The Sparkly Notebook

Mastering the ELA Standards in Middle School

Digital Escape Rooms

15+ Educational Digital Escape Rooms for Middle School ELA

It is always nice to know that some of your most fun resources are standards-aligned, and these 15+ educational digital escape rooms for middle school ELA are precisely that!

The older I get, the more certain I am of 2 things related to teaching middle school students.

First, middle school students need to move around and talk to their friends. They honestly can’t help it. They are physically and socially developing at a rate that requires constant movement and talking.

And second, in order to overcome those inherent middle school needs, I have to find resources that allow students to collaborate and move around a bit. 

Unfortunately, activities and resources created by our traditional textbooks rarely pick up on these middle school needs. In those textbooks, students are often stuck reading independently and answering questions or participating in canned discussions that are less ‘discussion’ and more interview-style question-and-answer sessions.

That is why I focus on finding and creating resources that are standard-aligned AND allow for collaboration and movement.

One of my favorite types of resources that do this is digital escape rooms.

What is an educational digital escape room?

An educational digital escape room is a series of tasks that students complete in an effort to figure out the codes needed to ‘unlock’ the next clue, eventually allowing them to ‘escape’ their digital room.

As these are digital escape rooms, they are all created to be completely digital, and the escape rooms that I make can either be printed off or accessed on a computer.

Where’s the movement?

Now, you may think that a digital escape room doesn’t allow for as much movement as an actual escape room, and you’d be right.

Although it would be great for students to do the type of escape rooms that allow them to race around the room or even the school, it is overwhelming to try to get all those pieces set up and replaced each class period. I like to opt instead for digital escape rooms, but I let students find different spaces in the room to work. They can stand, lay on the ground, even lie on couches or sit on desks…whatever they need to be comfortable.

Digital Escape Rooms can be Individual or Group Activities.

I like that digital escape rooms can be completed individually or in groups. 

The digital escape rooms are self-checking, so students can work through the escape rooms at their own pace, and they don’t need me to be available immediately to check their codes before they can move on.

Often, I like to make printable versions of the escape rooms available so that everyone in the group can see the pieces to each puzzle or problem, or the group can work through the puzzle by manipulating the pieces on the floor or a table. Once they find their answer, they can put their answers into the digital version to see if they’re right! If they aren’t, they can review their work to figure out where they went wrong, but if they’re right, they can move on to the next puzzle.

Educational digital escape rooms are great for use in the week before or after a holiday break. They allow the students to celebrate the holiday while also working on skills they need to master. In this post we discuss how you can use our digital escape rooms all year long, so if you are loving this concept, be sure to check it out!

Sign Up for a FREE plot structure digital escape room!

 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

15+ Digital Escape Rooms to Choose From

Since these educational digital escape rooms are so popular with my students, I use them frequently throughout the year. In fact, we have several digital escape rooms in the store that are focused on various holidays.

Valentines Day Digital Escape Room
ELA Christmas Activities for Middle School: ELA Digital Escape Room
Thanksgiving Educational ELA Escape Room

I like to pull out new escape rooms the week before a holiday or the week after a more extended break. These digital escape rooms give my students a little more freedom to move around and talk with others in a productive way.

You can learn more by exploring the 15+ educational digital escape rooms in The Sparkly Notebook store right now!

I truly felt like I had hit the lottery when I discovered the power of escape rooms and digital escape rooms. Now that I have all these educational digital escape rooms built out, they are standards-based, and I have multiple topics to choose from. I feel like I’ve got a whole treasure trove of resources that allow my students to move around and collaborate the way they need to. They also allow me to give them that opportunity while knowing that they are being challenged and working toward our class goals all at the same time.

Hopefully, you’ll love them as much as I do!

Middle School ELA Digital Escape Rooms to Use Throughout the Year

Grab all the middle school ELA digital escape rooms that you’ll need for the year right here!

Digital escape rooms can be a middle school ELA teacher’s best friend throughout the year.

They are at once the perfect sub plan, a quick test-prep addition, and engaging activity for those days before and after breaks when students are not at their most focused.

Quick, No-Prep Activities

One of the many benefits of digital escape rooms is that they are no-prep. 

Since these digital escape rooms are housed on Google Forms™ and are completely connected and delivered through links that students can quickly open up as they work their way through the problems.

As long as students have computer access and are generally familiar with the skills, these escape rooms can be used throughout the year with very little instruction.

Perfect for Sub Plans

Due to the easy set-up and all-in-one nature of the digital escape rooms, you can have them ready to go as emergency-sub plans. 

Simply share the link with students via email or through an online platform like Canvas or Google Classroom, and they can get going on the activity as soon as they get into the room and receive instructions.

For an emergency sub-plan situation, we strongly recommend either the Summer Reading escape room or the ELA Test Prep escape room, as these are not holiday specific, and the content will work well enough at any time of the year.

Ready for Summer Middle School ELA Digital Escape Rooms

Individual or Small Group

These digital escape rooms work well for either individuals or small groups. When students are first getting comfortable with the escape rooms at the beginning of the year, challenge them to complete the assignment as a small group. Having others to lean on as they work through the problems will give them some extra confidence and scaffolding.

Once they have done a few of the escape rooms, assign one to be done in pairs. 

Having just one other person to lean on while working through the activity will still provide them with a sounding board and someone to discuss possible answers with, but it is less support (and less distraction) than working with a whole group.

After working in pairs, assign an escape room for students to complete individually. This will allow you to formatively assess the students individually on the skills the escape room is testing.

After working through the escape rooms in all three ways, you can mix and match these different groupings as you do the other escape rooms throughout the year, depending on what you feel each day.

Sign Up for a FREE plot structure digital escape room!

 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

Many Topics to Choose From

When you’re looking for some middle school ELA digital escape rooms to use throughout the year, start with this Digital Escape Room Bundle. The Holiday Bundle includes many of the digital escape rooms found below, and by purchasing the full bundle, you’ll get a discount. 

However, if you just need a middle school ELA digital escape room for a specific holiday, you can also just click on that holiday below, and get just that single escape room.

Spring 

Valentine’s Day (Reading Comprehension)

Valentine’s Day (Figurative Language)

Easter 

St. Patrick’s Day 

Halloween (We also have a blog post on how you can create your own Halloween escape room here!)

Christmas (Figurative Language)

Christmas (Reading Comprehension) 

Summer (Figurative Language)

Summer (Reading Comprehension)

New Year’s 

Thanksgiving (Figurative Language)

Thanksgiving (Reading Comprehension)

Back to School (Professional Learning for Teachers)

Back to School (Figurative Language)

ELA Test Prep (Reading Literature)

Using these middle school ELA digital escape rooms throughout the year will allow students to practice and review skills in a fun way that is also easy for the teacher to implement and assign!

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What Makes for a Great, Educational ELA Escape Room?

Educational ELA escape rooms are the ones that focus on content and skills as much as they do locks and keys.

Escape rooms have built up a lot of hype over the course of the last decade or so, and their educational use has exploded.

We see people designing escape rooms left and right and claiming that they are intended for educational use.

This begs the question…How are escape rooms educational?

There will, of course, always be that group of people who say that games and problem-solving opportunities of all types are educational in their own right, and that may be true. However, there is a time and place for escape rooms, and not all ELA escape rooms help students actually learn content.

So what makes for a good educational ELA escape room?

The Non-Example

Members of The Sparkly Notebook were once a part of an in-person escape room where we were given a packet of materials and a lockbox and were instructed to try to escape by getting to the information inside the box.

This escape room was fun and frustrating and required our group to work together, but in the grand scheme of the escape room, we could not actually provide any information about the content we had looked at or any of the data we shifted through as we searched for the codes.

What went wrong?

The fact of the matter is that the information itself was not tied to the codes. The code was found within the content, but it was not dependent on knowing it. Once we figured out the code, the content didn’t matter.

In one particular scenario, the code was created by the first letters of the capitalized words in the document. Once we noticed the capitalized letters, we didn’t read any of the content. We noticed that the words were capitalized right away, and we quickly guessed the code by skimming through the document and highlighting just the capitalized words.

Sign Up for a FREE plot structure digital escape room!

 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

Content-Driven, Educational ELA Escape Rooms

ELA escape rooms (or any escape room for that matter) that separate the content from the code do not serve students in the same way that educational ELA escape rooms depend on the content to figure out the code.

For example, in this ELA Test Prep Escape Room, students have to be able to read a passage (very similar to the type of passage that they encounter in ELA standardized tests) and answer questions. Their answers to those questions create the code.

Educational ELA Escape Room Example: ELA Test Prep Escape Room

In this situation, the code is directly tied to the content. Students HAVE to do the task to escape the room. 

To find the answer to the second ‘lock,’ students have to make predictions about a character’s choices based on their actions within the reading and then use the symbols next to those predictions to change the symbols into letters which in turn are the key to unlock the next ‘door.’

Each of these specific task examples requires students to not only think critically, problem-solve, and possibly work with a group but also require the students to read the information closely enough to answer questions about it, analyze it, and make predictions.

When you are looking for educational escape rooms, really look through what you want students to work on, and make sure the escape room is challenging them both with content and with the ‘locks’ themselves. 

A good educational escape room is focused on classroom content, and learning that presents students with a mental challenge and focuses on the skills that your students specifically need to practice.

As you begin to “Plan Your Curriculum Like a Boss,” consider how the activities you’re adding support the learning and standards within your classroom, and find some great, educational ELA escape rooms that align with your goals.

If you’re interested and you want to see a full list of our Educational ELA Escape Rooms, click here!

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Standards-Aligned Escape Rooms for Easter

Have a little fun this spring with standards-aligned escape rooms!

Easter is one of the last holidays we’ll celebrate in the classroom this year. 

Since it falls on Sunday, Easter is a holiday that often gets overlooked in the classroom, even though there are so many fun ways to incorporate it into our learning.

Personally, we love the Easter season here at The Sparkly Notebook. The colors are bright and vibrant (which we LOVE), the candy is unique and delicious, and the whole tone of Easter is bright and cheery… a direct contrast to the winter season we just trudged through.

It is no surprise then that we would try to bring some of that cheer and those bright colors into the classroom to kick off the spring season.

Sign Up for a FREE plot structure digital escape room!

 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

Two Standards-Aligned Escape Rooms for the Spring Season

One of our favorite ways to celebrate this spring holiday is with standards-aligned escape rooms.

We love using this Easter Digital Escape Room or this Spring Digital Escape Room because they are self-checking, Easter/Spring-themed, and standards-aligned (This part is an absolute must in our book!!!)

To ensure your students meet the standards, you must have a plan. This plan includes breaking down the standards, making a plan for how you will teach, spiral, and review the skills covered in each standard, and then finding good resources and lessons that help achieve that goal.

We talk more about ensuring your students are mastering the standards in this blog post.

These digital escape rooms are some of our go-to activities for spiraling standards throughout the year, and these spring-themed escape rooms give us two different opportunities to do just that!

More Than a Riddle

Often escape rooms are designed to be puzzles, riddles, and challenges. But the puzzles can’t be the only focus of the room!

In many of the escape rooms we’ve found, students may learn a little piece of information from reading and decoding clues from an informational passage, but outside of general problem-solving and decoding, they aren’t actually practicing any ELA skills. 

That is why we’ve created our Easter Digital Escape Room and Spring Digital Escape Room … to require students to use their skills to conquer the escape room. 

An ELA Easter Escape Room

This Easter Escape Room is all about figurative language.

Easter Figurative Language (Standard-Aligned Escape Rooms)

In order to successfully escape, students will need to think critically about the 7 figurative language types that we typically focus on in middle school ELA.

  • Alliteration
  • Simile
  • Metaphor
  • Idiom
  • Hyperbole
  • Onomatopoeia
  • Personification

Over the course of 5 challenges, students will interact with different examples of figurative language several times.

Option: Doing One Task Per Day

If you aren’t interested in giving the escape room a whole class day to complete, you can also introduce it one challenge at a time using the printable version of the room.

This will allow your students to do different tasks each day!

Another Escape Room

If you are looking for another standards-aligned escape room to use during the Easter season or even later into the spring, you can also explore this Spring-Themed Escape Room that focuses on reading comprehension skills. In this standards-aligned escape room, students will work on order and sequence, answer reading comprehension questions, and complete a task requiring them to organize events on a plotline.

Spring Break (Standards-aligned escape rooms)

The Easter season can be fun, but as with every holiday, there are ways to celebrate while staying focused on our educational goals. 

That is why these standards-aligned escape rooms are always part of our curricular plans for the Spring!

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Easy Middle School ELA Activities for the Weeks Surrounding Spring Break

Sometimes leading into Spring Break or coming out of Spring Break puts some strain on the flow of your middle school classroom. In this post, we’re introducing a few easy middle school ELA activities for the weeks surrounding Spring Break.

It’s coming!

Spring Break, and boy do you all deserve a great break this year.

But as we all know, Spring Break time in the middle school classroom is not all flowers and rainbows. It is often a time of chaos, crazy, and a little bit of confusion.

The week leading into Spring Break, and the one coming out of Spring Break can be very difficult weeks for middle school ELA teachers.

So this year, we want to help.

We are rounding up some of our best low/no prep activities that you can do in those weeks surrounding Spring Break to keep your students moving forward with the standards, while also providing teachers with a little extra time to get everyone and everything organized and ready to push through to the end of the school year.

4 Easy Middle School ELA Activities for the Weeks Surrounding Spring Break

Spring Digital Escape Room [ELA Reading Comprehension]

Easy Middle School ELA Activities for the Weeks Surrounding Spring Break (Digital Escape Room)

Students can practice several ELA reading comprehension skills while enjoying a bright spring-themed escape room.

This escape room is standards-aligned and great for digital learning or as an in-class individual or small group activity.

Just because it is Common Core-aligned doesn’t mean it’s boring. Students love solving the riddles and reading spring-themed passages that will lead them to ‘escape’ the room they’re in so they can go out and enjoy the sunshine and flowers.

This Spring Digital Escape Room includes 5 ready-to-go tasks that your students can dive into within minutes of receiving their link. 

Note: This escape room is digital, so no locks or boxes are necessary!

Sign Up for a FREE plot structure digital escape room!

 


 
 
 
 
 
 


 

Easter Digital Escape Room [Figurative Language]

Easter Figurative Language Escape Room Resource

Figurative language always seems to squeeze its way into those standardized tests at the end of the year, which makes this Easter-themed escape room even more valuable as you look for easy middle school ELA activities for the weeks surrounding Spring Break.

This escape room is digital, so you can share it with a link, and it is a completely stand-alone activity, which helps when you’re trying to get students resituated after Spring Break.

Social Media Inspired Paired Text (Passages)

Paired Passages Resource
Social Media Paired Passages

High-interest reading on topics your students love to talk about is also great add-on activity for the weeks around Spring Break.

Since social media is such a hot topic, doing some reading about things like social media platforms or Live Social Media may be just the thing you need to keep them engaged when Spring Break is on the horizon.

We’ve got paired reading texts available to discuss both of these social media topics as well as several other high-interest topics that middle schoolers are always talking about.

If you want even more ways to use these paired passages in your classroom, make sure to read this blog post called New Ways to Use Paired Passages! It has some great little nuggets you’ll want to explore!

Video Games Inspired Paired Text (Passages)

Last, but certainly not least, let’s talk video games. 

Since many of your students will be playing games over break, this paired passage set may be the perfect complement to your students’ Spring Break plans.

This differentiated bundle is also helpful as you approach testing time and the way the passages are set up supplement test prep really well!

It’s OKAY to Review!!

In those weeks surrounding Spring Break, it is okay to focus on topic and skill review using games and reading passages. As testing time is quickly approaching, good skill practice is great for students, and the digital activities on this list allow students to review in a way that doesn’t feel redundant.

For a few more easy middle school ELA activities for the weeks surrounding Spring Break, take a look at this post about three quick digital sorting activities students can use to practice ELA skills in the classroom!

We hope you all get a chance to have a relaxing Spring Break and take a little time to disconnect and enjoy the spring season!

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Valentine’s Day Figurative Language Activities to Try in February

Keep Valentine’s Day low-prep and stress-free with these Valentine’s Day figurative language activities!

Don’t know about you, but Valentine’s Day tends to be a mixture of feelings of joy and dread for many of us here at The Sparkly Notebook.

In the years that you have a special someone or a group of friends to celebrate with, it can be one of the most fun days of the year. 

But then there are the years when you don’t have a special someone.

Those years are no fun!

Your middle school students may ALSO have mixed thoughts about Valentine’s Day, and as teachers, we want to make sure Valentine’s Day is fun for all students!

You have many options for celebrating Valentine’s Day in middle school ELA.

You could read about St. Valentine. You could use candy hearts as Bingo chips as you play a game, or you could try one of these unexpected Valentine’s Day games.

Personally, we love love love teaching and playing around with figurative language during Valentine’s Day because it is a lively, engaging subject matter to work with.

We can compare candy hearts to love letters using a combination of similes and metaphors. We can personify our love or hyperbolize our feelings about the holiday in general.

So many possibilities!

Pin Image - Valentine's Day Color By Number Activity - Text states "Valentine's Day Middle Grades Figurative Language Color By Number"

Valentine’s Day Figurative Language Activities

Since Valentine’s Day, like many holidays, can come with some unknowns at school as classes are interrupted with candy deliveries, flower fundraisers, or maybe even an assembly, we don’t like to plan activities that have too much prep time or can’t be completed on another day.

Digital Sorting Activity

This Figurative Language DIGITAL Sort Activity Set is an excellent, grab-n-go figurative language activity that you can pull out for Valentine’s Day. 

Valentine's Day Figurative Language Activities: Digital Figurative Language Sort

Although it is not specifically themed for Valentine’s Day, you can do some Valentine’s Day add-ons to align it with the day’s theme.

Add-On: Valentine’s Day Figurative Language Sorting Activity

  • As students finish the digital sort and have had a little figurative language practice, ask them to pair up. 
  • Pass out two index cards to each pair. 
  • Assign each group two types of figurative language. 
  • They will create two Valentine’s Day-themed examples. One for each figurative language type they are given. 
  • The next day, list the figurative language types on the board, mix up the cards, and give each pair 1 minute to sort out the cards the best they can. 
  • The pair with the most cards sorted in a minute will win the Valentine’s Day Figurative Language prize. 

Check out this blog post for prize ideas that will motivate your students to play this game.

Figurative Language Term List Challenge

This is not an activity that has to be Valentine’s Day specific, but it is a fun figurative language activity no matter what the holiday.

  • Start by breaking students into small groups of 3-4 students.
  • Give each group a list of Valentine’s Day words. 
  • Next, provide them with a list of the figurative language types you’ve been studying in class.
  • The goal: each group needs to create at least one figurative language example for each item on the list, and they must cover all of the types of figurative language your class has been studying.
  • At the end of the period, collect all the examples and share some of your favorites with the class as they attempt to guess what type of figurative language is being used.

Here is a list of words you can use to get started with this activity:

  • Valentine
  • Hearts
  • Flowers
  • Candy
  • Candy-Hearts
  • Be Mine
  • Valentine’s Box
  • Letter
  • St. Valentine
  • Admirer
  • Greeting Card
  • Love
  • Holiday
  • Gift
  • Chocolates

The Importance of Figurative Language

Valentine’s Day is a fun holiday for practicing figurative language, but all fun aside, understanding and identifying different types of figurative language is a staple of middle school ELA standards, so they do need to be practiced and taught regularly. 

If you want some additional ideas for practicing figurative language with your students in a way that helps them master the standards, you’ll love the resources below!

Figurative Language Nuance & Word Relationships 8th Grade CCSS 8.L.5

Figurative Language, Word Relationships, Nuances 7th Grade 7L5

Valentine’s Day Reading Comprehension Escape Room

Although not specific to figurative language, this Valentine’s Day Escape Room covers some additional ELA topics using topics and themes appropriate for Valentine’s Day.

It is also no-prep, and you can easily pull out just one or two activities from the escape room to add to one of the activities above or to use instead if time is running low.

BONUS: Want a few more standards-based Valentine’s activities for middle school students, this post outlines 4 activities you may want to try!

Valentine's Day Digital Escape Room: Reading Comprehension

We can’t think of a better way to spend Valentine’s Day than with a couple of fun Valentine’s Day figurative language activities. These activities will help your students have a little fun with a holiday that, in middle school, can be a little tricky to navigate.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Sign Up for a FREE plot structure digital escape room!

 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

Preparing your Middle School Students for their Standardized Tests [ELA]

Here are our top 3 tips for preparing your middle school students for their standardized ELA tests.

Although most teachers are not fond of yearly standardized tests, we acknowledge that, as of right now, they are a part of the educational system in the United States. So we are doing our best to make sure our students are ready to rock those tests!

Preparing your middle school students for their standardized tests can seem like a daunting feat. However, really good test prep comes down to accomplishing 3 specific goals.

  • Relieving Stress: Many students will be very overwhelmed and uncertain about taking standardized tests. So…one part of preparing your middle school students for their standardized tests must be telling them what to expect.
  • Giving Tools: If you have any test-creator secrets, this is the time to share them. Any helpful hacks or tools should be a part of your pre-test planning.
  • Planning to Win: Your students can’t ‘win’ at testing time if they are not adequately prepared. Just as athletes train, practice, and learn new skills, your students must have the proper training if they are going to ‘win’ the test. That means they need explicit instructions on skills and concepts related to the standards.
Pin Image - three students working on a test together. Text states "Test Prep with Paired Passages - Middle School ELA"

Let’s go into each of these 3 goals a little deeper, shall we?

#1 | Know the Test

You need to make decisions about test prep season through the lens of the test itself. 

Spend some time getting to know the test your students will take.

  • Is it online or is it paper/pencil?
  • Can they use a note sheet?
  • Can they write on it? Highlight it?
  • Is it all multiple-choice?
  • How long are the reading passages?
  • What kinds of questions are typically asked?
  • How many questions are there?
  • Is it timed?
  • What happens to the questions that remain unanswered after the time is up?

If you know the answers to these questions, you can help your students manage some of their test stress. Preparing your middle school students for standardized tests means talking to them about each of these pieces of information. Give them all the information you have about the tests and tips on what to do during specific testing situations.

For example, If you know that every question that is unanswered after time is up is counted wrong, then encourage students to guess on the questions they aren’t sure about, and make sure every question has an answer.

If you know the test includes a lot of passages, tell your students how to appropriately manage time during those types of questions.

Helpful Hack: If your tests use a lot of passage-based reading questions, then you’ll want to spend some extra time working with and answering questions based on passages. These paired passages are a fantastic resource when preparing for these tests!!

To learn a few additional tips and tricks for using paired passages for test prep, check out this post!

Knowing the test is one of the best ways to support your students.

Note: Make sure you follow all testing laws and guidelines for your test. Do not give students any questions from the actual test they will take. Always check with the upper powers about what is acceptable and use practice tests and testing websites to learn information when possible.

#2 | Think Like a Test Writer

If you have any knowledge about what goes into writing or creating tests, share them with your students. Talk about your time in “Teacher School” and what they taught you about creating a test for students.

One test-creator inside tip we like to share with our students is that of the 4 questions on a multiple-choice test, usually, two are clearly wrong, one is the right answer, and one is the distractor.

If you can minimally narrow down the answers to the distractor and the answer, you now have a 50/50 shot. You also know that one of the answers was specifically designed to make you think twice, so you can review the information provided specifically about those two answers to make an educated guess if needed.

If you have any other great “Test Creator” hacks, we’d love to hear about them, but your students NEED to hear them, so start giving away those industry secrets!

#3 | Standard-Focused Activities

This one may seem obvious, but it is important to say.

Make sure you are covering the standards regularly as part of your classroom instruction.

Standardized tests are not intended to surprise students or confuse them. They are simply supposed to test their understanding and application of the standards.

If you are using the standards to guide your instruction, and you have managed to cover all the standards well, then your students will be ready for the test.

The spring semester is a great time of the year to revisit all the standards. You can get in some quick assessments. Then see what you need to touch on more to have the biggest impact. 

Grab FREE Middle School ELA Standard Breakdowns Below!

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Which grade level are you most interested in?

If you find your students are lacking on a specific standard, find a resource like one of the standards-focused resources below to explicitly work on that content before testing time rolls around.

Click for the 7th-grade bundle.

Click for the 8th-grade resources.

In addition to these standards-focused resources, we also have a great ELA Test Prep Digital Escape Room that will allow students test-like practice in a fun, escape room atmosphere. This is a fun activity to cycle into your test prep work.

Preparing your middle school students for standardized tests-ELA Test Prep Escape Room

Wrapping Up

Preparing your middle school students for standardized tests is a big part of the spring semester. However, don’t let it overwhelm your class time!

Talk to your students about testing, but make sure to pump them up rather than stress them out. 

Remind them over and over that they are in fact ready for this! They have all the skills to conquer the test! Your confidence will give them confidence!

Happy Testing!

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St. Patricks Day Activities for Middle School ELA: Escape Rooms

Looking for a St. Patrick’s Day Activity for Middle School ELA? Check out these escape rooms!

Sometimes a teacher just wants to wear green while sitting back, drink green coffee or tea, and watch their students engage in a fantastically festive St. Patrick’s Day activity. 

If that is your St. Patrick’s Day wish for this year, then have we got a few fun resources that you’ll want to take a closer look at.

Pin Image - St. Patrick's Day Activities for Middle School - Escape Rooms and More!

St. Patrick’s Day Activities for Middle School ELA

Although we have a few different St. Patrick’s Day activities for middle school ELA in the store, today we’re focusing on the escape rooms.

Figurative Language

This St. Patrick’s Day Figurative Language Digital Escape Room is full of fun adventures and figurative language examples that will have you giggling like a leprechaun who’s truly up to no good.

St. Patrick's Day Activity for Middle School ELA: Figurative Language Escape Room

The greatest thing about this activity is that it is fully digital and needs no prep. We like having fun, no-prep activities like this one on hand just in case we need a sub plan in the weeks leading up to St. Patrick’s Day or the week after. 

These escape rooms can also be printed and used without computers. No matter your situation, we’ve got you covered!

Sign Up for a FREE plot structure digital escape room!

 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

Other Uses for the St. Patrick’s Day Figurative Language Escape Room

You can also use the escape room resource for its examples. If you don’t have the time to do the escape room, pull some of the examples or even just one of the activities to use with students in your advisory or as a transitional activity in the classroom. 

In the Figurative Language Digital Escape Room, you’ll get 5 activities that cover 

  • Figurative Language Definitions
  • Example Sorts
  • A Riddle to Decode
  • A Matching Task
  • A Puzzle

You could pull any one of these activities out as an individual challenge in your class during the week leading up to the holiday. In fact, they could be your bell-ringers for the whole week leading up to St. Patrick’s Day!!

It is an awesome resource with so many uses!

Want another figurative language activity for this holiday, click on the image below to take a closer look at our Figurative Language St. Patrick’s Day Color By Number! 

St. Patrick's Day Activity for Middle School ELA: Figurative Language Color By Number

Reading Comprehension Practice

This second St. Patrick’s Day Escape Room has all the same features as the figurative language version, except this one is common core aligned and goes over several reading comprehension tasks.

St. Patrick's Day Activity for Middle School ELA: Reading Comprehension Escape Room

The tasks included in this escape room include

  • A Chronological Order task
  • A Reading Comprehension Task (students will answer multiple choice questions covering a variety of reading comprehension skills)
  • A Decoding Task
  • A Plot Structure Sort
  • A Puzzle Task

Just as before, you can use this escape room as a digital no-prep activity, or the activity is printable and with just a little prep time can be ready for physical classroom use. 

Suggestions for Prepping the Physical Escape Rooms

Although you may be quick to pick a St. Patrick’s Day for middle school that requires absolutely no extra work from you (and who would blame you), there is something to be said for having students work through a physical task.

The physical escape rooms take a little more time to set up, but when done right this is an opportunity to work smarter (not harder). 

If you take the time to print the resources in color this year on cardstock, then laminate them, you’ll be able to use them year after year with no extra prep time. 

Since they’re laminated, students will be able to write on them with dry-erase markers. They will also hold up as they are used for multiple classes a day.

We suggest keeping the pieces for each activity in a gallon-size bag. Then keep all the smaller pieces for each activity sorted into smaller pint-sized or sandwich-sized baggies inside the bigger one. Then, as groups complete the tasks, they can easily find their next activity.

We hope you all have a fantastically fun St. Patrick’s Day, and we genuinely hope these St. Patrick’s Day activities for middle school students bring you lots of good luck and many many many engaged students!

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Valentine’s Day Activities for Middle School Language Arts

Spread the love with these Valentine’s Day activities for middle school language arts.

Sometimes I think that my middle school students love holidays even more than elementary-aged kids. 

You give them a chance to dress up or do a themed activity and many of these teenagers will jump at the chance to wear silly clothes, go on an egg hunt, or make pink and red Valentine’s Day chains to hang all over the classroom.

Personally, I’ll take any opportunity to dress up or decorate my classroom, so you better believe that this coming Valentine’s Day I’ll be wearing my heart socks and distributing candy hearts every chance I get!

I think my love of the big, loud, and proud is what makes holiday’s so much fun for my students and me. We are able to be a little silly while also working on some skills. 

Sign Up for a FREE plot structure digital escape room!

 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

Let’s be honest, one of the greatest parts about being an ELA teacher (second only to getting to go to the library on a regular basis) is that ELA skills can be applied to any content.

That means that when I flip over the calendar and see a holiday coming up, I immediately start looking for some themed activities to make that season a little extra special. If they align with my standards or our classroom goals…even better!

Here are some of my favorites for Valentine’s Day!

Pin Image - Valentine's Day Activities for Middle School Language Arts

Valentine’s Day Escape Rooms for Middle School ELA

Sometimes I forget that my middle school students are just big kids in disguise. In addition to playing on their phones or dancing to the latest TikTok craze, they also really enjoy being challenged and competing even if it is just to see who can solve a pickle-themed Valentine’s Day message the fastest.

And that is exactly why they love these Valentine’s Day Escape Rooms. Each of the Valentine’s Escape Rooms requires students to practice their ELA skills in a unique Valentine’s Day way. They are also fully digital and require no prep, which never hurts!

Whether they are reading a funny story about a cupid getting lost or trying to figure out what one pickle wrote in her Valentine to another pickle, your students will get a lot of joy from these puzzles. I know I do!

We have two different Valentine’s Day Escape Rooms to choose from.

Valentines Day Digital Escape Room
Valentines Day Figurative Language Digital Escape Room

Valentine’s Day Fill-in-the-Blank Story for Middle School ELA

Another fun Valentine’s Day activity for middle school language arts classes is to have students create Valentine-themed fill-in-the-blank stories.

For this activity, pair students up, and have them create a story. Then tell them to take out some of the words, leaving blanks, so they can be replaced by another student.

This activity gets students thinking about parts of speech and the pieces of a good story.

In a Valentine’s twist, students will write a blank into their story for a MYSTERY candy heart message to appear.

Check out the example below.

When ______________ (Name #1) solved the clue, the code revealed a secret message “__________________” (Candy Heart). She knew at that moment that the villain meant business. 

________________ (Name #1) turned to _________________(Name #2) and gave them a _________________ (Adjective)  ___________________ (Facial Expression).

“I had no idea __________________ (Villain) was so evil!” she whispered.

“I did” _________________  (Name #2) whispered. “But I know we can stop them because we have the ________________ (Candy Heart) mobile, so we’ll be able to find them ____________(adverb).”

After taking one look at the ______________ (adjective) car, ________________ (Name #1) knew that _________________ (Name #2) was right.

Before working on our stories, I like to have students work through this Valentine’s Day Parts of Speech Word Sort activity. It is great for reviewing parts of speech and giving students ideas for their stories.

Valentine's Day Activities for Middle School Language Arts Parts of Speech

Figurative Language Valentine’s Day Challenge for Middle School

To create your own Figurative Language Valentine’s Day Challenge with your students, separate your students into groups of 2-3. 

Then give them a certain time limit to come up with as many figurative language examples as possible. The only rule, they have to be something you could see on a Valentine.

Before the time is up, students will transfer each message onto a heart-shaped piece of cardstock. The messages will then be displayed in the hallway.

You can add a little extra something something to this challenge by challenging your students to make a Valentine for each of their teachers.

Want a little more competition? Use the chart below to give out points.

  • Students earn one point for each type of figurative language they used in their valentines.
  • Students earn a half point for each valentine they create.
  • Students earn 5 points for creating a rhyming Valentine’s Day poem with at least two examples of figurative language in it. Plus one point for each additional figurative language example.
  • Students earn 2 points for each of their valentines that is chosen as a teacher’s favorite when they are voted on by the teachers.
  • Students lose a half point for each valentine that is the same as someone else’s in the same class.

Note: If you want to do a little brushing up before digging into this Figurative Language Valentine’s Day Challenge, this Valentine’s Day Figurative Language Color-by-Number is a quick way to review!

Valentine's Day Figurative Language Sort

There are so many awesome Valentine’s Day activities for middle school language arts, but these are some of my favorites. If you do each of these over the course of the week leading up to Valentine’s Day, your students will get some extra writing practice, some ELA skill review, and an extra special Figurative Language review that they will be sure to remember.

To read a little more about our Valentine’s Day resources, take a peek at this post!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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6 Easy (Low/No-Prep) Christmas ELA Activities for Middle School

Enjoy the Ho! Ho! Ho-lidays with these 6 easy Christmas ELA activities for middle school.

Whether you are one of the teachers who absolutely loves the holidays or… well, you’re not, you know the chaos that is the holiday season in middle school ELA.

Although the holidays are fun, we all know that the holidays and school don’t always go together as smoothly as peppermint sticks in cocoa.

It seems that no matter how much you have planned, during the winter holiday months your students are fidgety and fabulous. They are wearing their candy-cane striped socks, wearing sweaters that are really just blankets with arms, and somehow slipping PSLs past the admin on the daily.

They are not, however, ready to start anything new. 

Plan to Review!

Those weeks between Thanksgiving and the winter break are like the no-man’s land of the school year. It is an awkward time when students have learned a lot of new content, and you could really capitalize on their new knowledge. However, their attention spans and focus are 100% elsewhere. 

And who can blame them?!

You made it through the rough and tumble months of September and October, two very difficult months for middle school students. Now, you are gearing up for some longer breaks, New Year’s Resolutions, and the school year equivalent of a ‘fresh start’ that will begin after we return from break.

So… as much as it kills us to say it, this is not the time to start something new, or try to engage your student with a big project. 

Save that for January. 

Instead, let’s focus on reviewing some of the skills we’ve been working on in fun, festive, new ways.

Today, we’ve got 6 Easy Christmas ELA activities for middle school that won’t fill your prep time or require you to go buy a bunch of extra supplies, so let’s get to ‘em!

Pssst….if you are interested in doing a little decorating or getting your crafting gloves on this season, you should check out this post about boosting morale as you head into the holiday season.

Christmas ELA Activities for Middle School: Digital Escape Rooms

These Christmas Digital Escape Rooms are no-prep, holiday joy with the perfect combination of work and fun. These activities align with the standards, test students on ELA skills, and challenge them to ‘break the code’.

These Christmas Digital Escape Rooms will take one class period, and we absolutely love them for the last day before the holiday break.

Each escape room includes four ELA activities that perfectly align with middle school standards, and will allow your students to practice their skills, while also solving problems and celebrating the holiday season.

#1 | Figurative Language Escape Room

Christmas Digital Escape Room

#2 | ELA Skills (Common Core Aligned)

ELA Christmas Activities for Middle School: ELA Digital Escape Room

Bonus Time: We also have a MATH Digital Escape Room for the holidays. You can gift it to a colleague or use it in your classroom. We are all about connecting with other subject areas!

Sign Up for a FREE plot structure digital escape room!

 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

ELA Christmas Activities for Middle School: Prepositional Phrases

The holiday season is perfect for prepositional phrase practices. We are hanging stockings over fireplaces, gluing candy on top of gingerbread houses, and placing presents under trees. 

We can think of no better time of the year to practice our prepositional phrases, and these three prepositional phrase activities (which are also available in a bundle) are creative, artistic, and perfectly designed to give your students a chance to practice prepositional phrases in a whole new way.

Watch as your students create their own elves, design gingerbread houses, and decorate the Christmas tree. Will they put a star or an angel on top or maybe a wreath? We’ll have to wait and see.

These prepositional phrase activities are also a great way to get students to talk about their holiday traditions and what the holidays look like in their homes.

#3 | Gingerbread House Prepositional Phrases

Gingerbread Prepositional Phrase Activity

#4 | Christmas Tree Prepositional Phrases

ELA Christmas Activities for Middle School: Christmas Tree Prepositional Phrases

#5 | Elf Prepositional Phrases

Elf Prepositional Phrase Activity

ELA Christmas Activities for Middle School: Narrative Writing

This cute little narrative writing activity is all the things. It has non-fiction passages and narrative writing prompts. It even includes graphic organizers and checklists. Of course, we can’t leave out the reindeer coloring sheets!

One thing that makes this particular activity unique is the use of two different passages. One includes Santa, and one does not. These two different versions give you the ability to choose the best path for the needs of your specific students.

Holiday Activity #6 | Reindeer Narrative Writing

ELA Christmas Activities for Middle School: Narrative Writing

The holiday season is tough, and middle school minds are merry and bright and nowhere in sight.

But… that doesn’t mean that you can’t spread some Christmas cheer while also getting in some needed ELA skill review.

Keep these 6 EASY (low/no-prep) Christmas ELA activities for middle school students in mind as you begin planning for the holiday season!

Enjoy the season, Friends!

Happy Holidays!

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