The Surviving Social Studies Blog

Great & Simple Bell Ringer Activity

12/4/2022

It doesn't always take something fancy to get students engaged for the day. Here's a simple activity I used for years in my classroom to let students expand their minds before our lesson for the day.

Every student would get a strip of these three shapes and I'd give them 10 minutes to create whatever their minds takes come up with using the images in each of the three boxes. I'm always surprised by their creativity!

After the time was up I'd have each student stand up and meander around the room looking at what their classmates came up with using the same images they had.

I'd ask, "What do you think the reason for doing something like this was?"

Sometimes a student would say, "Because you needed 10 more minutes to get ready?" [which was sometimes the truth :)]

There'd be someone who would share that just because we all see the same thing doesn't mean that we all see it in the same way.

Bingo.

Click the .pdf to the right (there are 4 slips on one sheet). If you decide to give this simple little activity a try, I'd love to see some of the images your students created and will add them to this post!

Send any of your student creations to [email protected]