Take Five! for Language Arts: 180 bell-ringers that build critical-thinking skills (Maupin House)

I am an 8th grade English teacher so I purchased this book of bell ringers in the hopes that it would work well for my group, but I did end up returning this product as it did not meet my expectations. I was looking for a quick set of exercises that my students could work on at the beginning of class, but these assignments would have required a bit of remediation or review, and some would involve extensive work before they could begin the work, which isn't how I use bell ringers.The lessons seem to be very creative and fun, but I didn't understand the logic and organization of how they were pieced together in the book. There didn't appear to be a clear method to the order of the lessons, so I was afraid my students would feel as though we were jumping around and it would be far too confusing.I do think these critical thinking skills are extremely important, and this book could work for a certain age group and level, but it was not appropriate for my demographic. I would recommend these bell ringers for high level, self-starters who are willing to work independently and efficiently with an interest in creative activities. I do commend the author on the variety of activities as I am certain they are engaging for the right classes.

I bought this book because I wanted my warm-up journal writing to require more critical thinking in my 7th graders. I absolutely love this book. I use it for journal almost every day, and when I do not use it, the students ask me why the journal is "so boring!" They have fun with the prompts because they are not your average, "Tell about a time when..." prompts. Recommend to any LA teacher, and even the History teacher across the hall bought one for her class!

I use this often in the classroom. I love how it aligns each micro lesson with standards. I actually use that as part of my introduction of the activity.

As a middle -school language arts teacher, I am always looking for great warm up ideas. After all, getting the kids busy right away improves classroom behavior. The ideas in this book do just that. They are engaging and lots of fun. Best of all, they are standards-based, so if a principal wants to know why we are creating commercials or making thumb-print comics, I can justify the fun.

I really like this book. It has really practical activities for helping build critical thinking skills. I liked it so much, that I will be teaching a PD class/book study on this in the upcoming school year.

I'm using this with a 6th grade Gifted class and it's working wonders! My students enjoy these daily warm-ups - no complaining! Great thinking and creativity produced. I would recommend this title to other teachers.

I use this almost every day with my sophomore English II class. They enjoy the prompts and make them think. Although I would love to have a digital copy to use with my SmartBoard, I can scan the lesson and put it on the board easily.

Not the best warm up book I've found, but usable. I teach 6th grade and the problem is that these take way more than 5 minutes.