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Community service is more than just helping others; it is an opportunity for middle school students to build leadership and discover their passions. Whether it’s helping other kids in the school, supporting local charities or cleaning up garbage, community service helps build empathy, responsibility, and teamwork. Go beyond classics to drive or breed trees and encourage your class to try these unique community service ideas for middle school students.
Create influential personal community services
Helping others can be an explosion. Plus, this is a great way for kids to connect, create and give back. From cheering local hospitals to highlights at the senior center, there are many fun ways students can participate.
Community service creativity for middle school students is also easily integrated into gratitude activities or the challenges of kindness. Whether it’s art, science or good old-fashioned creativity, every student has a perfect program to help their community. Plus, April is National Volunteer Month, so it’s the ideal time to roll up your sleeves and go to work.
Students who wish to complete their own community service programs can try the following personal ideas:
- Host a virtual book club: Many hospital students have difficulty connecting with other children while they are receiving treatment. Establishing a virtual book club between two or more students can make them connect and look forward to it.
- Research Lost History: Does only a few people know about your town? Create a history book about your town and its famous stories to share in your local library.
- Building a positive mental health wall: It all starts with sticky notes! Write positive messages on sticky notes and place them on bulletin boards and walls. Encourage others to help create a positive information wall.
- Building a language exchange board: Invite people around your community to share their spoken language by creating a language exchange wall at a local library or community center. You write a message and encourage others to write it in other languages so you can learn from each other and celebrate the many cultures in your area.
- Making personalized bookmarks for libraries: Use scrap construction paper and marking to make original bookmarks for local libraries. Adding book characters can make them more fun.
- Bake food at local facilities: The budding baker can make cookies, snacks, bread and more to donate to local shelters and assisted living facilities. This is a great way to try new recipes.
Career exploration, volunteer service, volunteer service, vocational courses, vocational
Through Career and Life Skills Courses
Results: Seventh to 12th
Use this learning module to help students understand how volunteering affects their communities and increase job opportunities. This resource includes PowerPoint, worksheets, student skeleton annotations, quizzes, and games.
Volunteer File Table: Student Volunteer Service Log
Inspired by TG Ela
Results: Prek-12th
Allow your students to record volunteer hours using easy-to-use tracking tables. Just be aware that the table is not editable.
Together together to make a significant impact in middle school
Sometimes, making an impact requires group efforts. The whole class community service ideas for middle school students may have a greater impact on them! If your class does not have community service requirements, you can link the service items to your common core standards. For example, letters written to assisted residents may be related to Common Core 6-8 writing standards. Give them some writing tips to get middle school to try to make the wheels turn.
Try some of these ideas and let them think about ways to improve other people’s lives:
- Create a pop-up tutoring clinic: Students will create schedules and promote pop-up tutoring clinics to help in any subject. It may be online or face-to-face with a teacher partner.
- Design puzzles and game communication: Let parents and students donate board games, puzzles, etc. Create an exchange plan in your local library. You can even do this for video games and movies.
- Give warm socks: Socks are much needed items for those experiencing homelessness. Get donations for socks and other essentials and use them to wrap items like gifts. Provide them to local agencies to help that population distribute handwritten encouragement notes.
- Plan a pop-up clothing store: Let children brainstorm ways and new clothes. They can host a pop-up clothing store where community members can buy free clothing and essentials.
- Start protecting pet story time: With permission, please go to the local animal shelter for field visits and pair each student with an animal that can read the story. If it is not feasible to do it yourself, consider having students make videos or record recordings for animals to listen to.
Service Learning Projects – Research and Program Organizer
By TheGiftedPersective
Grade: 6th to 8th
This resource provides step-by-step instructions for creating a service learning project. It comes with a complete theme, research notes, graphic organizers and project planners.
A kind community colors your community
Community service creativity for middle school students is not omnipotent. They are full of color, creativity and fun. Some projects are so imaginative that they can double the amount of your next junior high art program. So grab your sidewalk chalk and dust off the pastel and get ready to dig into some inspiring ideas.
These projects are not only good for the community; they are perfect for all your future artists and designers:
- Create Sock Monster: Students who like to sew may be to create plush toys to donate to local children in need. You only need stock, stuffing, markings and buttons. These sock monsters can be donated to local agencies to distribute to children.
- Painting with kind town: Let students paint rocks in fixed words that can be placed around the community to brighten someone’s day. These are also great for treasure hunting games.
- Create a good path: Choose a trail in your area. Have students decorate it with sidewalk chalk with positive messages, images and inspiring quotes.
- Hero’s Color Card: Local teachers, firefighters, postal workers, etc., like to receive a nice word or card. Let students create cards with personalized messages for the unsung heroes in the community.
- Conceptualize a kind mural: Talk to local retailers in your area and discuss creating good murals. You may also be able to create good murals in a parking lot with concrete paint.
- Create the Art of Education Chalk: Decorate prominent trails or roads in the community with facts, mathematical equations and other educational materials. It creates perfect walking and learning activities.
- Conducting Bob Rose Auction: Bob Ross is known for his happy little tree. Have students auction money for local charities in Bob Ross’ style for inspirational, kindness and happiness.
- Craft art in local dog shelter: The project can be completed in a number of different ways. Have students create art for local shelters to hang up or auction to donate.
- Decorate kind and positive bracelets: Get some yarn and beads with letters to create inspiring and positive information that you can leave in a hospital or similar location.
Invent STEM community service creativity for middle school students
Have you ever considered mixing community service with your STEM course? STEM and community services work together like robots and rocket fuel. There are many creative ways to incorporate real-world kindness into your science, technology, engineering, and math adventures.
- Simple water filter draft: Let students work together, brainstorm, and create DIY water filters to make the community clean everyone in the water. They can create them to radiate and draft posters so people can make them themselves.
- Make a pollinator garden: Plant a garden somewhere near the school. Let students investigate pollinators that the garden attracts.
- Become a garbage tracker: Select a cleanup area and let students collect data about the garbage. They should then create a table based on garbage cleaning to use as an infographic so that other tables in the community can spread the importance of not littering.
- Recording how to videos for the elderly: The elderly struggle with many technological problems that middle school students find second nature. Let them create a range of ways to share with local seniors in their communities.
- Repair Broken Toy Donations: Have people around the community donate broken toys that your STEM students can fix and remake new ones. Students can play with electronics and local kids can play with toys. This is a win-win situation!
- Make a free pantry: Let students draft a trash can, where people can donate food and others can donate it. They have to make sure it is protected from elements and keep the food shelf stable. They can then use posters to explain how to use it to create and place the box around the community.
STEM Problem Solving Service Learning Project
By surpassing
Results: 4-12th place
Standard: ccssri.4.1, 4.2, 4.3d
Use this resource to provide community service issues to your students and brainstorm problems. You will have access to teacher, timeline activities, student handouts, rating criteria and activity logs. It also includes invitations to banners and solutions for events.
The mentality of entering community service through the TPT project creativity
From simple projects they can do themselves to the entire school program that your class will be excited about, there is a little bit of everything in the middle school community service program. Learning is more fun when students have the opportunity to immerse themselves in it and make a difference.
