Megan Reynolds

I am a teacher & designer. Connecting with students & seeing them enjoy learning is my favorite feeling on earth! I hope you enjoy this article!

5th Grade Social Emotional Choice Board Tutorial for Teachers

Build your own Social Emotional Choice Board for 5th Grade in minutes! Keep kids engaged & learning using these tactics & templates

Common Core Standards: SL.5.1, SL.5.2, SL.5.4

To use a choice board in your 5th Grade Classroom during Social Emotional you will need to create the Social Emotionalchoices (there are lots of examples), organize the classroom, and have a goal;

Time-saving, differentiation, and dynamic classroom management are my favorite reasons to use a choice board!

Integrating choices every day you will need to hone in on the best way to apply 5th Grade Social Emotional choice boards to your classroom style!

Here are a few ideas and instructions on choices, classroom management and getting buy-in from your5th Graders

Ideas & Examples of Great 5th Grade Social Emotional Choices

Gratitude Jar: Write Notes of Thanks

A Gratitude Jar is a special jar where you write little notes about things you’re thankful for. You fold them up and put them inside. Later, you can read them and remember the good stuff!

Compliment Cards: Share Kind Words

Compliment Cards are small notes you write to say nice things to friends. Tell them what you like about them or praise them for something good they did!

Mindful Breathing: Practice Calmness

Inhale slowly through your nose, fill your belly with air, hold it for a moment, then let it out slowly through your mouth like you’re blowing a feather. Repeat and feel calm.

Emotion Charades: Guess the Feeling

Act out an emotion without speaking, while others guess what you’re feeling. It’s like silent acting for feelings! Try to express clearly so friends can guess right.

Kindness Quest: Do a Secret Good Deed

Kindness Quest: Secretly do something nice for someone without them knowing. It could be cleaning up, leaving a nice note, or helping out. Shh, it’s a secret mission of kindness!

Empathy Collage: Create a Picture of Care

Make a collage showing empathy! Cut out pictures of people caring for others from magazines or draw them. Glue them on paper to show how we can understand and share feelings.

Friendship Bracelets: Weave & Share Bonds

Make cool bracelets with colorful threads to show friendship! Pick colors, twist & tie knots to create unique designs. Exchange with friends as a bond symbol.

Positive Affirmation Poster: Draw Your Strengths

Create a poster with pictures and words that show what you’re good at and what makes you strong. Fill it with your talents and kind thoughts about yourself!

Feelings Journal: Reflect on Your Day

Write about your day, how you felt, why, and what you learned. Use words or draw. It’s your private space to understand your emotions. 😊📝✨

Using a Choice Board to Differentiate Social Emotional in a 5th Grade Classroom

Keep It Simple

Everyone “teacher & student” should know exactly what they are doing. If you don’t make it even easier!

Differential Instruction vs Saving time?

There is nothing more irritating than “Saving Time” with a Choice Board & ending up with “More work!”. Are you using this to hit standards or save time or both?

"Self Guided" or "instruction-based"?

If you giving out work, should they do it on their own or are these more instructions for each choice?

General rule, if the grade is > 3 there is more work per choice.

FREE Blank Fillable & Custom Choice Board

All ages, all grades where you need 9 grid choice board. Start loving learning again!

How To Manage Your 5th Grade Classroom During Social Emotional (With a Choice Board)

I find its easiest to use a big board at the front of the classroom where all students can see the choices then decide what they want to do.

This often will be coming in from a break or transition between subjects.

If you can get all students to know whats expected during a choice activity it becomes one-hundred times easier to manage the class & have everyone know what choices they have!

There are three core steps you have to hit when using a Choice Board;

1) The Set Up
2) The Instruction
3) The Q+A

1) The Set Up

Select your choices, decide on how you are going to use this time in your classroom. Build the choice board

1) The Instruction

Tell the students what they are going to be doing (this becomes easier over time) Simply start with 3 options & move from there.

1) The Q & A

Does anyone have questions? This will help you or the next time. Remember the goal is to make this easier each time!

Why Use A Choice Board?

So, let’s chat about choiceboards and why they’re like the coolest thing ever in your classroom.

Picture this: kiddos bouncing into the room, eyes lighting up because they get to pick their own adventure in learning new words.

It’s like a mini vocab party, and everyone’s invited!

We all have our own jam, right? Some of us are little artists, others are born performers, and some love to get lost in stories. Choice boards are like a buffet of fun learning snacks, so every munchkin finds something tasty that helps the vocab stick!

And here’s the kicker – when the little ones get to steer the ship, they turn into these mini captains of learning. They’re making the calls, and with every choice, they puff up a bit more with confidence. It’s a win-win – they’re learning and feeling like the boss at the same time.

Plus, for us teachers, it’s like having a secret helper in the room. We get to sprinkle in all sorts of activities that match our students’ levels and what makes their hearts tick. It’s like custom-making a learning playlist that gets every kid grooving to the vocab beat. How cool is that?