DAILY 5

This is a nice way to work on skills that are giving your students a little trouble.  Set up 5 questions for the students to answer each morning when they arrive in class.  This gives the students a "job" immediately, to help them settle into the school day.  The photo shows working on telling time to the half hour.  I copied clocks onto heavy paper and made them large enough for students to see from the back of the room.  Laminate and you can use all year as the skills in telling time change.  The students need a paper that sets up a Daily 5 answers for each day of the week.  Check the work with the class prior to recess. 

FREE TIME IDEAS FOR WRITING AND CREATIVITY

I ALWAYS SET UP THE PAPER I WANTED THE STUDENTS TO USE.
1.  Choose a poem to copy.  Copy it neatly and correctly.  Illustrate the poem.
2.  Draw a fall design.  Use fall colors. 
3.  Use the leaves to make a design.  Decorate each leaf.  Use fall colors to color the picture.  Each leaf should be a different color.
4.  Think about something your family likes to do together.  Draw a picture of you and your family doing your favorite thing.  Write on the bottom of the paper what you are doing.  Make sure you name each person in the picture.
5.  Draw and color a picture of you iun your Halloween Costume.  Write one or more sentences telling about it.
Pick out a "How To Draw Book".  Find an item you want to draw.  Follow the directions.  Add background to compliment your drawing.  Color it neatly.