Activities for
MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

ACTIVITIES TO CLOSE THE SCHOOL YEAR (6/23/10) (for all grades) Five activities use different methodologies to help you and your students reflect on the year and look ahead to next year.

GULF OIL SPILL: What happened, and who is responsible? (6/9/10) Students discuss the massive BP oil spill and view two short videos as they consider what happened in the gulf, their own consumption of oil, and who should be held responsible for the spill.

HAITI: Still in Crisis, but No Longer in the News (2/24/10) Marieke van Woerkom's activity helps younger students consider how Haitians are faring now that the news media has largely moved on.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN HAITI? (1/19/10) Help your students learn about the earthquake and Haiti's history, and brainstorm about how they can help Haitians now and in the long run.

Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King: THE POWER OF NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE (1/13/10) Through engaging activities, video, and small-group discussion, students consider the Montgomery Bus Boycott and how they might stand up against injustice in their own lives.

TEACHING IN A TIME OF CRISIS (9/2/09) Educator Marieke van Woerkom provides timeless guidelines for opening up discussion on difficult issues--like the current economic recession--with your elementary and middle school students. Also included: links to resources on the economic crisis to inform the class discussion.

GETTING TO KNOW YOU: Classroom Activities for Starting Off the School Year This 28-page PDF booklet includes great activities to get your class (grades preK-12) off to a good start in the new school year.

MESSAGE IN THE WAVES: Two Earth Day Lessons for Middle School Students After viewing a short video clip, students consider the effect all our waste has on the environment and develop a 'reduce, reuse, recyle' action plan.

LESSONS ON THE INAUGURATION for grades K-12 Our 15-page PDF booklet includes student readings and interactive lessons about the inauguration, Obama's inaugural speech, the challenges facing the new administration, and the inaugurals of presidents Lincoln and Roosevelt.

Presidential Election 2008: MAKING DECISIONS ABOUT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES (for grades 4-6) Four 45-minute lessons engage students in considering what qualities they might look for in a political candidate; how to get information about candidates; and how they and the adults in their lives decide whom to vote for.

ENERGY & THE ENVIRONMENT: What can we do? Through a series of engaging activities, middle or high school students learn basic facts about climate change and consider what we can do about it.

Two Problem-Solving Approaches (K-12) Regularly instituting these two approaches in your classroom will build your students' problem-solving skills and create a more congenial classroom atmosphere.

Study Guides: The Librarian of Basra and Alia's Mission:Saving the Books of Iraq These two recent children's books (grades K-12) present a positive opportunity to open up discussions of the Iraq war with students. Both tell the story of Alia Muhammed Baker, the chief librarian of Basra, Iraq, who saved 30,000 books from Basra's library before it burned during the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

I-Messages & the Assertiveness Line
Teach your students a strategy for being assertive when problems come up with friends and family. Then have students practice the skill regularly.

Feelings Charade (Grades 4-12)
This fun activity can help open up communication with and among students about their feelings. It also helps build students' vocabulary and their confidence in using their full vocabulary range.

Find Someone Who
This fun activity is a good one to use at the beginning of a course. It's a quick way for students to connect with one another and overcome shyness.

Affirmation Interview
Students interview and learn about one another.

Listening Circles
This simple process gives young people--and adults--a chance to express their feelings about events of the day.

Cultural Banners
Students work individually to create a "cultural banner" expressing values, traditions, and activities important in their families.

Machine Building: A Cooperative Activity
Students work in small groups to create a group "machine."

Coping Strategies: Managing Feelings
Working in small groups, students categorize coping strategies as positive, negative, neutral, and time-out behaviors.

Metaphors for Expressing Feelings
Students examine how feelings are expressed in a poem, and then use metaphor to write about their own feelings.

Similes & Feelings
Students explore anger using similes.