Happy Saturday, Café Friends!
This past week has been crazy with sickness at our school! Stomach bug, flu, congestion, yuck! Poor little kids. Disinfecting wipes and spray have done their job after dismissal each day. Whew! Hopefully it's all sanitized. :-)
This bout of sickness got me thinking... what would I do if I (or either of my 2 kids) woke up sick one day and I just COULDN'T make it to school??? I've had some days like that, but I'd always get lucky and have "easy" plans for that day.
Or I would be up at the crack of dawn with the flu typing a generic schedule to send via email to my colleague friend and she would fill in the activities and make my copies. {What a lifesaver!!}
I had an emergency last month. I got to school and at 8:15 my secretary calls the room and says there's been an emergency and I need to come to the office right away.
What? I'm looking around to see which of my students are absent--thinking something may have happened to them. The news I received was certainly not an option in my mind at the time. All I was thinking about that morning was making sure I had my sub plans ready for the next two days so I could get off after lunch that day and go to NYC! I had the next few days ready, the sub plans were good to go. Everything was neat and organized in its own little jam-packed, colored file folder, bundled with a big rubber band.
So I get to the office and find out my dad was in cardiac arrest {completely unexpected}. My mind is mush and thoughts are racing everywhere. Little did I know, at that moment, that I'd need to be out over the next several days for my dad's funeral and to spend time with my family and regroup. AGAIN, I got lucky to have already planned for my sub since I was going to be out anyway.
Sooo.... I now realize that things happen in life and definitely when you least expect it. I have a sub tub in my classroom--nothing fancy--just a portable box that holds hanging file folders. If I'm ever in a situation again where I need sub plans in a hurry, I have a Sub Tub.
I plan for the week, but there are times when a sub just may not understand the lessons in my plan book, or for whatever reason, the sub may need to refer to my Sub Tub for backup.
I have files in the tub for:
Class Roster-I place an updated class roster in this file folder, noting any medical needs
Daily Schedule - copy of our daily schedule
Attendance Sheets - Blank sheets printed from our school's data system
Phonics / Reading / ELA- includes packs of already copied activity sheets on skills students always need to practice--blends, long and short vowels, digraphs, reading comprehension passages and questions, etc. I like to place copies of
Sentence Solvers because that's a skill students need to practice over and over. As a follow-up students can write their own sentences with the focus skill {located on the magnifying glass}.
Written Comprehension Questions for any story are also great for Sub Tubs. Printed on 1/2 sheets so it cuts down on the copies. The sub can read a story aloud and students can complete 1 or 2 of the written comprehension questions.
Math- includes math activity pages already copied--addition, subtraction, story problems, etc.
Science- copied sheets for science-related topics, cut & paste, writing topics relate to science
Social Studies- character education printables, bucket-filling activities {we always need to review that one :-) }
Writing -I have a list of various writing topics from Narrative, Informative, and Opinion in this folder. I also include some creative and descriptive topics. I have copies of
thematic writing paper to allow students to create their own writing topic related to the paper's theme.
Classroom Management- in this file, a copy of our classroom expectations can be found. I also do a quick run-down of how I use our clip chart. This file also has information as to where Emergency Forms can be found, and numbers of colleagues to call if there are any questions.
I don't have a lengthy file of directions for a sub. I'm thinking of a Sub Tub for short-term, emergency situations. This box should be a go-to place for quick, ready-made activities or lessons should the need arise.
I'd love for you to link up below and share up to 3 activities / lessons designed for the K-2 classroom that you think would be great for short-term, emergency absences. It's better to have too many resources for the sub to choose from than not enough. :-) Let's help teachers {and subs} everywhere! Thanks for linking up!
