Curriculum Corner
November Bell Ringers
All things November in a set of 32 bell ringer ideas to get you through the month. From writing about November to writing about colors and feelings in fall, these bell ringers are fun and allow creative writing practice.
Curriculum Corner
February Bell Ringers
Use a set of 30 writing bell ringers to get through the month of February. Writers tap into and write about how February makes them feel, what it smells like, and all types of celebrations that occur during the month.
Curated OER
Grammar Bellwork
Ding! The bell just went off, and your class is already knee-deep in reviewing prepositional phrases thanks to this PowerPoint. Twenty-six slides cover 25 preposition activities, and a final slide shows a list of prepositions learners...
Curated OER
Preterite Tense: All Verbs
Consider using this short activity as a bell-ringer. Beginning Spanish learners read the paragraph and conjugate the verbs in parentheses to complete the sentences. Although the focus is on grammar, read through the paragraph in English...
Curated OER
Abbreviations
Test your middle schoolers on their knowledge of common abbreviations. Abbreviations such as PS, RSVP, PM, and AM are discussed. I suppose you could use this as a bell-ringer or a time-filler. There are 12 questions listed.
Education World
Every Day Edit - Montgomery Bus Boycott
Develop editing skills every day with these Every-Day Edits! This bell-ringer focuses on Rosa Parks and the infamous Montgomery Bus Boycott. As they read, learners search for errors in punctuation, grammar, spelling, and capitalization.
Education World
Every Day Edit - Hot Diggity Dog
Looking for a bell-ringer activity to get your grammar class started? Pass out this half-sheet on National Hot Dog Month! Budding grammarians will search for the capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar errors included.
Education World
Every Day Edit - Telephone Operators
Here's a bell-ringer for your grammar class! Learn about Emma M. Nutt and telephone operators as you search for spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation errors.
Curated OER
Persuasive Writing
Use a quick bell-ringer to interest your class in the art of persuasion. They brainstorm where they find examples of persuasion in their lives and identify who is trying to persuade them. Then they either fish through magazines or look...
Curated OER
Picturing Prepositions
An interesting take on teaching prepositions! Instead of using basic sentences, this instructional activity provides pictures, and the pupil must describe the picture using a preposition. This sort of activity would also make an...
Curated OER
Every Day Edit - Jim Henson's Muppets
Read about Jim Henson's Muppets! Cut this activity in two, so that each learner can have a bell-ringer activity. As they read the excerpt, they correct capitalization, punctuation, and spelling errors.
Achieve3000
Figurative Language
Similes and metaphors make writing more beautiful and detailed, but can be a little harder to decipher during a first reading. Use a passage from The Man Who Loved Words to show young readers how to think through passages that contain...
Prestwick House
April Fool’s Day Vocabulary Lesson
Quandimonium will ensue when the class discovers you will be grading this April Fool's Day vocabulary activity, complete with made-up words and definitions, although the truly perspicacious will remain axomachilliax.
Curated OER
Verb Review 1 (Past Progressive/Past Tense)
Here is a week's worth of bell-ringers for your class! Each of the five short paragraphs focuses on using the correct past progressive or past tense verb to complete the blanks. Each paragraph has around 10 verbs to conjugate.
Curated OER
A New School Year
Looking for a way to incorporate writing on the first day of school? Young writers will predict what the best thing about the new school year will be, note what they hope to learn, and explain how their teacher can help them. They will...
Curriculum Corner
Wonderful Words for Writing!
Twenty slides make up a set of festive, May-themed writing prompts designed to grab scholars' attention and warm-up their writing skills. Prompts include story starters, holidays, research questions, the five senses, and more!
Curated OER
Verb Review 1 (Mixed Including Passive)
Cut this sheet in two, and provide each learner with two days worth of bell-ringer activities. English language learners (or those studying English grammar) complete a short activity that has them complete a paragraph using the passive...
Education World
Every Day Edit - Time Zones
Make half the number of copies you need, and cut this document in two! Here's a great daily activity to hone the editing skills of your learners. For this short assignment, they learn about time zones and how they were established.
Curated OER
Find the Main Idea
Can your class find the main idea for the short passages provided here? Not only do they identify the main idea out of four selections, but they must also write a supporting idea for their choice. The answer sheet provides example...
West Virginia Department of Education
Editorials: The Guiding Voice of Authority?
How much can opinion influence a news story? A standalone resource discusses the importance of John Brown's Raid through the lens of journalism. Learners analyze two different texts, one from the perspective of the North and the other of...
abcteach
Santa's Sack (Write a Poem)
What might Santa have in his sack? Young writers will answer this question in the form of poem inside Santa's sack. Next they will color the sack and draw a holiday scene.
Curated OER
Ambiguity and Puns
Get a giggle from this presentation about puns and ambiguity. From ad campaigns to old jokes to pictures of animals made out of vegetables, the slides are amusing, informative, and bizarre. The presentation spends more time providing...
Curated OER
Breaking News English: UK Cathedral to Play Lennon's Imagine
In this English worksheet, students read "UK Cathedral to Play Lennon's Imagine," and then respond to 1 essay, 47 fill in the blank, 7 short answer, 20 matching, and 8 true or false questions about the selection.
Curated OER
Rebecca Brown's "Forgiveness" and Christine Delea's "CoCo Chanel in the Stairwell"
Students, after reading and analyzing Rebecca Brown's "Forgiveness" and Christine Delea's "CoCo Chanel in the Stairwell," explore and focus on the author's tone and genre analysis. They interpret different rhetorical situations as they...