Incoming Fifth Grade
Summer Reading List
These are recommended books for your grade. We suggest reading at least two of them before returning to school in August. There is no specific project required. Happy reading!
Brown Girl Dreaming
Jacqueline Woodson Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become. |
Chasing Space
Leland Melvin In this revelatory and moving memoir, a former NASA astronaut and NFL wide receiver shares his personal journey from the gridiron to the stars, examining the intersecting roles of community, perseverance and grace that align to create the opportunities for success. |
Real Friends
Shannon Hale Shannon and Adrienne have been best friends ever since they were little. But one day, Adrienne starts hanging out with Jen, the most popular girl in class and the leader of a circle of friends called The Group. Everyone in The Group wants to be Jen's #1, and some girls would do anything to stay on top . . . even if it means bullying others. |
The Misadventures of Maude March
Audrey Couloumbis Eleven-year-old Sallie March is a whip-smart tomboy and voracious reader of Western adventure novels. When she and her sister Maude escape their self-serving guardians for the wilds of the frontier, they begin an adventure the likes of which Sallie has only read about. This time however, the "wanted woman" isn't a dime-novel villian, it's Sallie's very own sister! What follows is not the lies the papers printed, but the honest-to-goodness truth of how two sisters went from being orphans to being outlaws—and lived to tell the tale! |
The EArth Dragon Awakes
Laurence Yep Over the years the earth has moved many times under San Francisco. But it has been thirty-eight years since the last strong earthquake. People have forgotten how bad it can be. But soon they will remember. |
Homesick
Jean Dritz The accolades speak for themselves:"Fritz draws the readers into scenes from her youth in the turbulent China of the mid-twenties. One comes to appreciate the generous affection of her nurse/companion Lin Nai-Nai, the isolating distance in her mother's grief over losing a second child, the dynamics of a suffering population venting its hostility on foreigners, and most of all, the loneliness of a child's exile from a homeland she has imagined constantly but never seen. |
Circle of Doom
Tim Kennemore One day, Lizzie Sharp decides to concoct a potion to cast a spell on her family’s only neighbors, the unbearable, ancient Potwards. The very next day, Mrs. Potward breaks her hip and the couple disappear forever. It could be just a coincidence, but Lizzie is convinced of her own magical powers, and the temptation to involve both her younger brothers in her ambitious spellmaking plans is irresistible. As one potion leads to another, all three Sharp children become ridiculously entangled in a web of secrets, conspiracies, and misunderstandings. |
The Borrowers
Mary Norton All is well until Pod is spotted upstairs by a human boy! Can the Clocks stay nested safely in their beloved hidden home, or will they be forced to flee? The British author Mary Norton won the Carnegie Medal for The Borrowers in 1952, |
Dear Mr. Henshaw
Beverly Cleary Beverly Cleary’s timeless Newbery Medal-winning book explores difficult topics like divorce, insecurity, and bullying through the thoughts and emotions of a sixth-grade boy as he writes to his favorite author, Boyd Henshaw. |
Shiloh
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor In this animal adventure from Newbery Medal-winning author Cynthia Rylant, Stumpy Squirrel has just settled into a new nest in a magnificent pin oak in Gooseberry Park. It's the perfect spot for her babies to be born! When they arrive healthy and strong, Stumpy's three good friends--a Labrador retriever, a wise hermit crab, and a bat who eats Chinese food--are thrilled. But after a terrible ice storm destroys the pin oak, Stumpy disappears. It takes a special combination of courage, humor, and tenacity for Stumpy's friends to rescue her babies and bring her home again. Arthur Howard's black-and-white illustrations illuminate the companions adventures throughout. |
Math Skills
In order to maintain your child’s math skills over the summer, please review the following skills periodically throughout the summer.
Mastered Math Skills for Fifth Grade Entry:
Helpful Math Websites:
Mastered Math Skills for Fifth Grade Entry:
- Place Value Addition and Subtraction Facts
- Multiplication and Division Facts
- Understanding of Multiples and Factors
- Comparing and Ordering Whole Numbers
- Rounding
- Equivalent Fractions
- Adding and Subtracting Equivalent Fractions
- Identifying Polygons
- Decimal Values, Adding and Subtracting Decimals
- Powers of 10
- Customary and Metric Units of Measurement
Helpful Math Websites:
- www.ixl.com
- www.softschools.com
- www.factmonster.com
- www.sheppardsoftware.com
