Beat the Clock! A Fun Warm Up Activity or Brain Break | Middle School Bell Work

Have a settled and focused start to the lesson with 100+ engaging ‘Beat the Clock’ questions. Perfect to hook students in as a bell ringer, warm them up for the lesson, give them a quick brain break, or just to fill in the 5 minutes of dead-air time that can often be the cause of classroom management chaos! 

Also a great activity to engage students in tutor time!

What’s Included:

✓ 100+ ‘Beat the Clock’ prompts (each on individual slides)

✓ 3 timers to choose from and paste onto each slide as you wish (2, 3 and 5 minutes)

✓ A blank ‘Beat the Clock’ slide where you can add your own!

✓ A printable template you can give to your students for them to write their answers, turning this into a fantastic activity to settle students at the start of a lesson!

The aim of the game: Using the given prompt, get to 10 before the clock runs out!

Sample questions:

• List 10 words that start with the letter B.
• List 10 animals with scales.
• List 10 excuses for being late.
• List 10 things most kids would hate doing.
• List 10 words with exactly 5 letters.
• List 10 jobs that start with the letter C.
• List 10 different types of flower.
• List 10 foods that are red.
• List 10 synonyms for the word ‘happy’.
• List 10 adjectives to describe a rainy day.

This ready-to-use PowerPoint is packed with 100+ engaging ‘Beat the Clock’ prompts that will get your students heads down scribbling their answers away!

How you can use these questions:

✏️ Brain Breaks: Quick, fun, and engaging 5-minute brain breaks.
✏️ Starter Activities: Use as bell-ringer tasks or morning work to get students warmed up and ready for the lesson or day.
✏️ Engaging and appropriate game for class parties: Need a student-friendly game for a class party or the end of the year? Here it is!
✏️ Filling in a little bit of time: Use to fill in those 5 minutes of ‘dead-air’ time in a structured way, reducing disruptions and chaos!

Why you’ll love ‘Beat the Clock’!

♡ With over 100 prompts, you’ll have a bank that you can draw from day after day after day. That’s a lot of heavy lifting in that first 5 minutes of the lesson (or the final 5!!)

♡ Encourages small daily interactions that foster a sense of belonging, community, and felt safety.

♡ These engaging questions can be seamlessly integrated into each lesson without taking much time—a 5-minute investment for huge impact.

♡ Help students develop crucial social and emotional skills that translate into better relationships with peers and a more collaborative class culture!