Cover · any class · nothing to prepare

Supply Teacher Activities and Cover Lessons

Twelve apps that a stranger to the class can run. Each one opens with the work already written, so the children are learning before you know their names.

Northern lights over Kirkjufell mountain beside a talk question. Photo: vaidyanathan, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons Picture ThisToday's photograph with eight writing activities already written for your age group.Lesson work Drawn diagrams of a protractor, a clock, a stack of cubes and a measuring jug Shape, Space & Measure ReasoningA printed test for the week with an answer sheet, then marked together on the board.Lesson work Bjorn the Viking in the hot seat Hot SeatThe class asks a Viking, a Roman emperor or Henry VIII questions, and he answers aloud.Lesson work The See, Think, Wonder board: a red-eyed tree frog photo beside three columns of pupils' answers. Photo: Carey James Balboa, public domain, Wikimedia Commons Thinking RoutinesSee, Think, Wonder and 22 more, stepped through on the board in any subject.Lesson or filler Historical event cards placed along a timeline Timeline GamePut six events from a ready-made era in order, then reveal the dates.Lesson or filler A team quiz board with numbered tiles and a Steal power-up card QuizmasterA team quiz with four ready-made sets, from General Science to General English.Games and fillers A hot air balloon photo half hidden behind numbered tiles Behind the TilesEach right answer lifts a tile until someone names the hidden picture.Games and fillers A mountain photo asking where in the world is this GeoMysteryA real photo, and the class works out the continent, the country and the region.Games and fillers

Plus Weekly Mental Maths, Reading Activities, Graph of the Day and Speaking Activities →

Supply teacher activities for a class you have never met

Good supply teacher activities are real lessons with the work already written, which need no class list, no pupil logins and no knowledge of the children to run. Every app on this page opens on the classroom board with ready-made content, so whoever is covering can start teaching as soon as the computer is on. Pupils never sign in. The adult at the board signs in to Sage, and a supply or substitute teacher can make their own free account in a minute, with 20 free tokens to spend.

Most cover work turns up as a photocopied sheet or a paid pack of PDFs. Those keep a class quiet, but the class teacher comes back to a pile of worksheets nobody marked. The lessons here end on the board, marked or discussed together, so the learning is visible before the bell.

Leaving cover work that runs itself

If you are the class teacher, the kindest cover note names an app, a year group and where to start, nothing more. "Year 5. Picture This, ages 9 to 11, story starter and missing adverbials. Shape, Space and Measure, autumn, week 8." Print any sheets the night before, so the person covering only has to put the lesson on the board. None of these apps needs your class list or your account, so there is no password to leave on a sticky note.

Cover lesson ideas for English

Picture This is a full writing lesson on one real photograph. There is a new one every day, with eight activities already written at five ages: talk questions, a story starter, missing words and adverbials, word classes, a sentence to improve, a sentence challenge and a longer description. Tick the ones you want, show them one at a time on the board, and print an A4 sheet with lines to write on.

When the class is partway through a book, Reading Activities gives 29 activities that work with any text, such as an emotion graph across the chapters or Point, Evidence, Explain. Ask the class where they are up to and use the book on the desk. For talk before writing, run See, Think, Wonder on a picture: what do you see, what do you think is going on, what does it make you wonder?

Cover lesson ideas for maths

Shape, Space and Measure Reasoning has a test for every week of the year, Year 1 to Year 6, each question with its own drawn diagram. Print the question sheet and the answer sheet in one PDF, give the class ten minutes, then press Mark on the board and go through it one question at a time. Weekly Mental Maths reads a 24-question test aloud and runs the clock, so the covering teacher marks rather than reads. Ask the class which week they are on. For a quick opener first, our maths starters need even less setting up.

Supply teacher activities for KS1 and KS2

Substitute teacher activities for elementary and middle school

The same apps work as sub plans in US schools. Hot Seat suits Kindergarten to Grade 5. For substitute teacher activities for 4th grade, that is UK Year 5: a Picture This lesson at ages 9 to 11, then a Hot Seat interview with Commander Maya Lewis on the space station. Weekly Mental Maths has tests for Kindergarten to Grade 10 that follow Common Core, in dollars and cents. In middle school, Picture This's ages 11 to 14 asks about mood, viewpoint and the photographer's choices, and Timeline Game's explorers and empires set fits world history.

Games and fillers for the last ten minutes

Every cover day has a gap. Quizmaster has four ready-made team quizzes: General Science, General Maths, General English, and History and Geography. Behind the Tiles has ready-made rounds, from a volcano to the Mona Lisa, each with its own questions. GeoMystery has ready-made sets such as Europe or Very famous (easier), and Timeline Game has five ready-made eras. Speaking Activities adds Two Truths, One Lie and Talk for a Minute, with a timer the class can see.

Picking names in a class you don't know

Choosing the same three hands up is the supply teacher's trap. Type the names from the register into Spin the Wheel, which is free, and turn on Remove after pick so every child gets one turn. Lesson Timer, also free, runs the lesson in timed stages, so the class can see when the writing ends.

A whole day of cover

A day like that uses about five of the 20 free tokens.

Questions teachers ask

Does the supply teacher need the class teacher's login?

No. They sign in with their own free account. None of these apps needs the class teacher's classes or saved work.

Is it free?

Spin the Wheel, Lesson Timer and Morning Board are free for good. The rest are free to try: opening or printing something uses one token, and opening the same thing again costs nothing.

Do the children need devices?

No. Everything here runs from the board. GeoMystery can also let pupils join on their own device with a QR code.

Written by a practising primary school teacher, and part of the free-to-try Sage Teachers apps.