Getting older means assuming a larger role in the community. Get your soon-to-be sixth-graders out into the world to experience firsthand the joys of giving back. Spend a school day afternoon assisting with a blood drive at the Red Cross or sorting clothes at a clothing bank. Visit a local primary school and tutor students in math and reading. "Adopt" a street in your community and keep it free of debris. Record books on a CD for the vision-impaired. As your students gain confidence in their ability to make a real difference, they will realize that sixth grade can be tackled easily.
Part of growing up is becoming more self-aware. As young, impressionable middle-school students, sixth-graders need to know themselves as well as possible. Pair off students and have them interview one another for 30 minutes every day for a week. Tell the interviewers to make notes and observations about the interviewees' habits, speech and attitude. At the end of the week, have pairs exchange notes. Over the weekend, students should read the notes and compare the interviewer's opinions about them to their own. Have students write a short report detailing surprisingly true observations, habits of which they were unaware and any mannerisms or attitudes they inadvertently displayed. This exercise will help soon-to-be sixth-graders understand how others see them and how they can improve before entering middle school.
Ask an existing sixth-grade class to work with you to complete this exercise. Have students write a one-page essay on how they think school will change when they enter sixth grade. Ask the current sixth-graders to write a brief essay on how middle school is different from fifth grade. Put students into groups of three and give them six essays, three of each kind. Have students compare the essays and write another essay together, incorporating the views of the current sixth-graders and expressing reactions to the realities of sixth grade. Tell students to buy a small spiral notebook and keep a journal for the last month of fifth grade. Require them to write at least 10 entries of at least 500 words. Each entry should address different ways school and life are likely to change when sixth grade begins. During the last week of school, discuss common journal topics, such as social challenges. Put students into groups and assign each group a potential issue. Have them brainstorm possible solutions or ways of dealing with the issues effectively.
Elementary school is drawing to a close and students are getting closer to being young men and ladies. Have them capture the child they still are with a collage. Supply magazines and art supplies and encourage students to bring personal effects, such as photographs, from home. Tell students that their collage should symbolize who they are at this moment. Later, each student will be able to look at his collage and remember a younger, different version of himself. Get easels from the art department and give every student a canvas. Supply paint and tell students to paint a self-portrait. Stress that artistic ability isn't nearly as important as painting themselves as they see themselves. When the portraits are finished, discuss them. Ask students how they believe they will see themselves this time next year. Do they hope to change? Why or why not? How have they changed since the previous year?