Ten Ways to Tackle the Last Few Minutes of Class

Awkward. All eyes are trained on me, but I have nothing left to say. Our day's work is finished, but we have ten more minutes of class. What should I do? How can I keep the learning process going when I have run out of material? As a new teacher, I would blunder through some type of time-filling talk that everyone in the room knew was simply designed to fill time. As I began to quiz my colleagues as to how they handled the aforementioned situation, I devised several strategies to keep the learning process going and prevent the students from drifting off into boredom, or simply checking out mentally while they waited for the bell to ring. 

1. Twenty Questions

When I was a child, I sat in the back seat of the car with my siblings. On long drives, we were often bored out of our minds. My parents, probably disturbed by the endless chatter and/or squabbling, always had a great game for us. Twenty questions. The gist of game was for one person to think of a person or an object. The other players had twenty chances to ask yes/no questions in order to determine the object of the other’s imagination.

I simply adapted this game to fit the material we were covering in class. When teaching English, I used it for vocabulary review and reinforcement. When teaching social studies, you can use it with a theme like countries in Africa, or people/events from the 1800s. The fall-back instruction is to ask a student to think of one thing he/she learned today, and then have the class ask the twenty questions. Give your kids tips on how to strategically ask questions to help narrow down the subject matter.

2. Why/Because

This is another quaint little game that is great for review and/or reinforcing new concepts. It is perfect for the end of class because it does not take up much time and it gets the students thinking. To start, distribute two index cards to each student. On the first card each person should write a question beginning with the word why. On the second card, each pupil should answer his own question with the word because. Collect the why’s and place them on one stack and the put the because’s in another. Shuffle each pile then read one why card and one because card. Hearing the combinations can be very funny. But without realizing it, your students are thinking about what the correct question or answer should be. Viola! Critical thinking, review, time-filler, and fun all in one game. With two minutes to go in class, work together to correctly match the statements. For test review, take more time in class and play the game all the way through to the end.

3. Pictionary

Regardless of the current subject matter, learning new vocabulary is invaluable. The perfect opportunity for a vocabulary revision exercise is often the last ten minutes of class, and Pictionary is always a hit. On index cards have a current vocabulary words ready to go. Ask a volunteer come to the board and select one of the cards. Set a timer for two minutes and allow him/her to draw pictures on the board to try to get others to guess the word. No letters, numbers or symbols are allowed. If the word is correctly guessed you can allow for a second selection. As more vocabulary is learned add those words to new cards, so you always have a current deck at-the-ready.

4. Charades

Charades is another great game for vocabulary development and review. Similar to Pictionary, a  few rounds of charades, will guarantee your learners will leave the classroom with some of the learning material in their brains and smiles on their faces. The same vocabulary cards that were used for Pictionary will work here as well. The difference is that the students get to act out the words. You can also write more than just a word or two. With charades, you can put a concept on the card. I suggest you color code your index cards; one color can be for Pictionary, the second color can be added for charades. Divide the class into two teams and have each team choose an aspiring actor/actresses to volunteer to act out the word. The traditional rules is that the actor cannot say anything. This is a great game to have going over several classes, keeping the same teams and a running total of the score. 

5. Write a Collaborative Story

When you find yourself with a few extra minutes until that bell rings, having the class work together on a project never fails to enliven your weary charges, not to mention sending them out the door with smiles on their faces. I like to write one sentence on the board and then have individuals come up one at a time and add to the story. Each person gets to showcase their creativity and the entire class gets to practice their grammar and creativity as the story progresses. It is fun to see the twists the story takes while keeping the plot logical. You can sneak in some extra learning by introducing a story based on something you are covering in class. Challenge your students to add to the story, while retaining the presented themes. So, if you just learned about tessellations, you can start a story with a sentence like this: "Maxine was on a reality TV show where she had twenty-four hours to take pictures of as many tessellations as she could find in the real world." The first person at the board could then write, "She first went in her kitchen and took a picture of the tile on the counter, and then quickly ran outside, right into the brick wall." If the idea of keeping an educational theme is too daunting, just do the standard story, your kids will finish class on a positive note. 

6. Telephone

I am always nonplussed to discover that nowadays even the youngest of my students are never without their cell phones. Therefore, since they enjoy speaking on the phone so much, why not do it in proper English? With some extra time to kill, I put my pupils in a circle, and then I come up with a long and grammatically correct sentence (if it can come from one of your pupils, all the better.) I whisper the sentence in the ear of the first student. The first student then whispers it into the ear of the next. Continue the process until it reaches the last person. Have that person say the sentence aloud. Then write the original sentence on the board. The class will be amazed at how much the sentence changed. Do this regularly with directions to be as careful as possible so the sentence has minimal change. This is a great exercise for being as careful as possible when communicating.

7. White Board Slam

Begin this activity by displaying a word that contains four letters. The choices are endless. The challenge lies in changing only one letter to come up a new word. When a student has an answer, invite her up and write it on the board. Then a new student can come up from there. Explore how many combinations your class come up with by changing a single letter at a time. Also, encourage them to ask for definitions of words they do not know.

8. Would You Rather

Everyone likes playing this game, but it is an especially good time filler for the beginning of a new term when you know very little about your pupils. Get out the index cards again. This stack of cards will have a list of questions beginning with ‘"Would you rather…” An example question can be “Would you rather be a leader or a follower?” “Would you rather have a cat or a dog?” Have your students move to one side of the room if they answer one way or the other side if they answer another. Next, randomly choose an individual to explain why he/she chose that answer. You will get to know more about your students, and they will get to know each other as well. 

9. Read Aloud Comprehension

This activity merely requires a short article of your choosing. Simply read a short passage aloud and ask your students to relate back what they heard or to answer some short comprehension questions. This is a great exercise to develop listening skills, focus, and memorization. You can also foster critical thinking and creativity by asking select learners what they think comes next, or how they think the story will end. 

10. Open Question Session

Often, I would fill those last few minutes by simply asking if anyone had questions. If they didn't, I would start asking questions. Pretty soon, the kids figured out they would rather do the asking! My questions would ask someone to clarify something we had learned that day, or to make a real-world connection to our day's learning material. Once the kids took over the questioning, I found they asked excellent questions, and the answers benefitted everyone. Sometimes other kids would raise their hands with the answer, and sometimes I realized that nobody really knew the answer, at which point, I was able to re-word, clarify, or further explain the topic. When a student asks a question, it is always a catalyst for others to learn and to express themselves. 

Other Ideas? 

What do you do when you find yourself with a few leftover minutes before the bell rings? What do you have prepared ahead of time (like my index cards)? And what do you do when you have no prepared materials? Everyone in the Lesson Planet Community can learn from you. 

Additional Resources:

Favorite Time Fillers, More Favorite Time Fillers , Freeze Dance Filler