The Surviving Social Studies Blog

Great & Simple Bell Ringer Activity

12/4/2022

It doesn’t take something fancy to get students engaged. Here’s a simple warm-up I used for years to help students stretch their thinking before the day’s lesson.

Each student receives a strip with three shapes. They have ten minutes to turn each box into whatever their imagination creates. The results are always surprising and fun to see.

When time is up, students stand and walk around the room to look at what their classmates made using the very same shapes. The variety of ideas is always impressive!

Then I ask, “Why do you think we did this?”

Every so often someone would joke, “Because you needed ten more minutes to get ready?” which, if I am honest, was occasionally true. But sooner or later someone would say, “Just because we all see the same thing doesn’t mean we all see it in the same way.”

Bingo!

This quick activity reinforces the idea that perspective matters. We can look at the same information and come away with completely different interpretations.

If you would like to try it, click the PDF to the right (four slips per sheet). After your students have completed their creations, I would love to see what they came up with. Send any photos of student work to [email protected] and I will add some of them to this post.

Here's Some More Bell Ringer Activities:
180 Days of Writing Prompts
Buried Treasure Bell Ringers

My Classroom Management Solution:
Deli-Style Conferencing