Starter Tasks

Starter Task Takeaways

A-Z - Pupils are tasked with coming up with a subject-related term for each letter of the alphabet. This could be done on paper or on show-me boards.

Answers First - Give pupils the answers to questions rather than the question itself. Pupils need to then come up with the question - including any command words and marks allocated.

Bingo - Ask learners to select six terms from the course/a topic. You then read out the definitions/descriptions and pupils check them off until we have 'bingo'. Good way to see what terms pupils know and their understanding of them.

Hot Seat -One pupil sits at the front of the class holding up a show-me board. The rest of the class need to write/draw a clue on their own boards to guide the pupil towards the answer. 

Last Lesson/Week/Month - Come up with questions that link to the last lesson taught, a lesson earlier in the week and one studied last month. This stretches pupils and encourages them to retrieve knowledge they may have started to forget.

Journalling - Have prompts on your board that pupils have to write about for 5-10 minutes. This could be philosophical questions, ideas for creative writing or about current events. 

Mr and Mrs - Inspired by the popular wedding game - pupils sit back to back with show-me boards. You give them a topic and they need to guess which term their partner will come up with. Points are awarded when pupils correctly guess their partner's response. 

Odd One Out - Give pupils a few subject-related terms and pupils need to work out which one is the 'odd one out'.

Pointless - Choose 3-5 topics and pupils need to choose the 'least likely' answer. They get 2 points if they get the same as the teacher and 5 points for each peer that gets the same answer. The pupil with the least number of points wins.

Question Developer - Encourage pupils to come up with their own starter questions which they could give to a shoulder-partner to complete. 

Snowballing -Hand each pupil a piece of paper with a topic/term on it. Pupils then write down something they know about a topic, scrunch up their paper, and throw their ‘snowball’ to the next pupil who then adds more detail. 

Starter Task Additional Reading

Lesson Starter Ideas 

20 Starter Activities to Stretch and Challenge Students

Strategies to Capture Student Attention