Knowing your Fifth and Sixth Grader

As the oldest class in the school, fifth and sixth graders are grappling with identity development and facing a new set of social issues. Moving into pre-adolescence, students find that building friendships and relationships has new challenges and deeper possibilities. Students become more independent in their own learning, and they take more ownership over the daily maintenance of the physical and social facets of the classroom.

It is an age where students can wrestle with more complex and abstract questions and are eager for rich, integrated, and challenging work. An emphasis on cooperation, collaboration, and community forms the core of our social and academic curricula and enhances students’ ability to work together in meeting high academic expectations.

• Through modeling, role plays, and discussion, students learn explicit language and skills to solve conflicts. For example, based on the Positive Discipline model, students identify how the four mistaken goals of power, revenge, assumed inadequacy, and attention are often the source of a problem, as well as the beginning of a solution.
• Students lead decision-making and conflict resolution each day in class meeting. There they set and run the agenda, which includes compliments/appreciations, social issues, and future plans.
• The year starts with a three-day, two-night, community-building camping and ropes course experience at Project Adventure in Beverly, MA.
• Through regular participation in cooperative games and group initiatives, students practice real-life problem-solving and communication skills while having fun.
• This work of blending the social and academic curricula culminates in a sixth-grade, graduation trip to New York City.