Easy Sub Plan with Task Cards... Really!

I am out of the classroom on Monday and Tuesday this week for our school's Site Planning Retreat.  We will  be reviewing the Mission Statement, Goals, Vision, etc. for the school, which I am so thrilled and honored to be a part of.  I had to go in today to write my sub plans (nothing like the last minute!), and I was talking to a girlfriend about it.  She made the comment "have fun with that!"  I told her I was just going to print some new task cards and be done with my plans.  She looked at me like I was crazy, and told me to have fun cutting for hours.  Oh, pish posh!  Cutting out a few task cards for sub plans? No biggie.

It took me 25 minutes to print, laminate, cut everything, and make a couple copies of recording sheets, and then 10 minutes to type up my plans.  For two days worth of sub plans!  I consider that to be pretty good!  And the best part is... the plans are meaningful and relevant.  No, the sub isn't introducing dividing fractions like I would be if I were there, but the kids will be engaged in work that isn't just busy work.  Not to mention, since task cards are self-checking with answer keys, I won't be left with a big pile of papers that I have to grade (or find something else to do with!)

As I was printing the cards, I thought it would be the perfect thing for this blog.  I have done this kind of planning several times before, but had never really thought about sharing it.

(The task cards I mention here are my own, which I sell in my TpT store, but you can use any task cards that are relevant to what you are teaching at the moment. If you are interested in purchasing any of the cards I mention here, I have links at the end of the post. )

 For reading, I always make a monthly set of reading task cards, and if I know I am going to be out, I save them for that occasion, although most of the time I use them in centers or small groups.  They review all of the key reading skills, and the kids love them.  I don't have a recording sheet for these since there are a variety of responses required, so they complete them in their reading journal.  I also just made a set of spring inference task cards, so I threw those in for Tuesday.  (I cheated a little bit with these...I knew my sub would have plan time before reading, so I left those in sheets of four for her to cut out.  If she doesn't get to it, the kids can just do a page of them at a time).

I also just started making seasonal review task cards for math standards (right now I have them for 4th and 5th grade, since I do both) that I consider a spiral review of math standards.  Each card covers one standard, so I can easily add or remove based on what they need to review or what we haven't done yet (I only had to take out 2 cards this time... that's a good sign for this time of year!).  These cards will take more than an hour to complete, so they worked for two days worth of math sub plans for me. Win!

I also didn't want every single student to do every single one of these (remember that post about task card differentiation?) so I have certain math groups working on certain standards for review.  The sub will also be working with small groups of students on their cards while others work independently.

I put them all out on the table, and I even put out my early finisher task cards in case she had any students finish early.  She won't have to deal with "what do I do now?" The kids just grab a card and go (there is a set for both math and language arts/reading).

That's it for reading and math for two days.  Awesome, right?! Think the kids will be engaged? Absolutely, yes! Is it busy work? Definitely not.

My only disclaimer would be that it would be advantageous to have already used task cards in your classroom, in one way or another if you are going to do task cards for the entire day with the sub.  You probably want to have some essential agreements set up for task cards as well (that post is coming soon...I just have to remember to take a picture of our anchor chart)!  Or if you have a really fantastic class, just go for it! I have honestly never met a kid who wasn't thrilled to do a task card.

Now, I don't teach social studies or science this year, but if you have run out of Time For Kids (my go-to social studies sub plans) or don't have another option, there are a few awesome task card options out there for science and social studies! Ari, The Science Penguin, blogs about her fantastic science task cards here and here.  Her Nature of Science cards look like SO much fun and are totally do-able for a sub!

For Social Studies, you could use these FREE Earth Day Task Cards that are ridiculously cute, or these FREE Government Task Cards from Ashleigh at Ashleigh's Education Journey.

Click on the images if you are interested in purchasing any of the task cards mentioned.

Spring Inference Riddles Task Cards

5th Grade Common Core Math Task Cards

4th Grade Common Core Math Task Cards 

Monthly Reading Skills Task Cards

Early Finisher Task Card Bundle

Differentiating and Scaffolding Instruction with Task Cards

We are working on Multiplying Fractions right now (click the link to check out my blog post with teaching ideas at my teaching blog!), and I created a set of Multiplying Fractions Task Cards to use with my kids and for my 4th and 5th grade teachers to use with their students.

I try really, really hard to make task cards that lend themselves to easy differentiation and scaffolding, and after seeing my students work with these, I think they meet that goal and provide a great example of the possibilities of task cards.  There were a few things I needed to include in these task cards: multiplying fractions by whole numbers with and without models, and multiplying fractions by fractions with and without models.  Oh, and CCSS say that they need to be able to do these things with word problems, too!  So as I set out to make these task cards, I knew that there would need to be some scaffolding.

The set starts out with multiplying fractions by whole numbers (a 4th grade standard).  It starts with visual models, then moves to no visual model, then on to word problems.  Super easy scaffolding, and for kids who don't need the visual models, they can skip those cards.  For kids not ready for the word problems, they can skip those.

A look at the cards for multiplying for whole numbers where you can see the progression of skills.

The set then moves on to multiplying fractions by fractions.  It starts out with visual area models, then moves to visual area models that aren't fully complete, then moves to other visual models, then to straight number problems, some fill in the blanks for critical thinking, and finally word problems.  There are generally 4-8 of each type of card so that teachers can pick which ones they want their students to do--there is NO rule that says all students must do ALL cards!

Take a look at the progression of task cards here...

While I see value in repeated practice of the same type of problem, I have also seen the immense benefit of these scaffolded and differentiated task cards.  The kids are able to see different types of problems in different ways and work through their understanding of it, often individually.  And this isn't only for math--almost all of my task cards are differentiated or scaffolded in some way.

I hope this gets the wheels spinning about how you use task cards in your room.  If you want to buy these Multiplying Fractions Task Cards, you can buy them at my TpT store HERE. :)

Compound Word Task Card Freebie

I spent my Easter afternoon whipping up a batch of. . .task cards!

Next week, with my 3rd grade RtI group, I am going to spend some time focusing on compound words.  On Monday, we are going to use Easter Eggs to review compound words (definitely not my own original idea...I've seen it several times on the Internet) and then some task cards as well!

Compound words shown up in second grade Common Core standards, but they seem to give my kids trouble.  Knowing common compound words is so crucial because it can really help the students with their fluency and automaticity.  Most often, students know the two words that make up a compound word, but they see a big word and have a hard time looking past it and then stumble when trying to read it.  So we are going to hit them hard this week!

We are going to start with the task cards on Monday.  I bought some awesome graphics from Ashley Hughes during her sale to make these task cards.  Each card has a graphic (like a horseshoe) of a compound word.  I am going to be putting them up on the document camera, and the students will identify the words.  Then, we put a word on each hand and clap them together to make the compound word.  I made a couple recording sheets for the cards, so I will also have them record them as we do them together.

Think you can use these with your students? Download them for FREE here!

Then, we are going to use our leftover Easter Eggs to practice compound words.  When I made these, I focused less on the object compound words (like birdhouse, cupcake, baseball, etc.) and more on other words like therefore, lifetime, somebody, etc.  that are a little bit more abstract.

I got super clever with this one and packed up a bag of goldfish to bring tomorrow.  Every time they get a match, they get a goldfish.  Get it? A goldfish!  It's a compound word!  (I considered bringing in a bag of jelly beans to give the kids if they got one wrong...since it's not a compound word, but every kid seems to make it one...but my hubby pointed out that I was just giving them incentive to get it wrong. True. Very true.)

The rest of the week we are going to focus on the words from this list of compound words.  I am going to be typing up some compound word stories for the kids to practice reading, which will also be free over at my teaching blog, Teaching With a Mountain View, so be on the lookout for those!

Test Prep with Task Cards

If you are new to Task Card Corner, WELCOME!  I am so glad you have joined us.  View THIS post to learn more about my vision!

We took our state assessments at the end of February and beginning of March, but I have received several questions about how I use task cards to prepare for state testing... and it just so happens that we did use them, and we had a blast!  We did test prep stations with task cards for about a week in both math and reading.  The centers were differentiated and they focused on common core strands as well as our former state standards that are still being tested this year and next (even if they aren't a Common Core Standard).

This year I have done several "Passports" for students when we are doing centers, and we stuck with that theme for test prep.  They had a Reading Passport to Success and a Math Passport to Success.

Each group of students got different passports based on what I knew they needed to review, especially in reading.  I had some kids working on higher level Inferential Vs. Literal Comprehension Questions, and some were working on Story Elements.  I used my fabulous Target Dollar Spot buckets and had a big row of buckets all along our back counter (which I didn't get a picture of... oops)!  The kids worked their way through the buckets based on what assignment/skill was on their passports.  In each bucket, they found a variety of different task cards to use to practice the skill.  When they finished working their way through a bucket, they would come find me, I would stamp their passport, and then they would check their answers using the answer keys.  The kids LOVED getting their stamps!

Reading Task Cards for Test Prep

Here is an example of one group's Math Passport.  Keep reading to download an editable version for yourself!

I had a lot of fun with math.  The kids have so many different skill sets and needs that I ended up with four different passports, with some kids reviewing the basics of addition and subtraction and another group working more heavily on fractions and decimals and critical math thinking.  In my mind, I was helping to ensure (hope, pray, fingers crossed) some kiddos would be proficient and giving others a chance to show that they are advanced.

Math Task Cards for Test Prep

There is SO much to cover in math that I didn't use complete sets of cards, but pulled 10-15 from different standards.  You can see here that for Geometry, they worked on Angles task cards, Perimeter & Area Task Cards, and Geometry/Shape Task Cards all in one bucket.

As far as time, I considered giving them a set amount of time at each station, but then I realized that wasn't the most logical idea--if they needed extra reinforcement on a topic, giving them ten minutes to work on it then forcing them to leave it behind wouldn't be the best practice.  So we spent a week of our literacy and math block devoted to completing our cards, and they worked at their own pace.

While the students were working on cards, I had identified areas that I wanted to be sure to hit home and use some of the down and dirty test prep materials with in small groups.  You know the drill-- released items, test prep pages, all of those things that you just HAVE to use so that kids are used to the format of the test.  So, as the students were independently working on their buckets, I saw 3-5 small groups each day, practicing some essential test prep material.  It was lovely!

Now, there were a few sets of cards that I had ALL of my students do, regardless of where they stood academically.  All of them worked on Inference (the inference task cards are differentiated so some groups were doing different cards), Sequencing, and Context Clues task cards in Reading.  In math, they all had to do the Data & Graphing Task Cards, What's My Operation? Task Cards, and Elapsed Time task cards.  These are skills that always seem to be heavily tested and most often taken for granted as having mastered.

Don't Have Time for A Week Long Study Session?

If you don't have time to devote an entire week to review, I highly recommend a set of reading review cards.  I make monthly reading and math skills task cards for my students to use in a variety of situations (morning work, morning meeting, early finishers, quick assessments, homework, etc.), and if you don't have a lot of time, they are a great way to hit the skills fast and furious.  I'm finishing up my April cards now (did you know that April is one of the less interesting months historically?), but you can still use the March cards, too!

Of course, you can use ANY task cards you have for this, but all of the task cards shown above are for sale at my TpT Store.  You can purchase them by clicking on their respective link above: If you are looking for reading task cards, click "Reading."  I will link to my "Must have test prep task cards" below.  If you have any requests for a specific set of task cards that you need for your test prep, let me know, and I'm happy to make custom orders!

Download an editable version of the Reading Passport Here and the Math Passport Here.  Nothing fancy or special, but it did the trick!  (Funny story:  My kids were so disappointed that there was no "fancy border thing" around the passport.  They have been spoiled!)

Must Have Test Prep Task Cards

Grades 3-5

Differentiated Inference Task Cards

Sequencing Task Cards

Context Clues Task Cards

What's My Operation? Task Cards

Elapsed Time Task Cards

Graphing & Data Task Cards

Welcome to Task Card Corner!

Welcome to Task Card Corner!

WE ARE UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

  I began using task cards in my classroom several years ago.  I had piled them into bins and baskets and files and never felt that I utilized them like I should.  I spent HOURS creating task cards, and I needed a way to make sure they were available to me and my students whenever we needed them!  So, I created Task Card Corner. 

I blog about Task Cards on my regular teaching blog,  Teaching With a Mountain View, and I get a lot of questions about how I use task cards in my classroom.  After a lot of thought, I decided the answer was simple: an entire blog devoted to teaching and enriching with task cards.  And so, www.teachingwithtaskcards.com was born, and it's my own little Task Card Corner on the web!  I've had the domain for a few months, considering what I would do with it, and now I think my vision is clear...

On Task Card Corner, I will be blogging about how I use task cards in my classroom (both my own and some other wonderful people who create and use task cards).  I will also make it a comprehensive listing of every single task card set I create (both free and paid) so that it is easy to find exactly what you need, when you need it!  I hope to compile a big list of free task cards as well, just in case you are new to task cards and want to get the hang of it before you invest!

I will be looking for guest bloggers soon--to promote their own free task cards and ways that they use them in the classroom.  If you're interested, email me at teachingwithamountainview@gmail.com !

While the website continues to be UNDER CONSTRUCTION and a work in progress, Check out my task card corner that I've blogged about over at Teaching With a Mountain View.

And while you're at it, check out my Task Card board on Pinterest. (I also have boards for anchor charts, organization, math topics, and so much more!)