Students bring into your classroom all kinds of emotions and needs.
Classroom
Bell Work
Students bring into your classroom all kinds of emotions and needs.
They vary in ideas, beliefs, and understandings, and it’s important that, as their educator, you are equipped to hear and consider all of these to provide them with the most engaging and interactive classes possible. That’s why many teachers like to start their day with bell work. If you’re wondering what that is, this article will explain alongside ten useful activities you can use.
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What is bell work
To put it plainly, bell work is work you do before the bell. It’s a quick activity you can do before starting with your subject. It doesn’t need to be based on the curriculum, so you have complete freedom to make bell work personal to the class. It should, however, be engaging and interactive, setting a positive tone and creating a productive learning space for your students to thrive throughout the day.
Bell work can be personal and help build trust and communication between teachers and students. It can also make for a transition into that day’s class subjects and develop the emotional, communicative, and comprehensive skills needed to succeed academically and socially.
10 bell work activities you may wish to use
Below are some possible bell work activities you may want to include in your classroom. This list of examples has been formulated while keeping in mind the different benefits a bell work activity can bring to your classroom and the possible emotions and interests your students may be bringing with them.
The fantasy interview
This activity involves a half sheet of colored paper, instructions on the smart board, a few props for a comfortable setting, and an empty chair. The students enter the classroom, take the half sheet and sit in their seats. You will then pose this question: “If you could spend 15 minutes with any person in the whole world discussing, sharing, and questioning, who would this be? And why did you pick them?”
The students can then write their responses to these questions on the sheet and share their responses should they choose.
This is a good exercise for the students as it immediately engages their minds and considers their needs and wants. It’s also beneficial for the teacher, showing you their emotional and social profile. By revealing this about themselves to you, you’re building a more mutually understood relationship that will improve the quality of student retention, effort, and morale in the class.
Only ten words
When your students enter your class, immediately draw their attention to a recent topic you’ve been studying. Give them this as a simple prompt with little direction or information, as they should have formulated their understanding of the topic you’ve chosen by now. They will then write a ten-word story on this topic.
Alternatively, they could write a ten-word description about their strengths and expertise in this topic, their likes, and dislikes – no matter the exercise variation, they can only use ten words. This is to keep it short of refreshing their minds while also helping them develop skills involving insight. By limiting their word count, they must find ways to get the most important pieces of information into ten words and make a clear argument faster. This skill will help in any tests and assignments they may have.
Beliefs infomercial
This activity is a great way to unlock their creativity and imagination while allowing them to express their beliefs and feelings. The students will use images, words, colors, or technology to design an infomercial about one strong belief that they hold. This could be a long-time personal belief, a family one they’ve developed through a recent experience or teaching, or perhaps one they’ve begun to question to allow them to explore it more. This allows your students to take time to consider their core values and share or explore them in a way that is creative and engaging.
The belongings that I carry
This activity starts with you and, more importantly, the things you carry with you. At the front of the class will be a backpack that contains several items, pictures, or words that you, their teacher, hold as important and close to mind and heart. You will model these belongings for your students, sharing who you are and furthering that relationship of trust and understanding. By taking that first step in vulnerability, you demonstrate how your class can be a safe environment and encourage students to share with you. Share topical ideas, answers, or personal worries or troubles that may help them engage better by not having to carry them alone.
The items in your bag can be specifically chosen to prompt the conversations you want. You can use this task to relate to topics you will be exploring in class that day, such as a class novel or a science experiment, or simply by aligning the contents to the standard you are teaching. Perhaps you include content in categories – something personal, something they can relate to, or something relevant to the day. You can conduct this activity by having students guess what may be in the bag after some elusive clues before you reveal them. This inclusion of prediction is a great way to get your students in an effective brain state with increased dopamine levels responsible for pleasure-and-goal-seeking behaviors. This will engage your students before you begin your class.
Reinvent gum
For another creative bell work activity, place a stick of gum on each of their desks alongside five notecards. Have them design five new inventions for chewing gum and let them present, share, and compare at the end. This is an easy task that encourages imagination and innovation. This task has them thinking outside the box and looking for alternative routes, which are great for problem-solving and creative work.
Meeting of the minds
Students will select characters from a book, historical figure, scientist, author, or individual they have been studying in class and should showcase the knowledge they have on them by “stepping into their minds”. They do this by considering a 21st-century challenge, perhaps one they have faced or have read about in the news, and explore how they believe these people would respond and solve it. They should consider what their discussion would look like and how they would relate it to one another.
Predict an outcome
This activity starts with you selecting a short TED talk or documentary. You play this to the class but only for one minute. Having seen one minute of it, your students write down their predictions, two or three, of how they believe this presentation will end. You could make this related to a subject matter you’re studying in your class or perhaps opt for a motivational video that addresses social and emotional skill sets that are great to install in young minds.
Inventing a new language
This fun and creative task will get students engaged and interested in the rest of your lesson. It can be done as partner work or individually. They will then be tasked with inventing a new language and briefly describing how it works. The language could be one of the feelings, service, kindness, or a fun and silly variation achieved by adding or deleting words, vowels, or consonants – think pig Latin!
The traveling trousers
The students will walk in and see an old pair of trousers on a table at the front of the class. The trousers will come with no follow-up information, just that they are traveling trousers and a variety of questions such as:
- Where have they been?
- Where would you travel?
- Describe three places you’d travel or goals you’d accomplish while wearing these trousers
- What will it take for you to get there?
- How can you begin creating these destinations or goals today?
The students should be creative with their answers as this allows them to make up an elaborate back story for the traveling trousers and a potential future as they imagine all the things they could achieve and the places they could go.
The legibility test
This task involves students writing a review paragraph about a topic they have studied. However, they do this with either their opposite hand or blindfolded before handing it to the student beside them, who will see if they can read what’s been written. This is a fun task to start the day.
Bell work is a great beginning task as it helps students to engage in a way they may find more interesting before continuing in this positive mindset for the rest of the class. It allows students the freedom to express themselves and learn in their way. Consider it a warm-up for their brains which will better improve retention of the important stuff.
