Bellringer Ideas

General

• USA Test Prep - includes standardized testing style bellringer questions to help students prepare for those tests.
• SAT Question of the day - great test prep option to familiarize students with SAT question styles
• CNN 10 - daily 10 minute news segment with a culminating quiz each week
• Newsela - assign students a short article to read and answer vocab or content questions. Links to Google Classroom for easy management.
• Review content questions from a previous lesson.
• Assign several vocabulary terms to introduce the days lesson.
• Provide an inspirational quote for students to respond to.
• Do a different journal prompt each day.

Social Studies

• Content related questions from the previous lesson
• Opinion based short answer questions related to current concept taught
• This Day in History - with a culminating weekly quiz
• Political Cartoons - Display a current or historical political cartoon with discussion questions.
• Digital History - Use this database to display pictures and have students try to provide context about the picture to create a caption

Math

• Practice questions from previous lesson
• Do a quick pretest on new material to see what students already know
• Skills review using any previously learned math questions
• Word problems - students can work in pairs or individually to solve problems
• Logic/pattern puzzles - helpful to get the students thinking before new lessons
• Speed drills - Use to build students’ math fact fluency with speed drills.

English

• Writing prompts - includes narrative, persuasive, and expository writing prompts that can be used for a short paragraph or used over multiple days to extended writing.
• Quote of the Day - Give a quote and ask students to write their thoughts on it. Good way to incorporate growth mindset into your lessons and also serves as a writing prompt.
• Daily Skills - set up each day for different ELA skills
• Silent reading - have students read on their own for 5-10 minutes. This can be an assigned reading or something they bring on their own.
• Everyday Edits - This allows students to read a passage and pick out grammar mistakes. The site includes an answer key and has tons of options to choose from.

Science

• Science Spot - a comprehensive list of class starter ideas for a variety of science courses and difficulty levels
• Science Journal - $16 from TpT; 25 different prompts for every month. Just print and distribute.

Spanish

• Translating unit terms
• Conjugation Practice
• Display any random picture and have students write Spanish captions
• Variety of ideas found here: https://www.secondaryspanishspace.com/2017/09/bellringers-stress-free-ideas-for-world.html
• Choice Board - Free download from TpT. Editable interactive notebook

Business/Computer Classes

• Make your own Guess the Logo game using about 5-10 logos a day.
• Debate/Opinion writing - Students can keep a digital journal with their opinions on relevant topics. You could use Padlet to display all student ideas for discussion
• College Profiles - have students research a different college each time to find out basic information about colleges across the country. Link provided can be modified to fit in a shorter time frame.
• Typing Test - students can work throughout the year to become faster typists.
• NextGen Personal Finance Games - games range from 5 min to 20 min play time
• Have students practice with basic Google Apps functions like adding shapes, finding fonts, changing margins, formatting pictures, etc.