Meaningful Early Finisher Activities
By Mary Montero
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If you’ve ever heard, “I’m finished! Now what?” and mentally panicked because you didn’t have options, we’re going to solve that today! No matter how carefully you plan your instruction, you’re still likely to have students who finish tasks early and wonder what to do with their extra time. That’s why it’s important to have meaningful early finisher activities that cater to diverse student needs, promote independence, promote critical thinking, and encourage student growth.
Early Finisher and Enrichment Activity Bundle
“I’m done! What’s next?” Never answer this question again with the ULTIMATE set of resources to engage and challenge your early finishers and provide enrichment opportunities for your whole class.
Who Are Early Finisher Activities For?
First, let’s take a moment to think about who our early finishers typically are. These students are often quick thinkers, eager high achievers, or gifted learners. Sometimes, they are students who may need to go back and correct the work they finished quickly. As educators, we need to provide activities that cater to their unique needs and implement activities that go beyond simply offering more work! Instead, our early-finisher options should provide enriching and meaningful activities that stimulate their minds and foster additional growth. When we find THOSE activities, we’re able to ensure that their extra time in the classroom is not just filled, but enriched with opportunities for exploration, creativity, and academic growth.
This Gifted Enrichment Tips for the General Education Classroom explores effective strategies and resources to engage and challenge your gifted learners, ensuring they are engaged in the general education classroom just as much as they are when working with their gifted teachers. Whether you’re a seasoned educator or new to the concept of differentiation and trying to juggle it all, this post will equip you with tools you need to create an inclusive and enriching learning environment for all students.
Busy Work for Early Finishers? No Way!
Early finishers in the classroom don’t need busy work to simply occupy their time; they need meaningful tasks that extend their learning in purposeful ways. Busy work, while it may keep students quiet or “engaged,” often lacks depth and can diminish their motivation. Offering meaningful extension activities, such as critical thinking challenges, project-based learning, or opportunities for creativity, helps students deepen their understanding and apply their knowledge in novel contexts. This approach encourages continuous growth, supports differentiated learning, and fosters a sense of ownership over their learning process, ultimately creating a more enriching classroom environment for all students.
How to Organize Early Finisher Activities
How you organize your early finisher activities can make or break the systems you put into place. Your early finishers need to be able to independently access and understand these tasks. If your early finisher activities are disorganized or confusing, your students are likely to interrupt your small groups looking for help.
Photo storage containers or labeled bins (Amazon affiliate links) are simple ways for students to grab the materials they need.
As a gifted facilitator, I provide each of my pullout students with an enrichment binder that they use in their general education classroom. You can use a similar concept for all of your early finishers! Each student can have a binder or folder with unfinished work as well as additional early finisher options.
Here are some suggestions for what to include.
Choice Boards
I love using choice boards for early finishers as an easy way to differentiate and provide variety.
I design each choice board to have a variety of activities that appeal to different learning styles. As the teacher, I determine how many activities students need to complete from each board and if there are any requirements. For example, sometimes I might ask students to select one activity from each column or row (which I have carefully planned to hit standards).
Logic Puzzles and Brain Busters
Logic puzzles are another great early finisher option. I use logic puzzles to enrich and extend specific standards and critical thinking.
This math logic puzzles bundle has 9 sets to include throughout the year. Each set includes an introductory and advanced version. Although they contain the same content, they differ in difficulty levels and numbers used. This helps you make sure each students’ early finisher options are personalized to their needs!
For literacy, this reading logic puzzles bundle has 7 logic puzzles that help students practice reading comprehension and critical thinking. All puzzle sets follow a similar format, making them an ideal independent early finisher option. Teach your students how to complete the first puzzle from the first set and they’ll know what to do on the rest!
These Critical Thinking Brain Busters are another fun way to help your students increase their logical reasoning. The packet includes 180 days of activities that keep students interested and motivated all year long. As a bonus, no answer key is needed. The open-ended responses encourage discussion and deep thinking.
Error Analysis
After teaching students all about error analysis, I provide a variety of independent error analysis tasks as early finisher options.
At the beginning of the year, we complete several examples together. My FREE addition error analysis is a good place to start, no matter the grade level. I show them the process of walking through the problem and how best to complete an error analysis task. This sets them up for independent success throughout the year.
Then I include error analysis tasks as early finisher options toward the end of each unit throughout the year. These are the perfect options for when students have a nearly full conceptual understanding of a concept!
Math Projects
Math projects are particularly awesome for enrichment as most require some level of higher-order thinking. These are NOT your typical math worksheets.
When I create a new math project, I look at the concept and outline all the different ways that skills need to be practiced. I consider how I can review each skill and ways that I can encourage students to really stretch their thinking with the concept. It’s incredibly important to me that my math projects aren’t just another worksheet with a pretty theme, and I go to great lengths to create in-depth projects that help students excel. Every single one of my math projects has been designed to enrich and extend student thinking!
You can add different math projects to early finisher folders based on the skills each student needs to practice or assign different pages of the same project to unique students. Visit this post to learn more about implementing math projects for your early finishers.
More Early Finisher Options
If you need a few more activities to round out your early finisher options, here are more student favorites.
- Math Concept Pictures
- Reading Projects
- Creative and Critical Thinking Journal
- Early Finisher Task Cards
You can also visit this 5 Tips for Gifted Learners post to read more about providing differentiated opportunities for your gifted students.
Mary Montero
I’m so glad you are here. I’m a current gifted and talented teacher in a small town in Colorado, and I’ve been in education since 2009. My passion (other than my family and cookies) is for making teachers’ lives easier and classrooms more engaging.
