Emergency Sub Plans for Teachers: What to Include + Easy Activity Ideas

Being absent as a teacher can be stressful! You never know who your substitute might be or how your students will behave while you’re away. Having emergency sub plans for teachers prepared ahead of time can take away some of that stress and help your substitute and students have a successful day.

Whether you’re sick, have an appointment, or simply need to take a personal day, you shouldn’t have to show up at school at 6 a.m. to make copies and write last-minute substitute teacher plans. With a prepared sub folder and a few reliable activities ready to go, you can actually take the day off without worrying about what’s happening in your classroom.

Why Teachers Should Prepare Emergency Sub Plans Before They Need Them

Think of every other job, or maybe an office or corporate job…if someone needs to stay home, they do. Teachers often feel a great deal of guilt when they need to take a day off, and we need to change that.  Those days are yours; take them.  Now, I didn’t always think this way.  I would never take days off.   If I were sick, I would come in because I thought it was easier, and I thought the kids would be better behaved with me there, even if I had no energy or patience, than having a substitute.  I even made a surgery wait until school break because I didn’t want to miss days; now that is just crazy!  If you have the days, take them.  If you are sick, stay home. I saved so many sick days that when I left a school district, they had to pay me thousands of dollars!  Maybe I would have stayed and not felt so burnt out if I had taken those days.  Either way, we must lift the stigma about teachers taking days; we work so hard all year, every day, for not that much pay.  Teachers deserve to take a sick day or a personal day, and I have a great plan to help you prepare so that you can rest and recoup during your day off instead of stressing!

Want your emergency sub plans ready before you need them?
I created an Emergency Substitute Plans Toolkit to help you organize the schedules, classroom information, behavior expectations, and other details your substitute needs—all in one place.

Why Emergency Sub Plans Make Teacher Absences Less Stressful

Planning what many might call “Emergency Sub Plans” will only benefit you!  No one wants to show up sick at 6 am to make copies and type up plans for a substitute; those plans are never well thought out, and there is often not enough content to fill the school day.  Save yourself the hassle by having everything prepped and ready to go before school starts.  This peace of mind is priceless and helps you to do whatever you need to do while away from the classroom.  Prepared plans for your substitute will benefit everyone!  Because you have laid out behavior plans, schedules, duties to be covered, seating charts, and more, your substitute is more likely to follow your plans and help your students have a successful day.  By preparing the substitute, your students are more likely to stay on task, and undesirable behaviors will be minor.  Once you make your plans, the only thing you will need to do after an absence is make more copies; everything else is already prepared.  Take a little time on the front end to reap the benefits all year long.

What to Include in Your Substitute Teacher Plans

Just like when you teach your students, you want to assume that your substitute knows nothing!  Now, I know that there are amazing substitutes out there, but a lot of times substitutes don’t have teaching experience, or they don’t feel confident in their teaching abilities.  By giving your substitute as much information as possible, you are not only helping your guest teacher, but you are also helping students and the other staff on campus.  Here are some things that I include in my substitute folder, and you can check out my Emergency Substitute Plans Toolkit for examples and templates to use in your substitute folder.

• Class Schedule
  • Whether you have the same students all day or switch classes, include specific times for your substitute; the more detail, the better!
  • Be sure to have the times for each subject/class, when to let students into the classroom, when to dismiss for lunch, when to pick up from lunch, etc.
• Class Roster and Seating Chart (I know that this changes often, but if you update your folder as soon as your students change seats, it will be easy to keep up with).
• Behavior Plan
  • This plan is what you would like the substitute to follow; it might look different from what you would do in the classroom.
  • I have substitutes utilize a three-strike system, meaning they give the students three opportunities; if they can’t change their actions, then a note is left to me, and I will distribute the consequence when I return. 
  • I have a Teacher Resource that outlines the substitute’s notes to the teacher.
• Buddy Teacher
  • If you don’t have a buddy, talk with your team or immediate neighbors to establish one.
  • This provides a place to send a student who might need some time away from the classroom.
• Duties
  • This is one of the most overlooked pieces of information.  Be sure to inform your substitute of the time and place they need to be for duties.
  • My team and I had an understanding that the substitute would always do cafeteria duty, no matter whose turn it was.
  • Be sure to include the time and place where they need to report for duty.

By providing all of the information, you will set your substitute up for success, limit confusion, and ease your mind while you are away.  

Easy Substitute Lesson Plan Ideas for a Successful Day

Having more activities than students can finish and overplanning is the key to having as little idle time as possible.  Whatever task you think your students will take an entire class to finish–triple it!  It can be difficult to plan lessons for a substitute, especially when our lessons and teaching are so interactive and collaborative.  When planning for a substitute, you want to plan things that students can do independently.  Again, you never know what type of experience your substitute has, so plan things that your class can complete with little guidance.  You want to choose structured activities, with little to no group work, and you should avoid technology altogether. I know, avoid technology in this day and age?  Yes!  Most substitutes don’t have access to district logins or technology, and students have too much knowledge and access to technology (which can lead to inappropriate usage).  When you are away, it is the perfect time to have a break from technology, and I think most will find it refreshing. 

No-Prep Sub Plan Ideas for Upper Elementary and Middle School

• Bust out the Textbook
  • Have students read and answer questions.
  • Create a textbook scavenger hunt.
• Review
  • Complete questions from previous lessons/topics.
  • Complete state testing review from previous grade level (this could be very helpful data to see what students remember from the previous year).
• Writing
  • Grammar worksheets
  • Journal entry/essay (provide prompt and sentence starter)
• Reading
  • Short story with comprehension questions (literature book).
  • Character analysis.
  • Map the story/elements of literature.
• Math
  • Word problems.
  • Review questions from previous chapters/lessons.

Remember to keep it low tech, and stick to reviewing items for your students, and it will be an easy day.  Plus, a review never hurts, and it will benefit you.

Fun and Easy Activities to Add to Your Sub Plans

Overplanning is key when creating plans for your substitute, but be sure to throw your substitute a bone and plan something that is a little fun.  Choose something that your substitute can lead the class with, or just allow your students to blow off a little steam.  I would always have a bingo game ready to go, and the class always seemed to enjoy that (yes, even middle school students).  No matter their age, students love to be read to, and having a picture book with an activity like mapping the plot is fun.  The substitute can read to the students while they are mapping the story.  Sudoku is always a blast! Be sure to include directions on how to solve the puzzles (the substitute can explain), and have the students work through puzzles (I bought a book from the dollar store, and just have students tear out pages).  You can follow suit and have students complete crossword puzzles (another trip to the dollar store should do it).  If you have color by number, tangrams, graphing pictures, or any type of “fun” worksheet as extra filler, it will work.  The students and staff need to be able to have a little break; keep it structured and not too crazy, but a break nonetheless.

What to Avoid When Creating Substitute Teacher Plans

Yes, you are leaving your students in the hands of professionals, but there are some things that you will want to avoid.  We all know that when you give a student an inch, they will try to take 100 miles!  Leave the free time and unstructured activities for when you are in class.  Avoid “free reading” as 75% of the class will not read a single sentence, but will goof off, which will lead to frustration from your substitute.  Technology should not be used while you are away, as we have touched on; your substitute likely won’t have access.   Group work should be kept to a minimum while you are away; it is easy for the class volume to get loud and students aren’t likely to follow your cooperative learning guidelines as closely as if you were there; some students might not be so honest in your absence, which could lead to sharing answers or looking at their peers’ assignments.  It is just best to avoid this.  If your class is in the middle of a project, place a pause on all work.  You don’t want your substitute to give the wrong information or guidance on the project; the students can resume once you have returned.  In the end, you want your students to be able to work independently.  The substitute is there to help, guide, and keep things in check, but don’t depend on them to introduce new concepts or to pick up where you left off.  You also want to keep work simple; it is quite likely that another teacher on campus will be covering your class during their prep period (substitute shortages are everywhere). Keeping the work independent allows them to be able to grade papers or lesson plan while they are covering your class.  Keeping things simple and low tech will lead to a successful day while you are away.  

In the end, it is always hard to leave your classroom in someone else’s hands, but if you need to be away for a day, don’t hesitate.  Teachers work so hard; we need not feel guilty; we need to feel empowered to take care of ourselves.  Taking the time that is given to you is not a bad thing; you are a priority, too.  Your students will survive a day or two without you.  You can do this!