Cultivate a self-starting classroom in 5 minutes a day

What if students came into math class wanting to participate in your warm-up routine?

If that sounds laughable, hear me out! It's totally possible...in fact, it's not even that hard.

The trick is having the right warm-up activity.

A Better Kind of Bell-Ringer

Are you tired of constantly reminding kids to start their “Do Now” activities at the beginning of class? If you find yourself nagging while the students are lagging, the problem may be the bell-ringer itself.

Even the best skill-based review activities can leave a lot of students feeling frustrated before math class even starts. Some kids quietly internalize their anxiety; others act out to avoid it.

Why spend the first five minutes of class enforcing an activity that nobody wants to do?

Instead, imagine “hooking” kids in the first moments of class with a warm-up routine that’s so engaging and so accessible that students actually look forward to it each day.

That was my vision in developing these paperless Daily Number Sense Routines.

Specially-Made for Middle School Math Communities

Intentionally designed for inclusive middle school math classrooms, these Daily Number Sense slides capture kids’ attention from the moment they walk in the door.

The slides work because the instructions are clear and the tasks are approachable for everyone in the room.

The open-ended and highly visual prompts are simple, but compelling. Students with reading difficulties and/or gaps in foundational math skills will find comfortable points of entry. Students who are confident in math will enjoy being challenged by these rich, open-ended prompts.

When everyone has something positive to contribute, the classroom community thrives.

That’s the amazing power of “low-floor, high-ceiling” tasks.

Five Days of Number Sense Routines

In order to self-start, kids need to know exactly what to do. It helps a lot if they’re also willing to do it. You can easily facilitate both by projecting these Daily Number Sense Routine slides as your focal point at the beginning of class.

The slides follow a weekly routine that’s predictable enough to feel structured, yet varied enough to feel fresh every day.

MONDAY: Odd One Out

Students review four images and determine which one is unique and does not belong. The catch? There is at least one reasonable argument for each answer choice. Watch your students naturally engage in higher-order thinking skills as they discuss their answers and listen to other perspectives.

TUESDAY: Estimation Challenge

Approximation can be tricky to teach and to learn…but it can also become a highly engaging guessing game. Help students practice visual-spatial and quantitative reasoning skills with an estimation game they’ll look forward to playing each week.

WEDNESDAY: Emoji Equations

Students will have so much fun solving these emoji picture puzzles that they won’t even realize they’re developing algebraic reasoning skills. After giving kids quiet independent thinking time, have them work together in small groups - then listen to the rich discourse fill your classroom!

THURSDAY: Same But Different

Students use comparative reasoning skills and mathematical vocabulary to discuss similarities and differences between two given images. With many possible insights and correct answers, everyone has something to contribute to the conversation.

FRIDAY: Target Practice

This engaging number sense game challenges students to use three numbers in a 3x3 grid along with any combination of operations to reach a target number. With multiple correct answers to each puzzle, even the fastest finishers can’t be sure that they’ve found all the possible solutions!

Answer Keys Included

Unlike most bell-ringer tasks, these prompts don’t just reward accuracy; they are designed to affirm reasonableness, creativity, and cognitive flexibility. Open-ended prompts are intended to lead to multiple valid responses.

Even so, each daily slide links to a key that reveals some possible solutions. In the case of Tuesday’s Estimation Challenge and Wednesday’s Emoji Equations prompts, the correct answers are provided.

Transform the First Five Minutes of Class

Cultivate critical thinking skills while building a sense of community by starting your class with number talks that include and enrich everyone.

These routines don’t just energize deep mathematical thinking, they boost engagement and minimize chaos at the beginning of class.

The slides are thoughtfully designed to be accessible yet challenging for a broad range of middle school students, including students with disabilities and/or math anxiety.

Best of all, the paperless design means there's never anything to print or prep! Simply project a slide as a focal point at the beginning of class, and watch as the productive discussion starts itself.

Keep the Conversation Going!

What questions do you have? What else would you like to know about implementing these daily number sense routines?

I send occasional emails (with fun freebies!) to my teacher friends. Click here to join the Dividing by Zero community and get the first week of slides for free!

For the love of math,

~Dayna