In Grades 3, 4, and 5, school routines, learning experiences, content, and extended learning at home and in their communities helps to develop and strengthen learning habits. The classrooms, playground, learning areas, and the approaches to learning all provide the learning environment. Subject learning crosses over into other curricular areas and often includes making choices so learners can pursue their interests and develop their confidence. Subject area learning includes engagement in projects and activities that allow children to make meaningful and real contributions.

In the Elementary Block, learners are:

• forming an understanding that each person sees and experiences the world in different ways.
• developing a clearer sense of right and wrong and learning that they have responsibilities to treat others with acceptance and respect.
• increasingly able to understand beyond their life experiences; they may worry about the unknown.
• funny and sometimes a little silly and yet, they can become serious and self-regulated according to the context.
• becoming more engaged with and proficient in various technologies to explore the world.
• learning to set goals.

Elementary Block learners need:

• reassurance that they are capable and resourceful even when things seem hard.
• support as they make and judge their own progress.
• to belong and to be valued as they may feel self-conscious at times, especially when others seem to excel in areas they find challenging.
• opportunities to build relationships and to learn about respecting one another.
• time to share who they are, what they like, and how they think.
• to feel safe in taking some risks, encouragement to make mistakes, patience with self and others, and skills to solve problems.

Elementary Block learners grow:

• as their sense of fairness can turn into the ability to empathize; their ability to think more abstractly develops into critical thinking and problem solving; and as their efforts to persist are recognized so these learners begin to understand the value of hard work.
• when their curiosity is encouraged to develop into persistence and creativity.
• as they become more independent and more aware of who they are, what they want, and what they need.
• as their efforts to be kind, honest, and generous to others are reinforced so that they see themselves and their actions as important to the well-being of their community.