Warm-Up Activities in Reading and English for 6th Grade Students

What Should I Look for in a Warm-Up Activity for 6th Grade Reading or English?

A good warm-up activity for reading or English is one that grabs the students' attention and acts as a transition between the previously taught skill and the one to follow. Typically, warm-up activities are used at the beginning of a class period before the lesson introduction. Most warm-up activities require very little explanation and take less than ten minutes for students to complete on their own. The activity should be used to gauge how effectively the previous lesson was taught, so you are able to pinpoint a starting point for the next lesson.

What Warm-Up Activities Can I Try?

Defining Idioms

Students hear idioms, such as 'cat got your tongue,' all the time, but do they actually know what they mean? In this activity, you will assign an idiom to each of your students. Encourage them to use print and online resources to find the idioms' meanings and origins. If you have extra time later on, invite students to share their findings with the rest of the class.

Labeling Parts of Speech

To help students study parts of speech, hand out worksheets that have several sentences on them. Each sentence will feature an underlined word such as an adverb, verb, adjective, noun or preposition. Challenge students to label the part of speech for each underlined word.

Writing a Journal Response to a Prompt

To get students warmed up for writing activities, write a prompt on the board and have them respond in their journals. You can ask them to write about such topics as favorite TV shows or movies, current events, school, home life or friends. Encourage your students to change topics if they're having difficulty writing about the prompt.

Editing Paragraphs

Prepare a paragraph in advance that incorporates spelling, grammar and punctuation errors you've been discussing in class. Give each student a copy of the paragraph to correct. After ten minutes, put the corrected version on the overhead projector and ask students to check their work.

Exploring a Topic

Pass out a short passage that's related to the book your students are currently reading for class. Include some questions that test their comprehension, or ask them to write a brief response about the passage.