Boredom and apathy are common problems when teaching fifth grade. Combat them by introducing exciting classroom activities.
Fifth grade is a challenging grade for educators, parents and students alike. Children in fifth grade need to be prepared for the academic pressures of adulthood, but are often still in the mental state of an elementary school student. Fifth grade educators must find interactive ways to engage their students through a variety of outside-the-box classroom activities that will appeal to both the child and burgeoning young adult within every fifth grader.
Language Arts Activity
Fifth graders are at the perfect age to be introduced to language arts activities that teach more than basic reading, writing and comprehension skills. Introduce students to concepts such as insinuation and metaphor through interactive games. One option to encourage students to become critical readers is to have a "read between the lines" activity. Choose a passage from a book that gives some insight into a character's feelings without overtly stating them and give students multiple choice options concerning what the character is really feeling based on the passage.
Math Activity
A great, hands-on math activity for fifth graders to do in the classroom is chart making. Not only do they learn critical percentage and graphing skills, but they get to interact with every other student in the classroom. Have each student choose a topic (for instance, favorite colors or foods, states visited, etc.) and poll their classmates. Once they have collected the data from the entire class, have students draw a graphic chart illustrating their findings as well as producing the percentages of classmates that choose one item or another from their poll (i.e., 20% of classmates prefer pizza while 80% prefer hot dogs.)
Science Activity
This is one science activity for fifth graders that will have the classroom abuzz with activity. For the Solar System Shakeup activity, place a styrofoam model of each planet in our solar system on a different chair, all in a row at the front of the classroom, but make sure to purposely place the planets in the wrong order on the chairs. Divide the classroom into groups. Have each group try to re-arrange the planets in the correct order, with the non-active groups blindfolded. The group to re-arrange the planets the fastest wins.
Art Activity
This art activity for a fifth grade classroom incorporates social responsibility as well as artistic skills. The Nobel Peace Prize art project is relatively simple to make, but the idea behind it is mature enough for fifth graders to handle. Have students choose a person, living or dead, famous or local, who they believe is doing something to contribute to world peace or even just peace in their immediate area. Instruct students to craft an actual Nobel Peace medal out of whatever art supplies you have at your disposal specifically for this person. Have each student present their medal to the class and list the reasons why they chose to make the medal for the specific person chosen.
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