When days are busy, lesson plans have fallen through, or unexpected free time needs to be filled, it’s easy to get flustered! What are you going to do now? You’ve got roughly 20 kids who need to be occupied in the next 5 minutes, or everything will turn to chaos in 2.5 seconds!
Take a deep breath and pull out some Brain Buster Boxes! I don’t think quick, easy, and EFFECTIVE centers have been this simple before. So many teachers have raved about this teacher hack, so let’s talk about it.
What are Brain Buster Boxes?
Well, they are quite simple to explain, actually. A Brain Buster Box is a set of centers designed to fit inside a 4×6 photo box, plastic bag, or container of your choice. They contain all the materials, printables, and supplies inside that your student would need to complete the activities. They are incredibly helpful for both you and your students as they spend no extra time searching for what they need and are able to grab the bin, open it, and get started on their center! It’s as simple as that!
Once the box is set up, you won’t have to spare any of your time to help gather materials and hand them out; it’s all done! (*insert happy teacher dance*)
Check out this ready-to-print material I’ve already put together for you! All you’ll have to do is print, laminate (if you prefer), and put it in a container!
Beginning and Ending Digraph Boxes
Click on the images to grab this resource.
Diagraphs are one of the subjects that require a good bit of practice for your students to grasp. These boxes give the perfect independent practice to have readily available! This bundle includes 48 puzzles (6 puzzles per digraph), box labels, and bag labels.
Beginning Digraphs: sh- ch- th- wh-
Ending Digraphs: -ch -ck -th -sh
You’ll get 24 individual centers that can be used year-round! The most effective way to have students master recognizing digraphs is to provide multiple forms of practice. This box comes with digraph word searches, clip cards, and puzzles to give students differentiated exercises.
Fact Fluency Boxes
Click on the images to grab this resource.
This math brain buster box bundle (that was a mouthful!) is the best go-to for independent addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division practice! Your students can simply grab the container and start learning vital math skills. It’s important to note that there are way too many things included in this bundle to post here! If you’d like to see all the AMAZING resources you’d get with this, go check it out here!
There’s enough material for twelve fact fluency centers between both the addition and subtraction unit and the multiplication and division unit! Ugh, if only I had these when I first started! They make a teacher’s life much easier.
How can Brain Buster Boxes be used?
Let’s list the ways!
- Early finishers
- Morning work
- Centers
- Small group
- Individual study
- Time testers (student tries to complete the activity as fast as they can to beat their previous time)
- Informal assessments
- Interventions
- Teamwork Practice
There are so many ways these can be useful in your classroom. Grab this resource and make pre-planning easier and unexpected free time less stressful. Find more material like this at my shop!