Do Now ideas

I've done some form of a "do now" for as long as I can remember teaching middle school!  My first district was huge on grammar (and had a Smartboard) so I remember doing daily grammar exercises as a warm up. Since moving to my current district, (which is not very grammar focused) I've done a "WOD" or "Word of the Day" which was also helpful because this district does not have an isolated vocabulary program.  

This upcoming school year brings forth a lot of changes in our school which has gotten me thinking about revising my do now philosophy.  Our school is moving forward with a block and rotating schedule.  What this means is that our students will no longer see their teachers/classes every single day.  This makes for more time in other subjects and more allowance for electives, etc.  Basically, the kids and other classes benefit from this, but it has caused a bit of a challenge for the English/Literacy teachers.

Gone are the days of back to back periods in a "Language Arts block" and now I'm looking at seeing my students four days a week for 60 minutes.  This change means I have to cut corners a bit in my curriculum and change things up a bit, which is actually making for a fun challenge.  It's so easy to get stuck in our ways, so I'm glad to have an "excuse" to change.

Back to the do now topic.  I'm intrigued and excited at the thought of making my do now whatever I need it to be for that day.  Will I run out of ideas sometimes? Sure!  Will I have the kids just take out their homework and read for a few minutes? Probably.  But then again, I plan on coming up with FABULOUS quick writes that go along with our short stories and taking a  Mother-May-I-baby-step back to teaching grammar.

While I'm content with the fact that my do now can be anything I need it to be, I also want the first 5 plus minutes of students' time in the classroom to be meaningful.

So far I'm looking at rotating the following ideas:

-quick write on literature (journal prompt)
-begin coloring/cutting for ISN day
-mentor sentence activity
-vocabulary activity
-workbook page (for my new 5th grade class)


I'd love to hear any input/feedback on the "do now" concept.  I know everyone has some take on it!

Thanks for reading!