searches from Boggles World ESL.
• Writing - Writing pages and prompts from What the Teacher Wants.  I pulled out 5 of them to use in my emergency plans.  The others I put in the writing center for student to choose during Daily 5. They love it!  I always include to book to read aloud to go with the prompt in my emergency plans
• Reading Small Group - I have my sub do pre-made games from the book Language Games Galore: Comprehension and Critical Thinking, Gr. 3 from Creative Teaching Press {I got it on sale at my local teaching store, Learning Palace}.  They play the game and do a worksheet that goes with it.  Each game focuses on a comprehension strategy.  I have my sub do this with two reading groups.
• Reading Whole Group - I have my sub do a grammar or conventions worksheet with the whole class from Education.com.  They have great FREE worksheets and activities for all grade levels.  I suggest checking them out {especially since Super Teacher Worksheets is now member-only!}
• Health - I don't have a lot of time for health instruction, so it's an easy one for subs to do.  We have The Great Body Shop curriculum and get themed packets for each student every month with lessons and worksheets to go with it. I usually have the kids buddy read the packets and do one of the worksheets together.  Easy and fun 20 minute lesson, perfect for after lunch.
• ELD {English Language Development} - My school does ELD school-wide, with a Walk to ELD model.  I teach a group of 18 Early Advanced/Advanced ESL and native speaking students, but sometimes ELD is cancelled due to ELPA testing or other things going on in the ESL department, so I prepared my emergency plans to be used with my regular class or my ELD class.  That means, supplemental materials and not the adopted curriculum.  I have a ton of books about grammar and parts of speech and worksheets downloaded from Education.com.  I have my sub read a book and have a discussion using structure sentence frames, then do a couple questions on the worksheet whole group, a couple with partners, and a couple individually {differentiating the I Do, We Do, You Do model}.

• Math - Have I mentioned I like Education.com?? Well, my math sub lessons are from them, too!  They have great game ideas teaching different math concepts using playing cards.  I have my sub play one of those games on the document camera, against the class.  Then I have individual worksheets for the kids to complete after the game.  We use Bridges in Mathematics curriculum and it includes a great "Work Places" component {basically, math centers}.  The kids can play the math work place games if there is additional time at the end of the day.    

And here's a freebie - you can see how I typed up my Emergency Plans 1 here:

So that's it!  It took a couple of weeks for me to pull all these resources together, but I feel so good about having it all ready.  So if I get a cold, the flu, food poisoning, whatever.  I feel confident that an experienced sub or a brand new one to my building will feel successful in my classroom for a day.  What do you think?  What do you do for subs?  Do you spend hours of time like I used to?  Tell me all about it!