4th Grade Math Early Finisher Packet: 30 Activities

The 4th graders who finish early are usually the ones who already have the multi-digit algorithms down. A second page of the same algorithm is not much of a reward for finishing first. A different kind of page on the same math gives them something new to do.

That is what this packet is: an early finisher packet 4th grade students can work through alone, thirty activities, one per page, on the multi-digit work the class is already doing. A student takes a page, does it without asking, and takes the next one.

What is in the packet

• 39 pages, thirty activities. One activity per page, so a student never has to find where one ends and the next begins.
• Twelve kinds of activity. The thirty pages repeat twelve formats, the same twelve used in the 3rd and 5th grade packets, pitched at 4th grade numbers.
• Multi-digit operations throughout. Every page is practice on the operations 4th grade spends the year on.
• No prep, answer keys included. Print, put the pages in a folder, and check finished work against the keys.

The packet is $6.95 on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Sample activities

Four of the twelve formats, and what each one asks a 4th grader to do:

Magic squares

A magic square is a grid where every row, column and diagonal adds to the same total. To fill the missing cells a student has to add and subtract the same numbers several times over, and a wrong entry shows up as a row that does not match.

Logic grids

A logic grid gives a handful of clues and asks for the one answer that fits all of them. The student has to hold several conditions at once and rule options out one clue at a time, which is reasoning a regular computation page never asks for.

Cross-numbers

A cross-number is a crossword with numbers for answers. Where two answers cross they share a digit, so a mistake in one computation breaks the answer that crosses it. Students find their own errors before anyone checks the page.

Find the mistake

A worked problem with an error in it. The student has to find the step that went wrong and fix it. The student has to read each step, not just redo the problem.

Early finisher math activities 4th grade

Most of what turns up under early finisher math activities for 4th grade is a list of ideas: task cards, a choice board, a math game in the back. Those work when they are ready. The trouble with a list is that the student who is done needs something to do now, not an idea someone still has to set up.

Teachers who look for early finisher worksheets 4th grade students can do alone tend to want three things: work the student can start without asking, math that counts as practice, and a way to check it that does not take the rest of the block. A folder of one-page activities covers all three. The routine that works is short:

• Finished work goes in the tray first.
• Then the student takes the next page from the early finisher folder.
• Finished early finisher pages go in the same tray, and you check them against the keys when you have a minute.

The math early finishers page covers the same routine for every grade from kindergarten to 5th. If you share students across grades, the 3rd grade early finisher packet and the 5th grade early finisher packet sit on either side of this one. And on the days you are out, the 4th grade math sub plans end each day with an early finisher page of their own.

3rd-5th bundle

The 3rd-5th bundle is 117 pages: ninety one-page activities, thirty per grade for 3rd, 4th, and 5th, with the same twelve kinds of activity in every folder. It is $14.95, against $20.85 for the three grades bought separately.

It suits a departmentalized team, a resource room, or a 4th grade class with a wide spread, where a student who needs easier numbers can take a 3rd grade page and a student who is ahead can take a 5th grade one, in a format they already know.