Baseball Activities for World Series Lessons

The World Series gives your students a timely reason to read, discuss, calculate, and investigate. These baseball activities help you connect the excitement of the season to skills across ELA, social studies, science, and math.

Use these selections to choose texts, get lesson ideas, or find videos and simulations that fit your grade band and goals. Some activities build background knowledge about baseball and its cultural role, while others use the sport to make abstract concepts more concrete.

[Baseball activities for ELA lessons and background knowledge](id-ela)

Use baseball texts to help students move from game-day excitement into reading, discussion, and writing. They can build background knowledge, study an author’s craft, and see the larger social impact of sports on culture.

What baseball articles help students build background knowledge?

Baseball texts give you flexible starting points to kick off World Series activities in your ELA classroom. Students can read about players, baseball history, fandom, and fiction connected to the game. Use the full collection when you want students to choose their own text, or narrow the options by reading level, Spanish availability, or the topic students are most ready to discuss. 

Why teach a baseball unit on Jackie Robinson?

Jackie Robinson’s story helps students see baseball as part of American history. In this text set, they can use resources to read about Robinson’s life, connect sports history to civil rights, and compare related stories about participation, representation, and barriers in baseball.

What can students learn from “Casey at the Bat”?

Students can use the poem “Casey at the Bat” and the fiction story “Wild Pitch” to study how authors create tone in sports writing. The activity asks students to notice specific words and phrases, annotate what those choices make them think or feel, and then apply the same techniques in their own writing.

Mini lesson plan: “Casey at the Bat” paired text activity

Use this paired reading activity to help students analyze tone in sports writing, then practice creating a specific tone in their own fiction or poetry.

Lesson goal Students identify choices authors make to create tone in poetry and fiction, then make deliberate choices in their own writing to create a specific tone.

Texts

• “Casey at the Bat”
• Wild Pitch

Grade, subject, and time

Grades 6–8 · ELA · Two to three 50-minute lessons

Before reading

Ask students to choose five words that describe what it feels like to attend a sporting event, such as a baseball game, basketball game, or track meet.

Read and annotate

Read “Casey at the Bat” with the class, then have students read Wild Pitch independently. As they read, students highlight words and phrases that help them picture the scene or create a specific feeling, then annotate what those choices made them think, feel, or picture.

Discuss and write

Have students answer: “What tools do authors use to capture the spirit of sports?” Then ask them to write their own fiction or poetry about a sporting event or another event they enjoy, naming the tone or mood they want to create and using figurative language, dialogue, and word choice to build that feeling.

Teacher note

Students can answer the discussion question through a class discussion or a written reflection before they begin their own writing.

How do sports stories show community and belonging? 

Sports stories can help students look beyond the final score and ask what a game means to the people involved or to those watching. This text set includes resources about baseball and other sports, focusing on how they can bring people together, make people feel included or heard, and offer hope during difficult times.

Which baseball novels can you suggest to students?

A longer baseball book can give students a shared anchor text, while shorter supplemental texts help build background knowledge before, during, or after reading. Explore a fiction and nonfiction selection to best target your students’ interests and the skills you want them to practice.

[Baseball activities for social studies and World Series history](id-ss)

In social studies, you can connect the World Series to American culture, leadership, teamwork, and the game's evolution over time. Students can trace how the championship has grown, why certain baseball moments stick in public memory, and what the game can reveal about leadership, records, and the communities around a team.

Newsela Social Studies activity

World Series history classroom activity

Use this shorter sequence to help students connect World Series history to American culture, community, leadership, fairness, and teamwork.

Quick classroom sequence

1

Start with what students know

Have students discuss what they know about the World Series and why baseball has been called “America’s pastime.”

2

Read for history and culture

Assign World Series was a big hit from the beginning and one or two related resources from the table.

3

Build the timeline and reflect

Add key moments to a class timeline, then have students write one paragraph about what the World Series can teach beyond the scoreboard.

World Series history resource options

Start with the anchor article, then choose additional resources based on the historical or cultural angle students are exploring.

World Series history and championship moments 7 resources +

World Series history and championship moments resources

Resource	Reading level/runtime	Spanish?
World Series was a big hit from the beginning Article	380L–1020L
L.A. Dodgers defeat Tampa Bay Rays to win first World Series title since 1988 Article	550L–1070L
MLB champs: Dusty Baker wins first World Series title as manager with Houston Astros Article	570L–1180L
Nationals top Astros in Game 7 to win first World Series title Article	590L–1140L
Astros win first World Series crown, top Dodgers 5–1 in Game 7 Article	600L–1350L	✓ Yes
Red Sox top Dodgers for 4th World Series title in 15 years Article	600L–1300L
“Next year” finally arrives for joyous Chicago Cubs fans Article	560L–1260L	✓ Yes

Scroll left to right to see the full table.

Baseball culture, records, and legacy 4 resources +

Baseball culture, records, and legacy resources

Resource	Reading level/runtime	Spanish?
The $1 hot dogs at Blue Jays games are a hit—but are they actually making a profit? Article	600L–1220L
Analysis: Shohei Ohtani sets new record with 50 home runs, 50 stolen bases in one season Article	420L–1230L	✓ Yes
Why sports history is American history Essay	610L–1500L	✓ Yes
Roberto Clemente: True baseball hero Video	2:07

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[Baseball activities for STEM, science, and math](id-sci)

Baseball gives students a concrete way to study force, motion, energy, and math concepts. These activities move from the physics of pitching and hitting to math activities with baseball data, Generation Genius videos, and PhET simulations you can use to extend the lesson.

How does physics shape baseball from pitch to hit?

Pitching and hitting make force and motion visible. Students can track what happens to a baseball as the pitcher releases it, as it travels toward the plate, and after the batter gets a hit. This activity uses a predict-observe-explain structure so students can start with their own thinking, read about the physics, then revise their explanation with evidence from the resources. 

Newsela STEM resources

Baseball physics activity and resources

Use the anchor article to introduce the pitch-to-hit physics activity, then choose an additional reading if students need another example of force, motion, performance, or data in baseball.

Activity at a glance

Students predict which forces act on a baseball from pitch to hit, read In baseball, from pitch to hit, it’s all about physics, highlight physics principles and evidence about how scientists study the game, then revise their explanation using the predict, observe, explain worksheet.

Baseball physics activity and resources

Resource	Use it for	Reading Level	Spanish?
In baseball, from pitch to hit, it’s all about physics	Anchor reading for the predict-observe-explain activity about forces and energy from pitch to hit.	470L–940L
Time Machine (1920): Science explains Babe Ruth’s home runs	Extension reading for students who want another example of science explaining baseball performance.	610L–1400L
Baseball or calculus? Advanced metrics changing way we interpret game	Data connection for students ready to move from physics into statistics and baseball analysis.	610L–1200L
Forces on a baseball	Focused support for naming and explaining the forces acting on a baseball in motion.	600L–1100L	✓ Yes

Scroll left to right to see the full table.

What do robot umpires show about ratios and percentages?

MLB’s Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System gives students a timely way to see how ratios and percentages influence a real decision. They can read about how the new system works, look for numbers indicating potential benefits or drawbacks, and then compare challenge results across teams.

Where does Newton’s third law show up in baseball?

Newton’s third law shows up most clearly when the bat and ball meet. The bat pushes on the ball, and the ball pushes back on the bat. Students can also examine related collisions and energy changes to understand why this idea matters beyond a single swing.

How do force and motion shape a baseball game?

Force and motion show up in nearly every part of a baseball game: A pitch, swing, fly ball, throw, slide, or catch. This activity can help students move from learning basic force vocabulary to seeing how the actual laws of motion act on a baseball.

Which Generation Genius science videos connect to baseball?

Generation Genius science videos can help students see the many physics examples that arise during a baseball game. Help them connect gameplay to pushes and pulls, gravity, engineering, and even body systems.

Which Generation Genius math videos support baseball data activities?

Generation Genius math videos can help you turn baseball examples into work where students measure, graph, compare, and calculate. Younger students can count and graph hits and runs. Older students can use baseball data to practice unit rates, probability, or percent change.

Use the video that matches the math students already need to practice, then choose a baseball data set or classroom activity that gives them numbers to work with.

Use World Series baseball activities across your lesson plans with Newsela Learning Suite

The World Series can be more than just a seasonal one-off lesson—especially if you’ve got big baseball fans in your classroom. Start with the resource or activity that best fits what you’re already teaching, then let the game give students a concrete entry point to the main skill. 

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