Fourth - Fifth Grade
Developmental Characteristics
Physical
May be careless about their clothes, room and body cleanliness
Girls may have sudden growth spurt and beginning signs of puberty
Enjoy physical activities that master specific skills
Enjoy competitive games
Possess a high activity level
Enjoy games that allow for comparison of skills
Enjoy games that allow for self-improvement
Social Emotional
Enjoy small, peer-dominated group discussions
Like to join organized groups
Are anxious to grow up
Are intensely loyal to their peer group
Form a close one-on-one friendship
Have a growing desire to assert individuality and independence
Can be daring and competitive
Can be critical of peers and adults
Are self-conscious of their abilities
Cognitive
Ask many questions and what thoughtful answers
Can often understand other points of view
Developing strong interests, hobbies, and collections
Enjoy daydreaming
Enjoy problem solving games and puzzles, etc.
Enjoy rule-based games
Are beginning to develop view about social/global issues
Beginning to enjoy humor by telling jokes and understanding sarcasm
What is Motivation
Students will write their own definition of motivation, then collaborate in small groups and a gallery walk to build a shared class vision of what motivated and motivating behavior looks like — which gets posted in the room as an ongoing reference.
What is it?
Students will take turns drawing puzzle pieces from a bag and guessing the hidden image, then connect the experience to a discussion about the dangers of judging others based on only part of their story.
Wear Your Attitude
Students will select a mood card as they enter the room and wear it visibly throughout the session, then observe how their own and others' displayed moods affect interactions — and reflect on whether and how attitudes can be changed.
Values Carnival
Students will generate lists of desirable and undesirable community values, then rotate through five carnival-style games where winning requires correctly identifying or targeting the positive values, earning tokens to redeem for prizes.
Unity Day Poster-Making
Unity Day is a national day when students, teachers, and families wear orange to show they support bullying prevention. In this activity, students explore what unity means and collaborate in pairs on posters that show how working together can help stop bullying. Posters are then hung throughout the school.
Understanding Empathy
Students will read short stories about characters who lack empathy, identify how each character could have responded more understandingly, then rewrite one story to show what empathy in action looks like.
Tricky Rope
Students will work together to figure out a secret hidden code embedded in a turning jump rope, using trial and error and group communication to get everyone across to the other side.
The Trees and the Worms
Students will listen to a story while moving through a series of yoga poses, using breath and movement to practice grounding and self-control. A brief debrief follows where students reflect on how focusing on their breath affects their thoughts and feelings.
The Marshmallow Challenge
In groups of four, students will use only spaghetti, string, tape, and one marshmallow to build the tallest freestanding structure they can in 15 minutes — with the marshmallow on top — then compare heights and reflect on their teamwork.
The Great Egg Drop
In groups of three, students will use a bag of limited materials to engineer a contraption that protects a raw egg, then test their designs by dropping them from a second-floor window to see whose egg survives intact.
Team Spelling Bee
Teams will race to agree on a word that fits a given category, assign each member a letter tile, and physically line up to spell it out — competing against other teams for speed and word length.
Team Résumé
Students will select personal quality cards that represent their strengths, share them with a partner, then merge into groups of six to collaboratively fill out a Team Résumé that captures their collective strengths and values.
Support Tree
Students will be able to identify the people in their lives they can go to for help.
Story Clues
Students will take turns telling a short story that weaves in six words from a TABOO card while their classmates listen carefully and try to guess all six words, then discuss the listening and communication skills the game required.
Still I Rise
Students listen to Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise," discuss its message, and share a personal strength with the group before writing about a time they overcame a struggle and creating a collage of their strengths or sources of encouragement.
Stick It to ‘Em
Working in pairs, students will use verbal communication to recreate a marshmallow-and-toothpick model — one partner is blindfolded and can only touch, while the other can see but cannot use their hands.
Star-Bellied Sneetches
Using Dr. Seuss’s The Sneetches as a starting point, students explore what it feels like to be left out, how groups create “in” and “out” categories, and how to build fairer practices in their own community.
Sponge Brigade
Teams race to fill a bucket by passing water-soaked sponges down the line (over heads, under legs) and wringing them out — with dropped sponges eliminated from play — until the water hits an exact tape line, then debrief on teamwork strategies used.
SMART Goals/Passion Collage
Students create a passion collage using magazine images and words across three categories (academics, career, relationships), then use the SMART goal framework to turn those visual passions into concrete, written goals they share with the class.