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Elementary and Middle School Career Activities Resource List

  • Careers in movies - “Who is your favorite character in a movie or a book?” “What does that person do for a living?”“What’s their job or career?” “Think of your favorite person in the world. What do they for a living?” “Can we think of other jobs and careers that we see around us?”
  • Would You Rather?
  • Movement for students (physically have to move to where they would want to go)
  • Questions related to career
  • e.g. Would you rather sit at a desk or be moving all day?
  • This would help students recognize that if they enjoy sitting, an office job/career may be better for them then (for instance) being a Zumba instructor.
  • Based from
  • Oregon Career Guidance: http://gearup.ous.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/MiddleSchoolParentGuide.pdf
  • Career Planning Worksheet:
  • Career Smarts - videogame like career planning adventure
  • Career Investigation:
  • Career Café
  • Students able to meet with professionals from the community.
  • Crosswords of careers related to different fields
  • e.g. art career crossword
  • Facebook Profile for your Future:
  • Relates to current social media, can also open up the discussion to what is safe to post.
  • Online interest/career quiz:
  • Career Alphabet: have students come up with different careers that start with different letters.
  • Album Covers of Careers
  • Each student picks a career and is then responsible for designing an album cover that will give enough information/context for someone to look at and understand what that position is about.
  • Think periodic table but of careers
  • Inspired by:
  • A Roadmap to College
  • Career and College Clubs
  • Middle School kit:
  • SASS - E Girls - Science focused careers - http://ico.osu.edu/SWE.html
  • Drive of your life - video game withcareer focus
  • Able to choose your own vehicle, own path, etc.
  • Career Clusters for Jeopardy
  • 16 fields
  • Websites with multiple resources
  • Goal setting lesson - Using “Oh the Places You’ll Go!” to help identify goals students can have to help them get to the places they’ll go!
  • Cooperation activity - Team Challenge - All students can only use one hand. As a group complete the following activities
  • Build a tower out of straws/cards/popsicle sticks as high as you can
  • Relates to architecture, creativity, building
  • Spell out a word with your bodies
  • Relates to movement, dance, English, reading (for those who want to write and direct their own stage productions)
  • Transport all the balls from one bucket to another - but no one can go twice
  • Relates to Math and logic skills, transportation
  • Goals with this activity - interactively work together to discover different options related to careers.
  • Talk with class after the activity/worksheet - Were some people better at one thing than another? Give an example. What was one thing you were great at? What is a job that you think you could use what you are great at?
  • Pretest - What is one thing you are great at? What is a job where you could use what you are great at?
  • Career Aisle - Exploring careers online: