Student-Led Absent Work Forms {freebie}

Don’t you love when a student returns from being absent and asks, “Did I miss anything yesterday?”

It takes every ounce of will power for me not to say, “Nope, we wanted to learn, but we couldn’t go forward without you, so we waited. We sat around all day twiddling our thumbs and counting ceiling tiles. Don’t worry, you didn’t miss a thing.” Oh… the sarcasm the scrolls through my head. I'm often very thankful for my filter.

Of course, these are never the words that come out of my mouth. I just smile and give him the highlights of the day and designate a time later in the day to review the work that has been left on the desk.

But, this year… I’m doing things differently. We are going more student-led!

Thank goodness for Pinterest. I found lots of great examples of absent work forms to design my own. I wanted to keep it simple for 4^th graders.  And… Ta-da! It turned out like this…

My goal is to have one of my classroom jobs be in charge of work for absent students. I will have my kids briefly summarize what we did (just like they would write in their agendas) and list any assignments from the day on the sheet. Then, they will be in charge of collecting copies of all handouts throughout the day, paper clipping everything together, and returning all the papers to me at the end of the day.  The child in charge of collecting work will also be the go-to student the next day for any questions.  

Looking back on my class last year, I had several students who would have LOVED this job! They were super organized and great at making lists. This would have been such an empowering and important leadership role for them in our classroom. I can’t wait to see how it goes this year.

How do you handle work for absent kiddos?  I find it especially challenging when we work in our interactive notebooks. I’d love to hear your tips and suggestions.  

If you are interested in a copy of my absent student form, you can download it at my TPT store for FREE by clicking the image above or clicking here.  I hope it makes your life easier this upcoming year too. 

If you download it and find it helpful, please leave feedback.  It absolutely make my day! Suggestions and other great ideas for this or future freebies, let me know?  Thanks y'all!