Ages 7-9

Physical Development: Changes in the body

These changes vary from gender, ethnic origin, genetics, hormones, nutrition, environment, or disease.

  • 7 year olds- Children experience a growth spurt from 2 to 2.5 inches.

  • 8 year olds- There physical change in coordination, muscle control, and perfecting their skills. They start to look like big kids. Typically, children will show off their athleticism- if they will participate in sports or avoid them.

  • 9 year olds- There is so much change at this age because they are reaching adolescence. Girls experience a huge growth spurt. The brain is nearly adult size.

Social Development: Way an individual relates to others

  • At the third grade level, children look up to and are very easily influenced by their peers.

    • Because of this and other atributes in their emotioanl state, this can cause them to compare themselves to their peers and be very insecure, in a classroom you should want it to feel like a safe place for your students and not a place where they need to be insecure.

  • The level when they start devleoping how to process and show emotions properly.

  • The main social aspect in a child's life at this age is, starting to narrow their friend circle, and being around those they gravitate towards more for mutual interests.

    • To help students with this transition, you could seat them in ypur classroom in various table groups, changing it every so often so that everybody gets a chance to sit with everyone and to get to know everyones likes and interests.

Cognitive Development: Changes in thinking, reasoning, and decision making

At the third grade level, student's minds are consistently changing and adapting to the world around them. The children are experiencing cognitive milestones, as well as cognitive development within their classrooms. They are changing the game within their problem solving skills, and are learning and developing their own interests and thoughts.


We can foresee the following milestones from students of ages 7, 8, and 9:

    • Understanding cause and effects in schooling as well as in their outside environments.

    • Beginning to plan ahead in activities like drawing, building, or experimenting.

    • Discovering and implementing new forms of writing, especially in opinion pieces.

    • Begin collecting things, whether it be objective, or in per say, data and research.


Within a classroom the students may operate in such ways:

    • Energetic and optimistic about how much they can learn and do at once.

    • Limited attention span, though can become focused on a specific objective.

    • Act in accordance to the approval from peers, teachers, and family.

    • High interest in learning the way things work.


What can we as educators do to fuel their cognitive abilities at this age?

In summary, we can provide students with independent activities, though still being there to provide them with the support and tools they need to stay organized and well managed. We can also provide them with higher thinking/ logical lessons, to keep the students engaged and interested in their learning.

The website attached provides a more in-depth examples of implementing these in the classroom.

What to expect from children at this age?

  • Students to have opinions on things.

  • Students finding interest in joining groups, clubs, or sports.

  • Have the ability to explain was has been tuaght to them

  • Participate in group work and group discussions properly