Creative Choice

Having plenty of purposeful activities for the students to do is so important in the classroom.  I thought I would share what I have for my students who finish their work quickly.  

Each of the sticks (in the blue cup) have a student's name written on them (I took this before school started so I hadn't written names yet).  When a student finishes his/her work, they can be creative and choose an activity to do: their anything & everything journal, a math tub, computer work, word work activities, ipad work, and/or work on writing. 

When they pick an activity, they can put their name stick in the pocket that corresponds with the activity.  There is one rule though: there can only be 4 people at a choice. 

 The activities on this board are ones that are differentiated & that the students also do during other times of the day.  For example: work on writing also happens during literacy stations. This is great because the students can work at their own level and they don't need any instruction because they already know about them.

Typically, I wait until about the 4th week or so of school to introduce Creative Choice.  Before then, I have the fast finishers work in their anything & everything journals - they can do anything (school appropriate) in these journals: write a story or poem, draw, practice their handwriting, create math problems and then solve.