Teaching so many different skills during a school year takes a lot of time for planning, creating, printing, and prepping. Some of my favorite ways to save time is to use low prep and no prep activities to help me review skills every week. By saving time on these review activities, I can focus more on other things that I need to get done each week. Let’s dive into some easy low prep activities you can start using right now.
Before I get into the activities, I want to introduce myself. Hi! I’m Keri Brown from Enchanted Kinder Garden. I want to thank Shanon for allowing me to be a guest writer on her site. We have so many ideas that are similar that this was a perfect match to share ideas. Be sure to check out her post on Enchanted Kinder Garden. You can read that here.
Why low prep and no prep activities?
When it comes to juggling the demands of teaching, we all know that time is of the essence. That’s where low prep and no prep activities come to the rescue! By using these resources, you can save valuable time and energy, allowing you to focus on what truly matters – your students. As educators, our schedules are often packed with lesson planning, grading, and meetings. Low prep or no prep activities provide a solution by allowing you to quickly and easily implement engaging review tasks without spending hours preparing materials. It’s a win-win situation!
One of the best things about low prep and no prep activities is their flexibility. These activities can be tailored to suit various subjects, grade levels, and learning objectives. Whether you’re reviewing math skills, language arts concepts, or even science facts, there’s a wealth of options available to meet your students’ needs.
As we delve deeper into this post, get ready to discover some incredible low prep and no prep activities that will transform your skill review sessions into engaging and enjoyable experiences for your students. Remember, teaching doesn’t have to be stressful – it can be fun and effective!
No prep activities for short vowels
Years ago, I printed off morning work sheets every morning. My students had a 30-minute window that they could arrive at school before they were marked tardy. Most of these students came closer to the tardy bell time and did not have time to do the morning work that I printed each morning. I wasted paper every single morning.
So, I tried to come up with a solution that would help stop the waste of paper, but also allow me to review skills with my students each morning before I started teaching. These automated (or manual) PowerPoints were created to help with this issue. They were such a hit with my students that we stopped doing them for morning work and used them throughout the day when we had a few minutes in between transitions. My students used these interactive slides just like they were a game.
here’s how they work:
It’s simple to get started. Choose the game of choice. For this example, let’s use the mixed short vowel cvc words set. Open the speed of choice. There are three speeds to choose from, manual, automatic, and one that stops on the answer. Then, play slideshow. That’s it. Students will need something to write on and something to write with. I prefer using an iPad with a drawing app. They can easily write their answers and then erase them. If you do not have access to class sets of devices, a whiteboard, and dry-erase marker works fine.
Students will say each word and then write the word. The next slide checks the word. If you stop on the answer, students are able to correct any errors and discuss what they wrote. We also correct incorrect letter formations during this time. You can find the short vowel activities here.
Shanon has a blog post about some wonderful short vowel activities as well.
No prep activities for math
One of my favorite ways to help students master number formation is by using invisible writing to help them visualize the number. I show them a mystery number and they have to write what they think it is. The crayon moves in the form of a number, but does not actually write anything. Once they have their number written down, I reveal what the number actually is.
Being able to think of every number’s formation and visualize the correct form and what was written on the board, they are able to easily remember how each number is formed. After a few weeks of doing these once or twice a week, my students are masters at the numbers. We talk about backwards numbers during this time as well. They correct any errors and get a chance to write each number correctly. You can check out the Mystery sets here.
Want to read more about math ideas? Shanon has a great post all about ideas for early finishers during math time.
Low prep reading centers for the year
When it comes to creating centers, I like to keep similar types of centers so I do not have to reteach how to play each game. I also love something where there is not a ton of cutting. My reading centers are very low prep. There are only a few cards to cut and they are very easy to cut. Most of the games are full page mats that just need to be laminated after cutting.
here’s another low-prep activity
Students read and trace either the words, letters or the sentences depending on the time of year and what they’re able to do. These can be used all year for the different levels in your classroom.
As the year progresses, we play these gameboards with letters and words on them. At the beginning of the year, we just focus on letters and sounds. As they master letters and sounds and move on to blending, I add in the mats with blending. They already know how to play and the skill changes. It makes it really easy to change games. We use letter mats for blocks and play dough. Tons of ideas included that are very low prep. Just print and laminate.
Want to read more blog posts like this and ideas for low prep and no prep activities:
Interested in more resources for short vowels? Here are three of my favorites:
Secret Short Vowel See it Write it
Read Write Illustrate Mixed Short Vowels Writing Paper
Word Building and Dictation Mats
Need more math ideas? Check these out:
Keri Brown is a primary educator in Alabama. She began her teaching career in 2008. She’s taught kindergarten, 1st grade and also worked as a K-2 interventionist. You can find her over at Enchanted Kinder Garden.
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