Possible relief teacher lesson ideas: 1. Read the book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

Then, have the kids create a dance that the 'wild things' would do at the party. 2. I have the sub read a story to the students, have them respond orally to it, talk about the beginning, problem, solution, and end, and then have the children draw their favorite part of the story and write about it. 3. Some Old favorite like songs that are typed up. Perhaps you can find some short Reader's Theater plays and split the groups up for that since you can differentiate that. 4. What about a read-aloud followed by an art activity? 5. Make a bookmark, a book cover, a map, etc., that relates to the story. This takes a while, and I have my students get into small groups and use these materials as prompts while they share their understanding of the plot, character, etc. 6. "Open and Shut Case". I instruct my students that there are 3 sections in a dictionary. The first is "a through e", the middle is "f through p", and the back section is "q through z". Then I give them a list of 10 random words. They play with a partner. If the player opens on the first try to the correct section, he gets 1 point. If he opens to the correct letter, he gets 5 points. If he actually opens to the exact word, he gets 10 points. Playing with a partner keeps them honest and they try to outdo each other. For some reason, kids really like this game. The more they play, the quicker they get at finding a word. It's a win/win situation. 7. Have students make a bucket list for their life. This can relate to big goal setting and setting personal big goals. 8. Students can create a survey and interview their fellow students and teachers about the school. They could then write up a summary with recommendations for the school. 9. Crossword puzzles and word searches are easy to google search and use in class. 10. Math review sheets (timed multiplication/addition/subtraction/division sheets) and prizes for those who finish first and have all correct. 11. Vocabulary word bingo (write a bingo board on a blank paper and fill in with vocab words read the definitions and they have to match it with the word on their board). 12. Current events (read newspaper articles and write summaries).