ReadWriteThink: Grades 6 to 8 Activities: Learning Beyond the Classroom

For Ages 11–14

Literacy Activities

Create a Career Blog
This activity invites children to explore various careers and then write about what they might want to be when they grow up in a blog.

What’s in This? Investigating Nutrition Information
Encourage children and teens to make healthful food choices by having them explore the foods they eat and the ways those foods are advertised

Write a Gem of a Poem
Learn about diamante poems—diamond-shaped poems that follow a set structure on each line—and then consider the idea of cause and effect before working it into the diamante poem format.

That Sounds Fun! Sound Words and Sports Poetry
Children and teens use their experiences playing or watching sporting events (or other types of outdoor games) to write poems that are full of the sounds of the games.

Make a Mystery Puzzle
Have children explore the different parts of mystery writing by making a puzzle about a favorite book. They can then invent and write their own mysteries using the online Mystery Cube tool.

Comics and Graphic Novels
After reading a book, help children create a comic book or cartoon version of major scenes from the story.

Explore Point of View in Fairy Tales
Explore fairy tales told in both old and new ways and use an online tool to help children create their own “fractured” version of a fairy tale.

Design a Travel Brochure
After visiting someplace new or learning about an interesting location, children create a Travel Brochure—complete with pictures, photographs, maps, and details about what they see or learn.

Have You Seen the Movie Yet?
Before seeing a Harry Potter movie (or any other book made into a film), children can learn about filmmaking and create their own scenes based on favorite moments from the novel.

Play Ball! Read and Write Sports Trivia
Look at different online baseball trivia questions to see how they are written. Then have children write their own questions and play a trivia game.

Write Letters to Friends and Family
Help children discover the many ways they can keep in touch with people they miss. Have them write letters to classmates, send postcards from travels, or e-mail messages to family and friends.

Make a Magnetic Poetry Set
Let children practice using different types of words in a fill-in-the-blank-story game before making their own word list for a magnetic poetry set.

Explore Summers Past and Present
Have fun sharing favorite summer memories. In this activity, children think about their own memories and answer questions before asking the same questions of someone older.

Finding Poetry in Pleasure Reading
Children who already enjoy writing poetry, as well as those who are new to it, will have fun as they write “found poems,” poetic versions of the books and magazines they’re already reading for pleasure.

Celebrate Heroes
Encourage children to spend a little time thinking and writing about just what makes a hero and who their personal heroes might be.

A Trip to the Museum
Whether your visit to a museum or art gallery is live and in person or online at a computer, children and teens can find inspiration for storytelling from paintings or other works of art.