Making time for science is a genuine complaint among classroom teachers. As a former fifth-grade teacher and district curriculum coordinator, the author's moment of truth came one morning while juggling classroom housekeeping tasks. Her students were set to work on their "bell work," which consisted of some type of assignment that required little teacher support--and not much attention to learning. Therefore, to better use this prime learning time, the author designed a successful way to start the day by having students use the critical-thinking skills of analyzing and evaluating. The outcome--a daily survey and graphing exercise--creatively filled a need. (Contains 1 figure, 5 online resources, and 3 print resources.)