Anchor or sponge activities are a great addition to any lesson or unit! They will help to manage students by keeping them engaged, but also continue to learn the content in a new way. They are a good way to help differentiate instruction and to support early finishers or higher-level students push their thinking.
In this list, you will find various types of anchor activities for middle schoolers, some subject-specific, while many you can adapt to the content you teach!
1. Map Challenge
For use in the Social Studies classroom, this individual activity, has students practicing identifying countries and cities on maps. They can choose between different regions and as they master one map, move on to a more difficult one.
Learn more: Educational APP Store
2. Plan A Trip Coordinate Grids
A math anchor activity that uses a clear coordinate grid that you lay over any map. Have students plan a trip by providing the coordinates of places they want to visit. Some Geography and Math in one!
Learn more: Teaching with a Mountain View
3. Choice Board
Students will get to choose what they would like to do and what’s nice is it’s a choice board that can be modified to fit any subject and changed as needed. The author also gives an option for a “free choice”, which allows students to come up with suggestions.
Learn more: Teaching with Simplicity
4. Mean, Median, Mode
Set up a math station using different playing cards. When a child has completed their work, they can use the cards to find information on data sets.
Learn more: Debbie Diller
5. Black Out Found Poetry
This activity is low prep – just a black marker and some old books! Students take a page from a random old text and box any words/phrases they would like to keep for their found poem. Then they just black out the rest.
Learn more: Tappan Zee Library Media Center
6. Vocabulary Dominoes
Students can play this game as an individual activity or in pairs. Use this game for vocabulary review or for adding to student vocabulary for ELA or SEL classes, since it can easily be modified to fit any subject area.
Learn more: The Owl Teacher
7. Mini STEM Lab
Create a mini-lab in your classroom! The lab should include resources for students that are related to STEM-based activities – items like LEGOs or building objects, magnets, robots, etc. Have students practice hands-on STEM skills with challenges that they can work on independently.
Learn more: The Applicious Teacher
8. Word Play Game
Looking for sponge activities? This is a great one for word work! Middle-level students will be given different categories and they need to come up with different words that begin with a given letter. Have students tally the points at the end to see who gets the highest score!
Learn more: Teachers Pay Teachers
9. Book Pass
Read, write, and get feedback for this activity. Have several high-interest books available to students, along with the worksheet, and ask them to read the first couple of pages. Next, they will fill out a “book pass” telling you about their interest and why. It helps you determine what books to put in your class library.
Learn more: Teaching ELA with Joy
10. Boggle
Boggle can be used for vocabulary building and is a great option for early finishers or as a whole class activity. Simply change up the letters each day and you’ll always have a Boggle option in your room.
Learn more: Clutter-Free Classroom
11. The Answer Is…
This is a cool idea where the teacher GIVES the answer, but the students must come up with the question. It focuses on higher-level thinking skills and can also be used to aid in review.
Learn more: We Are Creating Thinkers
12. Location Station
Let’s face it, we can never cover every country in Social Studies! For this activity, individual students can pick any country they would like and research it. They find basic information like location, color, and symbolism of the flag. It exposes children to all the different places in the world!
Learn more: Teachers Pay Teachers
13. Interactive Anchor Chart
There isn’t always time for students to learn about all concepts you would like to cover. For art class, use this art anchor chart with QR codes to teach students about the use of mediums.
Learn more: The Art of Education
14. Capture the Dots
Test student drive and grit for this game! Students will use different transformations to dry and catch the dots on the page! The only material students need is a printout and pencil!
Learn more: Teachers Pay Teachers
15. Characterization
If working on a reading unit or independent reading, a fun anchor activity is working on characterization. Students will choose a character and put 10 items in the bag that somehow represents that character.
Learn more: Runde’s Room
16. Problem Solving
Improve problem-solving skills in math class with this book of activities. Great for early finishers or tie it to a lesson.
17. Restate the Question
Ever get students answering in incomplete sentences? While this activity is simple, it gets students properly restating the question in their answer by relating it to common subjects. Once they get the hang of it, you can add in more difficult questions.
Learn more: The Sprinkle Topped Teacher
18. GeoBra
Allow students to play number games like Numble on Geobra! There are also other several digital math-related games on the site, so you can choose them based on topics covered or ability.
Learn more: GeoGabra
19. Color By Number
Just add your content – math problems, science questions, etc. – to the editable document and students can do a middle school-appropriate color by number!
Learn more: Teachers Pay Teachers
20. Task Cards
Task cards are a great way to see what students have learned and be able to differentiate learning. As the author on the site states, “They are not just for math”. Cards like these can be used for any subject and make space for students to move around the class or interact with peers.
Learn more: Adventures in Inclusion
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