How to Teach Life Skills to Middle School Students

Teach middle school students responsibility with a baby role-play exercise.

It's hard to make children understand the importance of life skills when they are busy thinking about their friends and summer vacation, but they can benefit from early learning later on in life. Skills such as organization, teamwork, money management and running a household are not covered in traditional school subjects but are still essential in life. You can incorporate activities and exercises into your class to help teach life skills to middle school students. The more you can engage them and get them to participate, the more they will take away from your life skills lesson.

Instructions

1. Have students start a business for a class project. Learning the aspects of running a business teaches students important life skills such as management, delegation, organization, realizing ideas and teamwork. The financial aspects of a fictional business also help students learn about money management. If you really want to get your students motivated, offer a prize for an incentive. If you're doing a team activity, reward the team that has the most successful business project with a pizza party.

2. Organize a volunteer program with an organization in the community. Volunteering will teach your students life skills while at the same time helping others and giving back to the community. Have your class choose an organization where they would like to volunteer together, then schedule regular visits on a monthly or weekly basis.

3. Hold a bake sale. Bake sales teach students about management and making money, particularly when you let the students handle the cash box. Students also learn baking, which is a life skill, when you require them to prepare their own baked goods. Give your students a set of guidelines but let them run the show the day of the bake sale. You can, of course, give advice and suggestions; but for your students to really learn life skills from the experience, they need to be in charge. Select a charity with your class and donate the money made from the bake sale.

4. Ask important people in the community to speak to your class about various topics. Community leaders, legislative representatives, important business people and even local law enforcement can talk to your class about specific life skills. Brief your students on the person speaking and the subjects he will cover, and have them write out questions in advance.

5. Use an egg or a doll to simulate a baby. Learning about the responsibility and commitment required to take care of a baby is most certainly a life skill; and although an egg is obviously not the same thing, this exercise has often been used in middle schools and high schools. Put students in pairs to represent "couples" and have them come up with a schedule for caring for the "baby." Prepare a checklist of what students need to do on an hourly and daily basis to take care of the baby.

References

• The Washington Post: Family: Eight Essential Life Skills that Schools Can Teach Our Kids
• WGEM.com: Law Enforcement Teaches Life Skills to Middle School Students
• Business Wire: Northern Virginia Students to Learn Money Management Skills through Apple's Student-Run Credit Union