Skip to the content
Peabody TeachFor teachers and grown-ups

4th grade sub plans: a half day

Booked for the morning only? Here is a 4th grade half day a substitute can run with nothing left on the desk: morning work, reading, writing, math, clean-up and the note, from 8:10 until you hand over at lunch, 11:50. The last ten minutes are for clean-up and the note, so the teacher who takes the afternoon knows what was done. For the afternoon half, choose The afternoon in the generator.

Checked October 30, 2026. Made from Peabody Teach's own passages, worksheets and brain break cards.

Make a half day at 4th grade ▸

First, before the bell
  1. Write your name and the date on the board.
  2. Find the attendance and send it the way the office asked. Not sure how? Ask the office before the bell.
  3. Find the emergency folder or the drill map by the door, and say hello to the teacher next door.
  4. Ask the class which signal their teacher uses for quiet, and use theirs. If nobody knows, use the one below.
  5. Read this whole plan once before the students come in.

Signal for quiet: Say “If you can hear me, clap once,” then “If you can hear me, clap twice.” Wait for quiet before you speak.

4th grade: the morning

8:10Morning work
8:30Reading: The Lemonade Stand 📄
9:40Recess
9:55Writing
10:45Math: multiplication facts to 12 📄
11:40Clean-up and the note
11:50Lunch: your half day ends

Block by block

Morning work

  1. Take attendance and the lunch count the way the office asked.
  2. Put the morning board on the projector (/board/morning) and type today's schedule into it.
  3. While you take attendance, students answer this on paper or in their journals: “Should students have homework on weekends? Give at least three reasons.”
  4. Read the plan for the day out loud, so the class knows what's coming.

On the projector: Morning board for the projector

Break: Wave breath (1 min, silent). Breathe in as a wave rolls toward the beach and breathe out as it slides back. Let one hand move like the wave in time with your breath.

Reading: The Lemonade Stand

  1. Hand out “The Lemonade Stand”, a fiction passage of 216 words. Print 24: the student copy is in this packet.
  2. Students read it on their own. Anyone who finishes reads it a second time and underlines the sentence they think matters most.
  3. Students answer the 5 questions under the passage, in full sentences.
  4. With five minutes left, go over two questions out loud. The answers are on the key page: keep it with you.

📄 The Lemonade Stand (passage and key)

Writing

  1. Write this on the board: “Write a story set in a town where it has not rained for a year, on the day the first drop falls.”
  2. Give partners two minutes to tell each other their idea out loud before anyone writes.
  3. Students write for 35 minutes. Ask for a paragraph: a first sentence that says the idea, details, and an ending.
  4. Volunteers read theirs aloud at the end. Collect the papers for the teacher.

On the projector: Writing prompts by grade

Break: Walk through a calm place (1 min, silent). Picture a place where you feel calm, such as a park, a beach or a library. Walk through it in your mind. What do you see, hear and smell?

Math: multiplication facts to 12

  1. Warm-up: write these on the board and solve them together, asking a student to explain each step: 12 × 9; 2 × 11; 2 × 4.
  2. Hand out the multiplication facts to 12 sheet (16 problems). Print 24; the key is on its own page.
  3. Students work on their own for twenty minutes, then check with a partner.
  4. Early finishers write three problems of their own and swap with a neighbor.

📄 Multiplication facts to 12 (sheet and key)

Break: Parade march (45 sec). March in place with your knees up and your arms swinging, as if you are in a parade. Keep your feet on your own square of floor.

Clean-up and the note

  1. Tidy the room on a five-minute timer (/timer/5-minutes on the projector).
  2. Ask each student for one thing they learned today. Passing is fine.
  3. Fill in the note to the teacher (the last page) and leave it on the teacher's desk with the papers you collected.
  4. Dismiss the class the way this school does it. If you're not sure how a student gets home, ask the office before you let them go.

On the projector: 5 minute timer

Before you leave at lunch

Leave the note for the teacher: what you did, who helped, anything that happened, and any messages. It is the last printed page.

The sheets, on their own pages

Subbing 4th grade

Fourth graders can run a lot of their own routines if you let them, and partners and table groups work well. The math often reaches long division and fractions this year, so the plan keeps math to facts and practice they already know.

  • Give the class a job to run: handing out papers, the timer, the lunch count.
  • Let partners check answers against each other before you go over the key.
  • Collect every paper in one pile per block, labeled, for the teacher.

More plans

Nothing you do here is sent to us. No sign-in, no ads.