As you start with bell ringers, it is helpful to model the process with the entire class. If you have an interactive board, kick off your first few bell ringers by opening an activity that students can physically interact with .

For example, if you are introducing poetry, share a blackout or magnet poetry activity for the entire class to complete. If you are beginning to explore graphs, you can use a tally mark survey or graph to collect data. For instance:

Take attendance with a survey by asking students to drag their names to show their opinions instead of a tally mark. You could also create an activity with a range of emojis to represent emotions and ask students to drag their names to show how they are feeling while taking attendance at the same time. 

If you know you need to check in with individual students, it may be better to assign individual work so they aren't distracted by whole-class conversations. Simply find or create an activity you want to use and assign it to students.

To engage students' brains, assign a Sudoku puzzle or have them search for "bell ringer" on their own. You can focus their mental energy while building math skills with computation puzzles like four fours. Other templates, like creativity circles or composite shapes, help students build creative thinking. 

The Wixie Curriculum Activities library has an entire folder of Word Play templates with key academic vocabulary ranging from second to fifth grade. These multi-page activities ask students to "make words" by creating three-, four-, and five-letter words from the letters in the academic vocabulary term. For example, from the word "characteristic," students might create three-letter words like cat, hat, car, or rat.

This type of activity is great for students who finish assigned work early. Students can also type the keyword "done" in the field at the top of their home page to find additional activities like the ones mentioned above.

Bell ringers can be great for exploring new topics, allowing students extra time to work on projects they have started, and as formative assessments. You can always create what you need in Wixie or use the search bar at your home page to explore the Curriculum Activities library using keywords for topics like:

If your goal is to get your students to write everyday, you can't beat a bell-ringer writing prompt. The Language Arts > Writing folder in the Curriculum Activities library includes several four-page story starters that you can use to inspire narrative writing. 

The Background Picture option also makes it easy to create and assign your own custom writing prompts.

A thought-provoking image, album cover with a hyperlink to a current song, or a powerful quote are authentic ways to engage intermediate and middle-grade learners.  

As students get used to bell ringers, they will come to not only expect them, but depend upon them for settling in and getting the class or day started on a focused and positive note.