25 Easy Morning Bell-Work Ideas

Are you searching for some simple morning bell-work ideas to add to your morning routine? Well, look no further; I have compiled a list of 25 ideas that I have used over the years. Some ideas take a bit more preparation on your part than others, but I’m sure you will admit that a list of 25 gives you a lot of new ideas.

Some of the bell-work ideas are general (across many subject areas) but others are specific to a certain subject. So I will divide them up for easy access.

25 Easy Morning Bell-Work Ideas

So I decided to break these up into ELA, Math and Social Studies/Science and then all other ideas are listed under General ideas. Next, I decided to give you quick lists (in case you are an experienced teacher and might want to just scan this article). Then after each bulleted list I will briefly explain each idea. ENJOY!!!

ELA based bell-work ideas

• handwriting/ cursive practice
• silent reading
• book search
• writing prompts
• spelling practice
• correct my grammar mistakes

HANDWRITING/CURSIVE PRACTICE: This idea should be fairly simple…you can have handouts for them to practice on, or you can keep it simple and just have a document displayed under the doc-u-cam and pass out notebook paper. For Kinders and First graders I would recommend the handout since they may have difficultly transferring from the doc-u-cam to the paper. They can practice a single letter, a set of words, or even a sentence.

SILENT READING: This idea is also rather self-explanatory. You just need to be sure that they all already have a book to read in their desk or backpack. Get this part set up first before you assign the students to do this activity.

BOOK SEARCH: This idea is geared toward primary age students. For this idea, I get a small tub or basket for each table of students that I place about 12-15 picture books into the tub or basket. Then for the time period of your “morning bell work” the students take a look through a few of these pictures books to find out which ones they might be interested in.

WRITING PROMPTS: In this activity, students are given a prompt to write about during the period. If you are looking for ideas for writing prompts, I have an article that I wrote with ideas. You can find the article here:

12 Writing Prompts to Engage Your Students

More ELA Bell-work Ideas

SPELLING PRACTICE: You can never go wrong by having your students practice their spelling words. I would do this review 2-3 times a month. It’s best not to do it every week, but twice a month is fine. You can assign 3 times each for younger students and five times each for older ones.

CORRECT MY GRAMMAR MISTAKES: For this idea, I would write two long sentences on the marker board (or under the doc-u-cam) with a number of grammar and punctuation errors in each one. The students are then assigned to correct the mistakes and be able to explain the ones they chose when the class reviews them later.

MATH bell-work ideas

• Addition/subtraction/multiplcation skills review
• math speed drills
• word problem of the day
• find the mistake
• manipulative activities

ADDITION/ SUBTRACTION/ MULTIPLICATION SKILLS REVIEW: The idea with this activity is to have a page of various practice items in that area. There are some publishers that make these to purchase, but it is also fairly simple to create on your own. So if you are making an addition one; the page would have some fact family items, some two digit problems (if you’ve taught that already) and some column addition ALL on one page.

MATH SPEED DRILLS: I’m pretty sure you all are experienced with speed drills… Basically, it’s a sheet of about 25-40 basic fact problems that students are encouraged to complete in a given time (using a timer). This works well for addition, subtraction and multiplication facts. If your students still do not have them memorized, you may want to do this frequently. Some students may be more encouraged to learn them if there is a reward attached to completing them successfully.

WORD PROBLEM OF THE DAY: Most students don’t care for word problems (I was one of those). So use this only a few times each month and make part of the morning session on reviewing how it is solved correctly after the students try. You need to be sure the students at least TRY to solve it. If they realize you are going over it anyway, some won’t even try…so this is where you need to be creative to make this activity work well.

More Math Bell-work ideas

FIND THE MISTAKE: This activity is similar to the “Correct My Grammar” item above. For this, you solve a multi-step problem on the board (or under the doc-u-cam) where you purposely make an error. Have the students find your mistake and solve it correctly AND explain in writing what you did incorrectly. These types of problems are great for teaching students how the standardized testing companies often use these simple errors as one of the choices in the multiple choice questions.

MANIPULATIVE ACTIVITIES: For primary students, a fun activity is to put out math manipulatives and let the students explore with them. I recommend using this morning activity sparingly since it makes the room environment active and noisy instead of the quiet calm that most teachers prefer to have at the beginning of the day. AND it often takes more time than you would like to have them clean up and move on to the day’s work.

Science/ Social Studies/ Art/ Other Bell-Work Ideas

• current event response
• science journal prompts
• map activities
• historical figure study
• analyze photos
• art – sketch a copy

CURRENT EVENT RESPONSE: This activity is good for students from third grade and up…don’t try it with primary, they need too much guidance to be able to understand current events. Place a short, easy to understand (and not political) article on the screen (using either the doc-u-cam or the internet). Assign the students to read the article and write a one paragraph summary or response to the current event. You can assign them to do this in partners if you have some students who need help… just create the pairs yourself, don’t let them choose.

SCIENCE JOURNAL PROMPTS: Have students write in their science journals about a topic of your choice. You can refer back to the previous day’s lesson, or something occurring now – such as the full moon. Ask them to write everything they know about the topic. I would make it a rule that they need to be writing the entire time (don’t make this a long period…no more than 10 minutes). Believe me, if you don’t make this “rule” some will just sit there and not write anything and say they don’t know about that topic.

MAP ACTIVITIES: Map activities are fun to do for bell work. Begin the year with a structured map and as the year progresses they can create their own. For example, have a map of the classroom with only the desks; the student’s job is to put in all the other items (shelves, boards, library, centers)…later do the same with a map of the school buildings…and students fill in the playground and parking lots, etc.

More Social Studies and Science Bell-Work

HISTORICAL FIGURE STUDY: Many classes now have individual iPads or tablets. Assign each student a historical figure to look up and write a brief summary of why they are considered a “historical figure.” If you prefer not to use the internet, you could have a class set of one page summaries of historical figures that you hand out to the students to use. Then when you use it again later in the year, make sure the students get a different one then they did last time.

ANALYZE PHOTOS: Display a “cool” photograph on the ‘doc-u-ment’ camera or from the internet and have all students write a description of the photo. Encourage then to use descriptive words to describe the lighting and the mood of the picture. Ask volunteers to share theirs. Later after you have read them, select a few well-written ones to use to teach the others. When doing this, type up their words so the students don’t know who wrote it since most students don’t like attention on them. If they do, believe me, they will blurt out that its their description.

ART – SKETCH A COPY: Have a picture or painting displayed that the students try to copy a sketch of (with pencils only). Make sure you do pencil…so they can erase and so that this remains a “quick” bell work activity and not a full blown art lesson. Teach students ahead of time that they are all expected to work on each morning’s bell work. Set up parameters for if they are not doing what is expected. Again, because this takes creativity, some students may be tempted to just sit there and not do any of the assignment.

General Bell-Work Ideas

• Journaling
• question of the day
• spiral review
• morning chat with neighbor
• review quiz
• minute lists
• breathing/ mindfulness
• logic problems

JOURNALING: Having students write in a journal is a fun activity for many students. The point of this is that it is unstructured and that students can write about anything they want to.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: I would use this as bell work ONLY by having student work with a partner or a team of three. Pose a question that will take a bit of research for most of them. Have then discuss the question and try to search for the answer. Here are some examples: Who is known as the “king of pop?” What year did the US purchase the Louisiana Purchase and from what country? Who was the US President during World War II? How long does it take the moon to circle the earth? What product or crop is our state/provence known for?

SPIRAL REVIEW: Make a one-page review sheet of a certain subject. Have questions from previous chapters and lessons so the students have a review. I recommend that you do NOT mix subject areas. Have the entire review be ALL SCIENCE, or ALL MATH, or ALL GRAMMAR….not mixed up.

MORNING CHAT WITH NEIGHBOR: This has become more important than before as students return to school from the pandemic time at home. Assign them to talk to their neighbor, don’t let them wander the class and chat with their friends. The idea here is to help them become comfortable again with having casual conversations. If this is difficult for your students, give them three ideas of what to talk about and have them choose or talk about all of them.

More “general” bell-work ideas

REVIEW QUIZ: Again, I would use this idea sparingly. Most quizzes can be given during that subject area learning time. But if your time is crunched, go ahead and give one at the Bell Work time. Just make it a short quiz and let the students know that it is timed.

MINUTE LISTS: This is one of my favorite bell work activities. It’s also a good idea for filling in 5-7 minutes before a transition time. There are two ways to do this, either give them a topic and they just start listing as many words as they can on that topic. But my favorite way is to have them list the alphabet down their page and then they have to think of a word from that topic that begins with that letter. For example; foods, animals, places, first names.

BREATHING/ MINDFULNESS: Some teachers use this more than others. It’s just a quiet time- quiet music, heads down, resting, being still and calming down.

LOGIC PROBLEMS: This activity is best for upper grades and middle, high school. Provide students with logic problems to solve. You can find some online to use. Have them work in partners until they learn how these work and later in the year have them solve these on their own.

Wow!!! Lots of ideas… this was the longest article I think I’ve written. I hope you find it useful

Until Next Time,