Here are some differentiation activities  for teachers that take little or no prep or planning time.

1. Most Difficult First
2. Corners
3. Human Scrabble
4. Vocabulary Name Tags

Most Difficult First

1. Begin by determining which assignment items are the most difficult. 
2. Write your assignment on the board, and star the five most difficult. 
3. Give students the option of doing the entire assignment or the 5 hardest.
4. Students who do the 5 hardest come to you for checking. 
5. The first person who gets 4 out of 5 right becomes the checker. 
6. Students who get 4 out of 5 right can use the time left for whatever they 
choose, as long as they follow the three magic rules:
*Don't bother anyone.
*Dont call attention to yourself.
*Work on an extension activity. 

From Susan Winebrenner's "Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom" 
p.35-38

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Corners

1. Pose a question to the group.
2. Suggest two possible answers. (Or 3 or 4)
3. Have students that choose first answer go to one corner, have students 
that choose the second answer go to the other corner, and so on if you have 
more than two answers. 
4. Tell groups that they will need to be able to justify their answer.  Each 
person in the group should be prepared to speak.  Give them time to discuss.
5. Call on one person in the wrong group. Have the student justify his/her 
choice. 
6.  Explain why the group's thinking is incorrect, and then have the group 
either pick another group to join or go to the correct group.  This way they 
can all feel successful. 
7. Call on someone in the "right" group to explain why that choice is 
correct.
8.  Congratulate them all!

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Human Scrabble

1. Have each student write a giant letter on a large sheet of paper. If you 
want, you can have them crumple the paper into a "snowball" or paper 
airplane and throw it to someone across the room.  They will now have a new 
letter to use. 
2. Call up a group of students. (By birthday months,for example)
3. Give them a topic. (mammals, for example)
4. The sudents who are up in front must form a word that is a name of a 
mammal using the letters they have.  Students in the audience are encouraged 
to offer ideas.  When they have the word, the students stand side by side so 
that the audience can read the word. 
5. Call up a different set of students.  They must also make a mammal word 
from the letters they have.  The only difference is they can go off of a 
letter that is already there. 
6. Continue until no students are left seated.  VERY IMPORTANT!
7. Have students gently lay the letters down in the correct sequence. 
8. Attach your human scrabble to a wall or bulletin board, or have your 
students copy it for their notes.
9. Extend the lesson by discussing how to make the words plural.

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Vocabulary Name Tags

1.  Write a vocabluary word on a name tag. 
2.  Give each person a name tag. 
3.  Call on them by their vocabulary word. 
4.  Before they answer a question, they must give the difinition of the 
word.

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