My experience

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My experience
By Lisa

When I student taught (4th grade) we had a similar situation. Our kids during specials time were either in music, p.e., or what we called rotation, where an assistant came in. At our school the assistant never brought in
her own work, but was provided activities by the teacher. It was almost always seat work that wouldn't require the assistant to actually teach anything, but help out if needed. Here are some examples of what we would leave:
- Worksheets, puzzles, etc. that were seasonal. My cooperating teacher had a book of activities for every month, so she'd use those since we didn't usually have

much time to discuss holidays in class
- Work in progress, like writing or math (we taught math right before specials and would sometimes give independent practice that they couldn't finish)
- Crossword puzzles and wordsearches. Any puzzle type activity, for that matter
- Coloring sheets

I can't imagine that you're totally on your own for this. If you don't have activities, I'm sure the teachers will be able to think of activities for their students. Just remember- this isn't a time where you will get the kids to work terribly hard. Definitely give them activities, but make them fun and interesting. Specials time for kids isn't considered a total blow off time, but it's a little bit of a break for them from the regular work.