In the education system of the United States, as well as many other nations, children in the fifth grade are normally 10 or 11 years old. This is an important point in the cognitive and psychological development of humans. Prior to this approximate age range, thoughts are generally in concrete terms -- black or white, right or wrong. From this point, children increasingly begin to develop abstract thinking abilities, called operational thinking. So the fifth grade is a good time to start your kids thinking about personal values.
The objectives of an early lesson on personal values should address the main concepts of the issue, personal values, which are twofold: understanding that decisions are driven by values, and understanding that it may be possible for the students to start identifying their own personal values. This leads to two core questions, which should be put on the board: How do values lead to decisions? What are your values? The materials can be as simple as a list of potential values and a number of value-based decision situations.
Give your students a list of hypothetical situations where personal values must be engaged to determine the outcomes. For example, a friend asks you to do his homework. Do you (1) do it, (2) offer to help him or (3) refuse on the grounds that it is wrong, thereby risking your friendship? Then ask them to add to a list of core personal values, which you will have distributed. You can vary the length of these two sessions, depending on how you gauge the concentration and interest from your children -- remember that at these ages, they will be at different stages of operational thinking ability.
When the independent work is finished, initiate a group discussion about what your students have written. Make a few comparisons and ask some "why" questions about individual decisions. Then get your students to work in groups, and ask them to explain to one another why they made their personal choices. Move around and help the groups to discuss the issues and ask one another questions. The emphasis should be on why each decision was made. Conclude by assembling all the students back into a whole group, and emphasize that personal values are personal and that personal values drive the differing choices and decisions that are made.