Middle School is upon us. I don’t think I could really envision life with middle schoolers when I began this website. My babies were about 9 months old, crawling around our house in small town Baraboo, WI. My days were full of diapers and double strollers and more diapers. Yet, here we are. Middle School. Here are my favorite resources, materials, books, and units for middle school. Some of the posts below I wrote when my kids were in fifth grade, like tide pooling, but are activities or interests that have followed them into middle school. The rest are our middle school experiences.
Middle School is sixth grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade for most districts in the United States so although this distinction varies a bit, I am grouping those three grades together for rounding up unit and project ideas.
As my twins grow more independent and sure of who they are, I think it is more important than ever to have interest driven curriculum. They are absolutely more inspired to learn when the topic is one that engages them and when they have some control over what they are learning.
Below are ideas for learning experiences for sixth, seventh, and eighth grades (although I’m sure some will work for slightly younger or slightly older kids as well). These are field trips, little walks, thematic units, etc that we have done and enjoyed.
affiliate links are included below.
Favorite Resources for Middle School
Big Fat Notebook series – we have this whole series of books. They are highly visual study guide style books that cover the basic things you need to know in each subject. The chapters are brief and have a short quiz at the end, which we do verbally together. They could be used in several ways. When we’re starting a new unit, we use these as a starting off spot. We read the chapter, talk through the questions, and then dive into other books, videos, and experiences to learn more about the parts that interest us or where we need more practice. Learn more or order
Mr. Noggins Games – this is a series of quiz games. Each card has two levels of questions so it works for a range of ages. It’s essentially like taking a verbal quiz and I can’t honestly tell you why it’s so much better in this format than it would be with paper and pencil but it is. The kids and I love these and we play them all the time. We often use them in the car to play while we drive somewhere. This Ancient History was the most played in sixth grade, but we have a bunch of these. There are games for lots of social studies and science topics. Amazon link.
Outschool – I am not an expert on all things. No one is. Frequently my kids have interests in things (drawing, sharks, singing, etc) that I know little about. Outschool is a great resource to tap into experts on a huge range of subjects. There are classes on almost anything and we’ve been incredibly impressed with quality of what’s offered. My kids have taken drawing classes, voice lessons, joined weekly shark and vet classes, taken piano lessons and more. It’s not for everyone, but my kids love Outschool. Learn more on their website and use my code THINKING20 to get $20 OFF your first purchase.
Library Card – this is an invaluable (and free) resource that we use probably more than anything else. I spend a lot of time finding quality books for anything and everything we learn about. I think having pictures and stories and facts at your fingertips is one of the best ways to learn, but I also don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars buying books about Ancient Mesopotamia or Seals or Botany. We definitely own books (probably more than we should) but they’re ones I know we’ll read again and again or use for a long time. The rest, when possible, we get from the library.
History Inspired Project Based Units
Ancient History: Ancient Egypt
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Ancient History: First Humans
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Ancient Mayans
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Exploring the Arts
Photography 101
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Science Based Projects, Field Trips & Learning
Tide Pooling with Kids
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Whale Watching
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