Quotes to Live By
Wise and Enduring Truths
Maxim Activity Ideas
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4-H & YOUTH
Do Activities:
1. Have students find 3-5 quotes about one topic, such as trustworthiness, respect, accountability, citizenship,
kindness or success. Ask them to explain how each quote relates to the category they put it in.
2. Have students memorize two or three of their favorite quotes and recite them for the class.
3. Have students put their favorite quote on a bookmark.
4. Have students use quotes to decorate your classroom by making bulletin boards, posters, or by a large frame
and have students change the quote in the frame on a regular basis.
5. Have students ask their parents and three other adults what their favorite maxim is and how it has affected
their lives.
6. Make a Word Cloud by putting your favorite quotes in
a word cloud. Use http://www.wordle.net/. See what
words appear most often and discuss the importance of
these words in the quotes you selected. Make a positive
statement with the predominate words. For example: To
succeed, first people must try.
Integrate Language Arts
1. Have students find and explain one quote that uses a metaphor.
2. Have students find and explain one quote that uses symbolism.
3. List 10 quotes for students and have them find the most or least syllables, vowels, silent e’s, etc. Have them
identify the subjects and objects, nouns and verbs, adjectives and adverbs, present tense and past tense,
suffixes and prefixes, synonyms and antonyms, alliteration and rhyme, etc.
4. Have students research and write a short biography of the person who said their favorite quote.
5. Have student pick a quote and write a story that uses that quote either as the moral of the story or as a line
in the dialogue.
Teamwork Activities
1. Assign a group of three or four students a particular maxim or let them choose one from a hat. Have them
prepare a one-to- two-minute commercial to illustrate the main message of the quotation.
2. Cut quotes into strips of paper and have student pairs draw a maxim from a hat. Have each student group
express the message of the quote in a poster, poem, or song.
3. Tell the class to pretend they are publishing their own maxim collection that can only be 20 quotes long.
Working in small groups of 2-3 students, challenge them to find powerful quotes not already in Wise and
Enduring Truths to Live By and defend why their quotes should make the cut. You can be the judge or
students can vote. Send the final list home to parents and post it in the classroom.
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Community Connection
List the quotes by number on a bracket challenge template, like the one below. Have students, parents and
community members vote on their favorite quotes and over time you will advance to a winner. This is an effective
school/home/community connection idea.
Reflect and Apply Activities
Who Said That?
Have students rewrite five quotes in their own words.
Top Ten Lists
Have students compile Top 10 lists of quotations for characters in stories, people in history, or categories with in
the quotes themselves (People still Living; By Americans; By Aristotle; Under 150 letters, etc.)
Quote a Day
Use a quotation as a journal prompt at the beginning (or end) of class. Students can then pick out their favorite
journal entry to expand into a full essay.
Choose Your Own Ending
Give students the first part of a quote and have them think of different endings. For example, “With great power
comes_____________.” (The original quote, from the movie Spider-Man, ends with “great responsibility.”)
Better or Not
Present students with two quotes and ask them to vote on which is better. You can let them define “better” or
give them specific criteria. Then have students volunteer to explain why they chose one or the other.
Quotes for Your Life
Select a quotation and write it on the board. Have students copy it, write what it means in their own words and
give an example from their own lives.
Extra Credit Essay
If the Quotes to Live By Essay is not a class assignment, consider offering it as extra-credit. You may require
students to relate their essay to any subject - for instance, how good character applies in math, science, P.E etc.
Quotes and Current Events
As a twist on the traditional “current events” assignment (in which students pick a news article and write out the
5W’s and a summary), have students select a quote that relates to the news story and explain why it is relevant
to that current event.
Parents Words worth Quoting
Have students think about the advice their parents are always giving them. Tell students to write down at least
three things they have heard their parents say over and over that would qualify as maxims.
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Complement or Contradict
Present students with two quotes that complement or contradict each other and have a compare/contrast
discussion. Some students may have difficulty finding commonalities or differences between quotes. Help them
make a list of all the words they think of after reading the first quote. On their own, have them repeat the process
with the second quote. Students then compare the two lists to see what connections they can make. To get you
started below are sample pairings.
1. The grass is always greener on the other side of
the fence.—American proverb
2. If we had no winter, the spring would not be so
pleasant. —Anne Bradstreet
1. If at first you do not succeed, try, try again. If
at first you do succeed, try something harder. –
Unknown
2. Do or do not. There is no try. —Yoda
1. You can really change the world if you care
enough.—Marian Wright Edelman
2. Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better. It’s not. —Dr. Seuss
1. The here and now is all we have, and if we play it
right it’s all we’ll need.—Ann Richards
2. Most people see what is and never see what can
be. —Albert Einstein
1. Never look down on people unless you’re helping
them up.—Jesse Jackson
2. When one helps another, both gain in strength. —
Ecuadorian proverb
Maxim Activity Ideas References
Article
TEACHER’S NOTEBOOK, Quotes in the Classroom – 8 Activities for Using Famous Quotes,
www.teachersnotebook.com/, 2014.
Publication
MENSA Education & Research FOUNDATION, Lesson Plans, Quotation Station: Effectively Using Quotes in the
Classroom, MensaForKids.org. 2014.
CHARACTER COUNTS!™, Foundations for Life®, www.charactercounts.org, 2007.
South Dakota State University, South Dakota counties, and USDA cooperating. South Dakota State University adheres to AA/EEO guidelines
in offering educational programs and services.
Publication: 01-4004-2015
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