Before beginning any lesson, it is always great to have a warm-up activity prepared as well. Students can take a few minutes to get their thinking organized and their minds cleared and ready to learn new information. It is smart to plan a warm-up that pairs with your lesson plan and is easy for you to prepare. Look over this list of 28 warm-ups and decide which of these fun activities will be most beneficial for you to use with your middle school students.
1. Science Warm Up Cards
These science warm-up cards are great for warming up your class of middle school students. You can tie these cards directly to your lesson plans and the photographs help to make them a great ESL warm-up activity as well.
Learn More: Teaching Science
2. Decimal of the Day
The decimal of the day is a form of the number of the day, which many students do in elementary school. This is an effective warm-up activity because it allows for many different skills to be used when interacting with the number.
Learn More: Middle Web
3. Which Doesn’t Belong?
This engaging warm-up activity is great because it really gets students thinking and reasoning. Not only do they find the correct answer of which does not belong, but they must also explain the reasoning behind their answer. This is a great way to challenge students’ critical thinking in math.
Learn More: Middle Web
4. Journaling
Journaling is a great way to let students combine their own thoughts and opinions with writing. Starting the class period with a simple question or journal prompt is a great way to get students to write before the class gets going. This is good for all content areas, not just the English classroom.
Learn More: 2 Peas And A Dog
5. Entrance Tickets
Entrance tickets can be used when students first walk into the physical classroom. They can challenge students to reflect on the lesson from the previous day, pose a question about the new content to come, or simply ask a question that students can share an opinion or prediction about.
Learn More: 2 Peas And A Dog
6. Pick a Side
Give students a topic and have them choose a side to debate their opinion. They can literally choose a side in the classroom to sit and brainstorm or they can write about it. Try to provide topics that will challenge students to think about things from a different perspective.
Learn More: Plan Book
7. Sketchbooks
Students can use sketchbooks for a variety of reasons. You can have them do one for a warm-up activity at the beginning of class as a review of the day before. This is a good way to allow students to express their thoughts with visuals and words and for you to check to understand of concepts covered.
Learn More: The Art Of Education
8. ABC
Think about picture books that are about concepts. The same idea to this activity, except students can create a list. Give them a topic and have them list words that relate to the concept. These are also great ESL warm-up activities because they are so heavy with vocabulary and language.
Learn More: The Art Of Education
9. Bumper Stickers
Incorporating writing into your lesson plans is really not as hard as you think. Be creative and think of ways to bring it easily into your lesson. Have students create bumper stickers to reflect content retention in your classroom as a quick and easy warm-up!
Learn More: Writing-Based Curriculum
10. Phrased Poem Challenge
This warm-up gives students words to use to form a poem. Students may have to challenge themselves to arrange them in a way that makes sense and relates to the content topic. Students can even choose their own words and challenge other students to do the same with new poems.
Learn More: Writing-Based Education
11. Give Motivation
Motivational warm-ups create a positive atmosphere and help uplift students when they enter the classroom. Letting students write motivational messages to each other is a fun task that allows them to step outside their comfort zone and help provide encouragement to their peers.
Learn More: Pinterest
12. Paint Chip Poetry
This is a really fun way to get writers warmed up in English classes or can be used in other content areas as well. Students will use the paint names to write a poem or story that makes sense with what they are given. This is challenging because it forces students to think outside the box.
Learn More: Zauber Bear
13. Worries and Wonders
Worries and wonders are things all students have. This is a great way to gain insight from their perspective and connect with them on a personal level. Be sure to provide a safe space for students to share such personal things.
Learn More: Pinterest
14. Brain Teasers
Quick riddles and brain teasers are easy ways to warm up the brain and get students focused on learning. Give them a quick one each day and have them talk to their peers if they get stuck and cannot answer on their own.
Learn More: Kid Pillar
15. BOGGLE
Boggle is a fun warm-up for class! Get students thinking about all the types of words they can make when given a random set of letters. Use this printable to help students track the words they can form. You can make it a daily or weekly challenge and let students work independently, with a partner, or in small groups.
Learn More: A Crucial Week
16. Wacky Word Riddles
Wacky word riddles like these are fun! Similar to the Christmas song riddles, these will be a big hit as students enjoy figuring out the actual phrase for each one. Some are tricky, so this may be a good activity for partners or small groups.
Learn More: Pleacher
17. Index Card Story or Poem
What can students do with the power of words and only an index card? Let them see! Encourage poetry or song lyrics. Students could also complete other forms of creative writing ideas. The catch could be that it has to tie back to the content you have been teaching, or just let them free write as a warm-up!
Learn More: Teach Nouvelle
18. The Synonym Game
Another great ESL warm-up activity is the synonym game. Give students a panel of words and see what synonyms they can come up with. You could do this with antonyms as well. Have students, or teams, use different colored markers to track the words they submit and see who can give you the most!
Learn More: Teach Nouvelle
19. Writing Conversations
Have you ever had students write notes in your class? With this activity, this is what they do! They get to have conversations during class! The catch to this one is that they must do it in writing. They need to have different colored ink so you can distinguish between two or more writers in the conversation.
Learn More: The Literacy Effect
20. Paper Snowball Fight
What kid doesn’t want to throw paper across the room, right? Well, now they can, and with your permission no less! Ask a question to the class, have them answer in writing, and then crumple their paper and heave it across the room. Students can then pick up snowballs and read their peers’ thoughts. This is a great way to spark conversation with students.
Learn More: Educate And Create 123
21. Futures Videos
This is a channel that provides a variety of fun videos to choose from. Students can just watch or watch and respond. This is a great activity to pair with journaling.
Learn More: The Future’s Channel
22. Describe a Picture
Whether ESL or general education, describing a picture is a great warm-up. Provide the visual and seek out verbal or written descriptions to help your learners build their vocabulary and warm up their brains.
Learn More: Gold Star Teachers
23. Pass the Ball
Think of hot potato! This game is similar as it has learners ask a question and toss a ball to the person they want to answer. They can toss it if they need help or maybe they can even pose the next question.
Learn More: Gold Star Teachers
24. STEM Warm Ups
STEM bins may be a little too immature for middle schoolers, but these warm-up STEM cards are perfect! They give simple tasks for students to try and complete while using math and science and answering questions about the task at hand.
Learn More: STEM Activities For Kids
25. Escape Games
Escape rooms are really popular now! Use them as a warm-up by giving one clue per day for students to figure out and determine how to move to the next clue. They can work in teams for this one.
Learn More: Secondary English Coffeeshop
26. Two Truths and a Lie
Two truths and a lie are exactly as it sounds! Give students 3 statements and have them determine which is the lie and which two are the truth. You can do this with written statements, facts or myths, and even math problems!
Learn More: Mash Up Math
27. Tech Time
Give the children technology! They love working on it and engaging well with it. These slides give great ideas for incorporating critical thinking with technology usage. Have students complete tasks that use deep thinking, like designing something from scratch.
Learn More: ER Integration
28. Current Events
Students need to know what is going on in the world. They need to understand how to process this information and seek out credible news sources. Responding to current events is a great warm-up activity because it gives students a link to the real world.
Learn More: AES Education
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