The Middle School Files

Looking for a project to increase college and career awareness? Would you like to increase community involvement and develop your students' presentation skills? This extensive resource can be used in many different ways! Students will choose a college or career, research it, then create a tri-fold poster about it to present to their peers. This project is perfect as an end-of-year project or for a college/career awareness unit. If done every day, the full project would take several weeks and is

The zombie apocalypse is upon us! Like it or not, your students are the only ones who can save the world! Together, they will solve math puzzles, complete STEM challenges, and travel across the United States to solve the mystery of how the outbreak started and determine how to stop it. This simulation reviews all of the math concepts taught in 6th grade, but it could be used for later grades as well. You get to choose how much you do - I've included all subject (LA, SS, Math, and Science), bu

"Through The Digestive System" is an interactive activity where students actually travel through the "digestive system"... of your classroom! Students are assigned a piece of "food," then away they go! The document includes all the reading information for each station and instructions of the activity students do to mimic that "organ." At the end, there is a reflection worksheet for them to complete to connect their actions with what goes on inside their bodies. This is a great introductory

Help! The Bread family needs an earthquake-proof house before Christmas! Students will design and build a structure that can withstand an "earthquake" with the given materials. Students must also keep track of their expenses and cannot go over budget. They will be guided through the engineering and design process, learning about teamwork, critical thinking, communication, and project management. This product Includes: - Materials list and instructions - Presentation to show students - Vocabular

Students will design, build, and test a catapult to launch "snowman building parts" (AKA marshmallows) to complete 4 different challenges. They get to explore the principles of force and motion, and have a great time doing it! Included: - Challenges - Student recording sheets - Snowman Target printable

Your students will love this math-mystery style review activity so much, they'll ask for more! This is perfect for review of concepts at the end of the year or as a prep for testing. Students solve math problems to answer clues, which spell out the name of a city. Careful, though! The name isn't straight forward! To find out which city they "travel" to next, students must decipher the code - for example, "Sodium Chloride Large Pond Town" is Salt Lake City. There are nine total clues, complete wi

Each of the 24 task cards has a different multi-step word problem. Students will perform many operations and practice many skills, including ratios and rates, fractions, division, multiplication, decimal operations, percents, and algebra. These are included in my End-of-Year Zombie Simulation. Check out my Zombie Math Mystery product as well!

Buy once, use for years to come! This set of editable Google Sheets checklists is everything you need to get rid of the piles of paper checklists you have laying around. Includes a how-to video to show you all of the features. Please feel free to comment or ask a question here, or send me an email, and I would be happy to help answer any questions! Check out the video preview for everything included. Includes: - Student Roster Page; Automatically updates all of the checklists - Student Informati

This hands-on, engaging archaeology lab is a great stand-alone activity, or as a follow up to a law of superposition lesson. Includes set up instructions, lab recording sheet, and an introduction presentation. Your students will have a great time learning about how to be archaeologists!

Use this resource to teach Costa's Levels of Thinking/Questions, and use the printable words and titles to make your own classroom wall display that students can reference year-round! I usually use this resource as a preparation lesson for Socratic Seminars or Philosophical Chairs. There are many different ways to use the activities - whole class, partners/groups, or individual. It can also be used in conjunction with other AVID strategies. Includes: - Costa's Levels of Questioning Lesson (Power

This is a coordinate-graphing activity that can be used for review, homework, challenge, or differentiated teaching! There are two versions, one-quadrant and four-quadrant. To complete the picture, students plot the lists of points in order, to eventually connect them together to form the TARDIS. A key for each version is also included. You may also like: Fancy Penguin Coordinate Graphing Mystery Picture

Teach your students to "speak like a scholar"! This wall display and handout of sentence frames will give them the scaffolding they need to use academic language in class discussions and in their writing. I keep the phrases hung up all year (covering them during state testing) and have students use them during class discussions, Philosophical Chairs, Socratic Seminars, and writing responses. It's great for all academic levels, especially ELL/ELD students and students who need extra language supp

Cut up the 48 problems and put them inside plastic Easter eggs for a fun review activity! Students "find" the eggs, then work together to solve each problem. Answer key is included. This activity could also be used as a review activity without the Easter eggs year-round. Problems focus on: x Writing Expressions x Identifying Equivalent Expressions x Writing Equivalent Expressions x Distributive Property x Combining Like Terms x Evaluating Expressions

14 games and activities for your drama class - or to use as fun activities or brain breaks for ANY class! These are great for those extra few minutes that you don't know what to do with, or to use as a reward! Many of these are great for team building, engaging reluctant students, creating your classroom community, and for students to get to know each other. They've all been battle tested and I've included tips for success and extensions and modifications. INCLUDES: - Instructional PDF - Tips fo

Use these name tents to get to know your students at the beginning of the year, quarter, or semester! The front side has a place for their name and four different "about me" questions. The back of the name tent has two more get-to-know-you questions for them to respond to! I've included dotted lines to make folding easy - these are name tags that stand up on their own! These name tents are designed to be printed double-sided - the inside has an interactive element for the teacher. Students resp

Do your students struggle with vocabulary? Teaching them prefixes, suffixes, and root words will help them decode any word they come across! This resource includes over 70 color-coordinated cards to create a word wall PLUS smaller versions for flashcard use. Also included are multiple quizzes, two different word building activities (regular and challenge), and a "predict" activity for students to apply their knowledge. Please check out the preview to see some of what you will be getting! *If t

In this challenge, students will put their engineering skills to the test. Their challenge: build a model of a waterproof and windproof structure that can be set up and taken down easily. If you are feeling brave, they can then build and test a full-size version of their model! *This is included in my Zombie Simulation Included: - Project Intro Presentation - Teacher Guide - Student Handout - Prototype Only - Student Handout - Full-size Structure

Clean water is vital - and there is no better way for students to understand that than to build a water filtration device! This STEM challenge has students plan, design, build, and test their own device to filter dirty water. *This is included in my Zombie Simulation Included: - EDITABLE Intro PowerPoint - Student Handout - Teacher Guide

This lesson includes intro questions, two different videos guides, and a physical activity for students to demonstrate how blood moves through the body! Depending on the level of your students and the length of the class, choose the video you want. Instructions, pictures for stations, and blood cell cards for students included. Enjoy! You may also like: Body Systems Research Project Through The Digestive System Interactive Activity

Both a printable and digital "yearbook" that students can fill out to remember their school year for years to come! The front page has the option for putting in a class photo (this is what I do before I print them for everyone!), or you can print the page with no photo. This resource has many different types of pages including: - Books I Read This Year - My Teacher - My Classroom - Friends - A Page for Their Favorites - Four Pages for Signatures