5th Grade - Middle School Transition Lesson

Middle school is just around the corner for our 5th graders!  We know our students are prepared academically for the next level, but we want to make sure they are prepared in every other area of their life as well. This lesson focuses on giving students a chance to express feelings they have about going to middle school, ask questions they have about middle school, identify strategies for being successful in middle school, and determine organizational strategies they can begin implementing NOW so they will be better prepared for middle school

We accomplish these goals in two ways. First, students watched a short video entitled Making the Most of Middle School.  In the video, students hear from high school students who talk to them about the do's and don'ts of middle school. The importance of balancing academics and social activities is addressed as well as the importance of being organized.

Second, students rotated around the room and worked with small groups of students to answer these four questions:

• What are you most excited about?
• What are you nervous or scared about?
• What questions do you have about middle school?
• How can you keep yourself organized in middle school?

 

At the end of the rotation, we discussed some of the things students were nervous or scared about as well as the things they were most excited about. We discussed organizational skills and the students completed an organizational self-assessment to see just how organized they currently are.  At the end of the lesson, students identified one thing they can start doing today to be better prepared for middle school. I challenged the students to really work on their organizational goal for the remainder of the school year so they will be ready for middle school in the fall.

At the end of the lesson, I collected the posters and will type up the students' responses. I will send the student-generated list of questions to the principal at HTMS for her to use as a guide when talking to the students on our middle school field trip on May 5th.

I know most of our students are excited about middle school but some are hesitant about the whole transition. If your student is worried or overly-anxious about going to the middle school, please do not hesitate to contact me. I would love to discuss their concerns and share some strategies with them for dealing with worry and anxiety.