Finding quality emergency sub plans is hard. Finding something your students can do well with a guest teacher — that hits more than one subject area and doesn’t lead to chaos — feels almost impossible.
If you’ve ever thrown together a pile of random worksheets, crossed your fingers, and hoped for the best… you’re not alone. But what if your emergency sub plans could actually move student learning forward?
That’s where cross-curricular plans come in — especially when they’re built around one simple, high-interest task.
Why Cross-Curricular Plans Make Great Sub Plans
When students walk into the room and the routine is different, they need structure. And your sub needs something clear, consistent, and easy to manage. That’s why I love building a portion of the day around one big idea that crosses content areas.
Instead of bouncing from subject to subject — and risk losing student attention — a cross-curricular activity keeps the learning anchored. With just one well-structured task, students are reading, writing, talking, and thinking… and your sub has a calm, focused plan to follow.
The Task: Would You Rather? Data + Graphing Activity
This activity starts with a simple prompt:
Would you rather have a backpack that could help you fly or shoes that would bounce you sky high?
Students pick a side, explain their thinking in writing, and then collect classroom data by polling their peers. From there, they create a graph to represent the class results and finish the activity by analyzing what they noticed.
✔️ Opinion writing
✔️ Data collection and graphing
✔️ Speaking and listening standards
✔️ Real, connected thinking
It’s one activity that checks all the boxes — and students love it because it feels fun and personal.
A Chance to Revisit Overlooked Standards
Let’s be honest — when we’re racing to cover operations, problem solving, and fluency, standards like data and graphing, or even opinion writing, can get pushed to the side.
That’s why a sub day is actually the perfect time to lean into these skills.
- You’re not asking students to tackle something brand-new without you there.
- You’re reinforcing important, meaningful skills that still deserve classroom time.
- And you’re giving students a chance to build confidence with content that’s often overlooked.
What’s Included (and Why It Works for Subs)
This resource was built with substitute teachers in mind. It includes everything needed for a full lesson — and it’s easy to differentiate if you want to stretch the task across multiple grade levels or support learners with different needs.
Inside the resource:
- 36 Would You Rather? question cards
- Opinion writing planner + template
- Tally chart + graphing pages (bar graph and pictograph options)
- Data analysis prompts
- Sub-ready quick start guide
- A WIDE variety of templates so you can make this activity work the way you would like!
Whether you leave it as part of your emergency sub plans or build it into your regular lesson plans, you’ll feel good knowing your students are getting something that’s both fun and academically solid.
Grab the Resource
Ready to have this in your back pocket for the next time you’re out? Grab it HERE!
