Teaching Online: Early Finishers

I am currently teaching a practicum class online and we run a virtual school program. I am learning a lot of things and want to share some tips along the way.

One of the teachers asked me for some suggestions for students who finish an assignment early. In class, we usually suggest that they read a book.  To keep students engaged online, the students need something else besides just reading.

Here are my suggestions:

Early finisher suggestions: 

1.     Word search – there are websites online that help you create a word search with your own words.

2.     Word Creator - Give a word like "Elephant" and see how many new words they can make just using the letters in that word. They can only use the letter "e" twice since it is in Elephant twice but the other letters can only be used once in each new word. All the letters can be used in the next new word. (ex. pant; he; the; ant)

3.     Lists: I love lists! Have students make lists of things.

a)     all the fruit you can think of

b)    desserts

c)     animals

d)    vegetables

e)     food you don’t like

f)     actions that are good manners

g)    nice things to say to other people

h)    acts of kindness

i)      things that are green or blue or red etc.

j)      list of things that are blue (or red or green) in your room

What other suggestions do you have? Please share.