Students in the seats working, before the bell rings
On the Board is an easy, fun, no-prep way to start off your class! Get students into the habit of coming into class, looking at the board, and getting to work independently. While you're still setting things up, or even taking attendance, your students are hard at work.
This curated, classroom-tested collection of over 200 of proverbs, quotations, brain teasers, riddles, puzzles, and jokes is literally the easiest warmer activity in the world. They work as perfect do-nows because they are fun and engaging, simple enough that students can do them on their own. There are plenty of suggestions on how to use them in class and extend them into discussion activities or use them to introduce the theme of the lesson. Interpreting a proverb or solving a riddle is a great critical thinking activity and it's also fun!
And I've also shared nine other activity-types that you can adapt to start the class off with a review of the past class or a preview of the class topic. These activities also work as great do-nows because students can do them independently. And they can be extended to work as introductory activities as well.
This is one of my go-to teaching tools. I hope it'll be one of yours as well.
