Middle school students generally enjoy the holiday season and holiday lesson plans. Teachers can try these community service ideas to keep students on task and focused on learning the last few weeks before the holiday break.
In middle school, most students no longer want dolls or trucks for Christmas gifts. They want electronic gadgets or clothes and time to hang out with friends. However, most of them still grow excited about the holiday season and many want to help others
Involve Students in Community Service Project
One way that students can give back to their community during the holiday season is to help with a community service project. These activities can be done as a class or as individual projects. Ideas are as follows:
- Take a field trip to a food bank and help organize the shelves or hand out food.
- Organize, collect and/or sort items for a food drive, coat drive, or penny drive.
- Work with a community organization to organize or sort items.
- Make Christmas cards for a local nursing home.
- Write letters or make cards for the women and men in the service.
- Make decorations for a local government office.
Organizing a community service project will be time consuming for the teacher. The coordination between the local service groups and the class will take time. The local newspaper should be contacted so that the rest of the community can learn about the good works of the students.
Individual or Whole Class Service Activities
Before embarking on a community service activity, the teacher needs to decide if it will be a whole class activity or one for individual students to complete. The requirements will obviously be different.
If teachers ask students to complete this as an individual activity, students can take pictures and/or write a reflection of what they completed. The students can then share with the class the reflection. If the whole class is participating, each student in the class can write a reflection of what he or she learns as well.
Ask Permission from School Administrators & Parents
Irregardless if teachers do this community service project as an individual or class activity, they should contact school administrators to see what activities are allowed. Teachers may need special permission from the district office and/or may need to fill out forms to have volunteers work with students.
In addition, a note to parents explaining the activities should be sent home. Teachers may want to have an opt-out option and alternate activity for parents who do not wish to have their children participate.
This community service activity is one that students will remember for years to come. Students generally like helping others, especially during the holiday season.
Kellie Hayden - She is a 19 year veteran teacher with a master's degree in education and NBCT, 2000. Kellie teaches 8th grade language arts, TAG and ...
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