Fifth Grade - Development of 10 & 11 Year-Olds

Two 5th-grade students with neck-length hair, one redhead and one brunette, standing side by side and smiling

We each develop at our own pace, so it's impossible to tell exactly when a particular student will reach a specific milestone or learn a given skill. The developmental milestones below will give you a general idea of the changes you can expect as each ten and eleven-year-old gets older, but don't be alarmed as each student takes a slightly different course. Honor where they are and support them as they develop.

Physical Development

  • Three 4th-grade students socializing during lunch
    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

Social & Emotional Development

  • Three 4th-grade students engaged in discussion at a small table
    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

Communication & Language

  • Four 4th-grade students and teacher using whiteboard to share thinking and engage in discussion
    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

Cognitive Development

  • 4th-grade student engaged in independent science experiment
    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, Writing, & Across The Curriculum

Reading - Provide opportunities for children this age to:

  • 4th grade student engaged in independent reading
    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

Physical Development

  • 5th grade PE class golfing at San Francisco course
    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

Social & Emotional Development

  • three students seated on outdoor steps and facing the camera
    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

Cognitive Development

  • Two fifth-grade students writing: one facing their writing and the other focused on something beyond the camera
    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

Ethics & Self Direction - Moving Toward Independence

  • Two 5th grade students and educator discussing at a table
    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, Writing, & Across The Curriculum

Reading - Provide opportunities for children this age to:

  • Small group of fifth-grade students reading and socializing in the school library
    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

This content on development comes from Yardsticks: Child & Adolescent Development by Chip Wood and has been lightly adapted to better reflect the language usage and practices of SFUSD.

This page was last updated on November 28, 2023