Student Blogging Challenges - A List of Ideas

One of the things that my students love the most on our KidBlog are our weekly blog challenges.  And while these challenges are in sense homework, they always have the opportunity to do them at school, and get enough time to do it without being a hassle.  Over the past two years we have had quite a lot of fun with these, so why not share for all you blogging with your students.  Feel free to borrow or change to suit your kids.

I have broken these into categories for easier reading.

All About You

• Imagine you have been given $100 to donate to someone or something like a charity or even to start a charitable business.   The challenge is to make your money grow whether through product or some other form.  So you need to blog about what you will do with the money, how it will grow and how much you can make it grow even more.  Your money will have 3 months to grow.
• If you could go anywhere in time once round-trip, where would you go and why?  What would you see there?  What would you do?  Would you bring anything back or try to change the past?
• If you could go anywhere in time once round-trip, where would you go and why?  What would you see there?  What would you do?  Would you bring anything back or try to change the past? 
• If you could eat only one meal the next year, what would it be? 
• If you could do one good thing this Holiday season to make others happy, what would it be?
•  Tell me about the great traditions you have in your family. 
•  What makes you the happiest in your life and even better how do you show how thankful you are? 
• This week I would like to challenge you to write about about a place, from the past or the present, where you would like to live or go for a holiday or vacation.

Wacky Challenges

• How many ways can you use a paperclip?
• How many ways can you use a toothbrush?

All About School

• Which school rule you would change, how you would change it and why?
• How is the year going so far?  What are you excited about?  What works for you?  What doesn’t? How can we make 5th grade better?  What should I change?
• What would you change about school so that you would love being there?
• Tell me what was the best, the worst, the most fun, the most boring things of the trimester?  
• So, if you could decide what we had to learn about, what would it be?  What would our goals be? How would we learn about it? And how would we pass that learning on? 
• What does a principal do all day?  What qualities does a principal have and what do they do in the summer?
• You are the teacher; which class would you add to school curriculum that we don't already have?  When would the class meet, what would the students do?  What would it look like, feel like, sound like?  And what would the students produce to show their learning?

 
Your Thoughts on Education and School

• What is the true purpose of education?  Why do you go to school?  Why do you learn what you have to learn?
• Is teaching and learning the same thing or not?
• Should education be fun?
• Give me your thoughts on tests!  Do you think they help or hurt your learning?  What do you suggest to teachers about tests?

Academic Related and Story Writing

• You need to write to other teachers and tell them about the Global Read Aloud.
• I want you to tell the world about Innovation Day!
• Tell everyone about the simulation in social studies 
• Keep a science diary of our experiments and answer any questions people may leave in the comments.
• Write a book review of the book you are currently reading.
• Explain what the author study is, who you chose to study and why.
• Finish the story, “The crash came from around the corner…”
• Finish the sentences:  Being a good teacher means…. Being a good student means… 
• What do you love when teachers do in their classrooms?  What do you wish I did as a teacher? If you were a teacher how would you run your classroom?

All About Blogging

• Should we continue to blog or not, convince me!
• So how has blogging helped you as a writer?  What do you like about blogging?  What do you not like?  What would you change?  Would you continue blogging next year if you could?
• What are the rules for blogging, how do you stay safe?
•  Now that you have tried it, what would you tell other kids and teachers about blogging?  What should they know before they start?  What should they be careful with?  How can they get people to comment?  Any advice for people who want to blog but don’t know how?
• Pick one student from another blog and introduce yourself properly