Got Five Minutes Before the Bell Rings?

Maximize your instructional time by using those small blocks of “extra” time to review content, reflect, or work on critical thinking skills, in a fun, easy way.

Activities for:

• Content Review
• Reflection & Self-Assessment
• Critical Thinking Skills

Content Review:

Vocabulary:

 

• Keep a list of vocabulary words and definitions on hand
• Review 4-6 words each time, choose randomly from list
• Ask for group response, or have students share answer with neighbor
• Give definition and ask for word, give word and ask for definition, or give definition and multiple choice options for words

• Ideas:
  • Use words from your current unit of study
  • Use words from a master list of subject-area words for the year; include words that you’ve already covered as a class as well as words the students will come across later in the year – begin to develop connections to prior knowledge
  • Use vocabulary words from your state assessment (the words used on the tests – How do they compare with the words you’re using in class?)

Content:

 

• Ask questions from your textbook or from previous years’ tests
• Ask questions from previous materials, ie. the test from an earlier unit
• Name 3-4 people, words, events for students to sequence (chronologically, by impact, alphabetically, etc.)
• Name 3 people, words, or things.  Ask students to name what the three things have in common (ie. Presidents of the U.S., chemical formulas, zoo animals, etc.)
• Use flash cards to review visual symbols, including:
  • Sight words, digraphs, blends
  • Meanings of symbols, such as country flags or chemical elements
  • Abbreviations, such as U.S. postal codes
  • Geometric shapes
  • Formulas
  • Journal prompt for creative writing (general topic or content-related)

Reflection and Self-Assessment:

• Journaling: Thoughts on issue or debate topic brought up during unit
• Reflection Tools:
  • 3 Minute Buzz (pdf)
  • Reflecting on Bright Ideas (pdf)
  • Reflection Pyramid (pdf)

• Don’t want to have to print off copies?
  • Draw basic tool on board; have students make their own on scrap paper
  • Have students respond orally, share responses with a partner
  • Hand out index cards; collect as students walk out the door (“Ticket to the Hall”)

• Ideas for Reflective Response:
  • Describe one thing you’ve learned
  • List three people (ideas, events, facts) that you learned
  • Name one thing that was new to you
  • What’s one thing that surprised you?
  • What do you wonder about?
  • Write a question that you have about what we read today
  • What’s one thing you hope to learn more about?
  • What person (idea, event, etc.) are you most interested in

Critical Thinking Skills:

• Ask questions from cards from board games, such as Trivial Pursuit or Tri-Bond for Kids
• Line Up (whole group get-up-and-interact activity)
  • Give the students directions for arranging themselves in a line (at the front of the room, at the door, etc.)
  • To make it more challenging, have students form the line without talking
  • Ideas:
    • Alphabetical by first or last name
    • Age or date of birth
    • Height, shoe size, or length of hair
    • Time you woke up this morning- Who is…? (Small group interaction activity)
    • Ask a question that requires students to compare and contrast.  Students decide in their team, at their table, or in a small group which student has the characteristic that answers the question. Use to identify one student to perform a task.
    • Ideas:
      • Who went to bed earliest last night?
      • Who has the longest thumb?
      • Who had the biggest breakfast?
      • Whose birthday is closest to today?
      • Who most recently ate pizza

 

• Rebus Puzzles (Image that represents and word or phrase)
  • NIEHS Kids’ Pages – Rebus Puzzles
  • Fun-with-Words Puzzles – Hink-Picks (Rhyming word puzzles)
  • “Hink Pinks” and other Word Play – Education World- Anagrams (Word or phrase rearranged to make a different word or phrase)
  • “Everyday Vocabulary Anagrams” – Range of difficulty
  • “Anagram Site” – Organized by theme

 

• Brain Teasers
  • Discovery School’s Brain Boosters  – Organized by Thinking Skills
  • Daily Dose of the Web – Daily Questions, Problems, and Quizzes
  • NIEHS Kids’ Pages – Easy-to-Use Collection of Puzzles

 

More Ideas: “Don’t Waste a Minute” – “Education World” article