Middle and High School Career Explorations Play Activities

Materials:

Journal, marking pens, and artist materials for career reflection activities
Subscription to a career focused or professional association magazine (e.g. coding, STEM, writing, teaching, counseling, legal services, performing arts, youth development, service learning, construction, sports, business, architecture, and fashion)
Registration and participation in activities relevant to a specific passion or career (e.g. maker fair STEM fairs and competitions, science fairs, writing contests, performing arts contests and shows, family karaoke events, and sports recreation nights)
Participation and materials that support community service projects
Registration for online career explorations through a professional career association that supports youth

Activities:

Encourage your child to write about various passions, interests, and hobbies in a journal and reflect weekly on relevant activities. Your child can illustrate ideas, brainstorm new projects or concepts, or graph a workplan using different types of art materials in the journal.
Research various subscription options for your child. Local bookstores feature lots of unique publications that focus on hobbies, STEM, performing arts, and self-growth activities.
Help your child purchase relevant books on her hobbies. For example, a potential educator or writer might subscribe to Writer’s Digest, attend a book writing conference, join a local writers’ group, and participate in writing contests to explore a writing and teaching career and build a portfolio of work.
Support your child’s interest and registration in career events in your community. Take trips to sites that feature your child’s passion. For example, a family traveled to Ashland, Oregon to attend the summer Shakespeare Festival because their child was interested in majoring in English and later became a marketing executive for a technology company.
Help your child identify appropriate community service activities relevant to his interests. A child wanted to pursue a career in horticulture and participated with his parents in planting trees throughout the city.
Register your child in a professional organization relevant to her career interests. Examples include:
- American Educational Research Association for future educators
- Junior Achievement for work-readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy opportunities
- 4-H for agricultural leadership experiences,
- Rotary Club Youth Exchange Program for leadership development, cultural understanding, and to become a global citizen.

Relevant Common Core Standards

Listed below are relevant California Common Core Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects:

Grades 6 – 8 Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow multiple avenues of exploration.
Grade 11 – 12 Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.