Math sub plans a substitute can actually run

Nobody writes good sub plans with a fever. It is 6 a.m., your head is pounding, and you are typing instructions into an email while trying to remember whether the projector remote still works. I have been that teacher, and I built these packets so I never have to be her again.

A good set of math sub plans has one job: it runs without you. Not "runs if the sub is comfortable with fractions." Not "runs if someone can find the manipulatives." Runs cold, on paper, for a stranger who met your class four minutes before the bell.

What makes math sub plans work without you

After enough mornings on both sides of the sub desk, I think it comes down to three rules.

1. Review only, nothing to teach

The day falls apart the moment a substitute has to explain new material. So an emergency day should be built entirely from skills your students have already met. Kids know what to do when they see the page, the sub only keeps the room moving, and nobody is learning long division from a stranger.

2. Undated, so it never expires

Plans tied to "wherever we are in the unit" are stale in two weeks, and then you are rewriting them every month to keep the folder current. Undated review works in October and works in April. Print once, forget until needed.

3. Scripted, minute by minute

"Do some math practice" is not a plan. A substitute needs to know what happens at 9:05, what to hand out, what to say to a stuck student, and what to do with the kid who finishes everything in eleven minutes. Writing that script is most of the work, which is exactly why it should be done once, in advance, by someone without a fever.

What goes in the math sub folder

The packet is the engine, but the folder around it matters too. Mine holds four things, in this order, so the most important page is on top.

The substitute note

One page that walks the math block minute by minute: the warm up, the two main pages, the early finisher, where the answer keys live, and a line about what to say when a student says "I don't get it" (the answer is "skip it and circle it," not an impromptu lesson).

The class roster

A roster with a column for each day, so the sub can mark who was present and who turned in work. When you are out for three days, that grid is how you reconstruct the week.

The student work, sorted by day

Five days, four pages per day, already in order. If you can, paper clip each day separately. A sub sorting loose pages at 8:40 is a sub who is not watching the room.

The answer keys, labeled by page

Keys that name the page they belong to, so checking work takes minutes and students cannot talk the sub out of an answer. Keys also let the sub give real feedback instead of collecting a pile of mystery paper.

The minute-by-minute math morning

Here is the rhythm each day in these packets is scripted around. It is deliberately boring, and boring is what a strange adult in a familiar room needs.

• First 10 minutes: warm up page. Every student can start it without help, which buys the sub time to take attendance and find the pencil sharpener.
• Middle 30 to 40 minutes: the two main pages, one at a time. These are the meat of the day: practice on skills the class has already learned.
• The last stretch: early finishers get the fourth page; the sub circulates with the answer key and checks completed work.
• Two minutes at the end: the sub fills in the What Happened Today report: which pages were finished, who was absent, who needed help, and anything you should know before you walk back in.

That report page is my favorite part of the system. Coming back from a sick day is its own small dread, and one honest page from the sub turns "what happened in here?" into a thirty-second read.

What each grade's week reviews

There is one packet per grade, Kindergarten through 5th, because a kindergartner and a 5th grader out on the same Tuesday need very different paper. Every day is review of that grade's own skills:

• Kindergarten (36 pages): counting and writing numbers to 20, before and after, comparing numbers and groups, adding and taking away within 10, flat and solid shapes, then a mixed review day.
• 1st grade (37 pages): addition and subtraction within 20, tens and ones, number patterns, telling time, word problems, then a mixed review day.
• 2nd grade (36 pages): two-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping, counting coins, measuring lengths, word problems, then a mixed review day.
• 3rd grade (36 pages): place value, addition and subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, word problems, and morning work each day.
• 4th grade (37 pages): place value, multiplication, division, fractions, word problems, and morning work each day.
• 5th grade (37 pages): place value, multiplication, division, fractions, word problems, and morning work each day.

The Kindergarten packet changes the format where a five-year-old needs it: a 30-minute block instead of 45, big type, a Read Aloud line in place of written directions, and a Read Aloud Guide with the exact words for each kind of page. The 1st and 2nd grade packets keep the same skeleton as the upper grades: a Note for the Substitute up front, four pages a day (Warm Up, two main pages, Early Finisher), a sixth spare day, the If You Cannot Print page, a numbered 30-row roster, the What Happened Today page, and answer keys that name their page.

The rest of a kindergarten sub day, from the read-aloud script to the bathroom and dismissal routines, is in my post on kindergarten sub plans.

The other grades have a post each on what that class can do without you on a sick morning:

• Emergency sub plans for 1st grade
• Emergency sub plans for 2nd grade
• Emergency sub plans for 3rd grade
• Emergency sub plans for 4th grade

Emergency math sub plans by grade

Each grade packet above is one complete week: five scripted days plus a spare, a substitute note, a roster, the no-printer backup, and answer keys for every page. Every grade, Kindergarten to 5th, also has a Week 2, with all new problems, for an absence that runs past five days. The K-5 bundle carries all six grades for $29.95; the grades 1-2 and grades 3-5 bundles are the versions I recommend for teams and anyone who floats between grade levels.

If you want the grade-by-grade detail, including what is on each day and which skills each week reviews, I wrote a full guide for each of the upper-grade packets:

• 3rd grade math sub plans: the full week, day by day
• 4th grade math sub plans: the full week, day by day
• 5th grade math sub plans: the full week, day by day

Out 3 days or a full week? How many days to leave

The usual advice is to keep 3 day emergency sub plans on file, and three days is a sensible floor. It covers the absences nobody schedules: the flu, a sick child at home, a family emergency. Every grade packet above already clears it. Each one is five scripted days plus a spare, so a three-day absence uses half the folder and leaves the rest waiting for next time.

Here is how I match the folder to the absence:

• One to three days: the grade packet on its own. Leave all six days in the folder anyway. The spare days cost a few sheets of paper and cover an absence that runs longer than planned.
• A full week: the same packet, all five days, with the spare day as a cushion. If the sub also has your reading block, add the reading week for your grade, or take the bundle that carries both.
• Two weeks: a Week 2 packet, with the same day structure and all new problems, none repeated from Week 1. There is one for Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade and 5th grade.

The grade sub plans bundles below put the whole folder in one file: math, reading, and the Editable Sub Binder for one grade. Every grade, Kindergarten through 5th, carries two weeks of both subjects. The grade pages go through the options for the 3rd grade math and reading sub folder, the 4th grade sub folder and the 5th grade math and reading sub folder.

Reading sub plans for the same day

The math block is half of the morning. Every grade from Kindergarten to 5th has a matching week of reading sub plans: an original passage each day with questions, vocabulary and a writing page, and keys that cite the paragraph behind every answer. In Kindergarten the substitute reads the story aloud. Same substitute note, same roster, same What Happened Today page.

Planned absence or 6 a.m. emergency, same folder

For a planned absence, a conference or a field trip for the other half of your team, you can dress these plans up: add the current unit's vocabulary, swap in a page of your own. But the reason to build the folder now is the unplanned morning. When the alarm goes off and your voice is gone, the entire job is one text to the office: "Math is in the red folder on my desk." Then you go back to bed, which is where a person with a fever belongs.