I try to begin my classes with a daily warm up activity. These short, quick activities can be used in so many different ways in your classroom which prompted me to share with you today some of the ways I use them in my Science, Math and French classrooms.
1. “Bellwork”
The first way I use my daily warm ups is to focus students as they come into the room. Usually, the transition from one room to another or one subject to another could be enough to set some kids off and incorporating a daily warm up is a sure fire way to set structure…my kiddos really don’t have time to get off on any sort of tangent as the daily warm ups are usually on their desks signifying that we’re ready to begin.
I really find that this sets the tone for the lesson and the class. I get them straight to work as they come in.
Now, once everyone is finished, I’ll have the students assess how they feel about their answers with a quick thumbs up, thumbs across or thumbs down.
A quick glance around the room gives me a good indication of how students are feeling about the material. I will then go over the answers with the students and ask them to make any corrections necessary. Students are then to put their daily warm up sheets in the study guide section of their binders.
Wink wink…Daily warm up questions make for great unit test questions as well.
2. Did they learn it? I know I taught it….but did they actually “GET” it…
Another way I use my daily my warm ups is to quickly assess just how much my students absorbed from the previous lesson. This allows me to quickly see if I need to review some of the previous material or if I can springboard into the next concept.
When I assess using this method, I will gather all of the Daily warm ups and check them myself in order to make notes on who has problems with which concept.
3. Where are we now?
…Now I gotta be honest here…I don’t always use my daily warm ups at the beginning of class, I have also used them half way through a lesson in order for me to see if the students have absorbed the concepts and are ready to move on, or if they need a little more practice and consolidation of the material.
When I use the daily warm ups this way, I will quickly sort the daily warm ups into two piles. One pile for good to go… one pile for extra practice needed. If you’re fortunate enough to work with another adult in the room, a quick two pile system allows one adult to practice the concepts with one group of students, while the other group works on something they need.
These are just a few of the ways I use Daily Warm ups. I’d love to hear whether or not you use daily warm ups in your classroom and if so what are some of the ways you use them
If you currently don’t use daily warm ups but would like to give them a try, feel free to check out some of my Daily warm ups by clicking here.
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