Fifth Grade - Development of 10 & 11 Year-Olds

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  Large muscles for jumping, running, and other big movements are developing quickly, although upper body strength is usually underdeveloped
• Need a great deal of outdoor time with physical activity and challenge for large muscles; without adequate exercise, energy may spill over into acting out in the classroom
• Often write more sloppily than at nine because they are in a hurry
• As control of small muscles improves, they continue to enjoy precision tasks such as tracing, copying, making maps, and drawing cartoons
• Ready to start using tools such as compasses, protractors, rulers, and templates
• Frequent snacks and rest periods benefit rapidly growing bodies

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  Generally happy and friendly; enjoy family, peers, and teachers
• Quick to anger and to forgive
• Usually truthful; developing a more mature sense of right and wrong; able to learn peer mediation or problem-solving
• Highly sensitive to and able to resolve friendship and fairness issues
• Basically cooperative and flexible; do well with group activities and games, collaborative learning, and building a sense of whole-class cohesion
• Benefit from class problem-solving meetings, committee work to plan a field trip, and conducting school surveys
• Eager to reach out to others, such as through community service or tutoring younger children
• Appreciate being noticed and rewarded for their efforts

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  Listen well; enjoy talking and explaining, and can appreciate others' perspectives
• Read voraciously; important that their daily schedule has as much time for independent reading as for homework

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  Very good at memorizing poetry, songs, times tables, geography, and mathematical steps and formulas
• Increasingly able to think abstractly
• Take great pleasure in collecting, classifying, and organizing
• Can concentrate for longer periods
• Take pride in schoolwork; pay close attention to form, structure, directions, and organization
• Usually conscientious with homework
• Very eager to learn
• Enjoy rules and logic; good at solving problems
• Can pay attention to spelling, dictation, and penmanship simultaneously, but work may be somewhat sloppy as they learn to integrate these skills
• Enjoy choral reading, singing, poetry, and plays

Reading - Provide opportunities for children this age to:

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  Read, memorize, and recite poetry, do choral readings, and put on plays
• Read trade books centered on themes
• Read independently and indulge their desire to devour one book after another; read more and do fewer book projects
• Enjoy comic books and appropriate graphic novels

Writing - Expect from children this age:

• Writing: Readiness to write lengthy stories, longer poems, first research papers, and pieces about famous people -- usually filled with light and descriptive language; more frequent use of humor; more use of dialogue; realistic descriptions of interactions between characters
• Spelling: Memorizing the spelling of difficult words, and using the words, properly spelled, in day-to-day writing
• Writing Themes: Friends, friends, and more friends in many adventures; time travel; letters to request information; notes to friends; reports

Across the Curriculum - Provide opportunities for children this age to:

• Get plenty of exercise
• Do precision tasks, such as drawing maps and using protractors
• Take part in clubs, activities, group games, and team sports
• Participate in class problem-solving meetings and take part in planning for whole-class events
• Reach out to others in the community through service projects or assisting younger grades
• Memorize, classify, organize, and solve logic problems

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  Restless and very energetic
• Need lots of food and physical activity, and much more sleep than they usually get
• Girls(alternative language) may experience an early adolescent growth spurt and sexual maturation; some boys (alternative language) begin rapidly growing taller
• Although many still struggle with clumsiness, motor skills (such as throwing, catching, and kicking) begin to improve; like to measure their individual best

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  Need more time to talk to peers; heavy users of social media
• Can seem impulsive; often talk before thinking
• Often behave best when away from home
• Need adult empathy, humor, and sensitivity to help them cope with their maturing minds and bodies
• Desire to test limits and rules is an important developmental milestone, not a personal attack on a teacher or parent
• Love the challenge of competition; prefer team sports and getting better at playing as a team
• Inclusion/exclusion issues loom large; worry more about who's "in" and who's "out" than when they were younger; may be cruel, sometimes physically aggressive
• Are sometimes moody, self-absorbed, and sensitive

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  Would rather learn new skills than review or improve previous work
• Have trouble making decisions and are defensive about mistakes
• Becoming more adept at abstract thinking and deductive reasoning
• Enjoy the challenge of reasonably hard work

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  Increasingly able to see the world from different points of view and perspectives of other cultures
• Like to challenge rules, argue, debate, and test limits
• Class meetings, peer mediation, and cross-age tutoring can be highly effective in resolving issues
• Appreciate humor
• Imitate adult behavior
• Learn well in collaborative groups; changing the composition of these groups as needed can help adjust the social mix and address inclusion/exclusion concerns
• Self-absorbed and interested in imagining themselves in adult roles; this makes history, biography, and current events exciting
• May show interest in and facility for languages, music, or mechanics; need opportunities to explore these areas
• Interested in learning about older and very young people
• Enjoy challenging tasks, but might need help with time management and homework skills

Reading - Provide opportunities for children this age to:

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  Take on week-long reading assignments, still using trade books
• Do more non-fiction reading tied to subjects that interest them
• Read biographies and scientific history; build timelines
• Read to children in younger grades

Writing - Expect from children this age:

• Writing: Willingness to practice, although revision can be a struggle; writing that incorporates personal interest and is more adult-like in plot, character development, and style; very rudimentary research reports; enjoy poetry writing, cartooning, and journaling
• Spelling: ease and accuracy for some, with most enjoying the challenge of spelling difficult words; readiness to learn more dictionary skills
• Writing Themes: For most, blood and gore, fantasy, science fiction, love and romance; for advanced writers, experimentation with a variety of personal compelling things

Math - Provide opportunities for students this age to:

• Solve complicated word problems
• Study probability and statistics through real-world problems; do data searches online and through newspapers and magazines
• Use calculators and computers as problem-solving tools
• Work on speed and accuracy in computations
• Work with percentages

Across the Curriculum - Provide opportunities for children this age to:

• Take quiet breaks during the day for needed physical rest, as well as a break from academics and intense social-emotional dynamics
• Argue and debate in a safe environment
• Undertake scientific study, mathematical problem-solving, and invention
• Engage in "adult" academic tasks such as conducting internet research, interviewing, footnoting, and creating a bibliography
• Establish and modify rules and develop hypotheses about cause and effect, propose and test alternative hypotheses, and use rubrics to evaluate their work
• Learn through activities such as board games, intellectual puzzles and brain teasers