Rising 5th Grade

Rising 5th Grade Summer Learning

Scroll to the bottom of this page to find additional information regarding student summer work.

Required Math Program:

This summer we are again using DreamBox, a rigorous, adaptive, and engaging online math program to help students reinforce their math proficiency over the summer months and smoothly transition back to school in August. Practicing 4-5 lessons a week consistently every week of the summer (40-50 lessons total) will help ensure that skills are reinforced to prepare for a smooth transition back to school in August. If your child wants to do more (because the program is fun!), all the better.

Please note that for Grades 1-6, your DreamBox payment will be billed directly to your student's Smart Tuition account and for Grades 7-8, through their Follett textbooks orders. The fee is $15. Also note that students will have access to (and in some cases use) DreamBox throughout the school year.

To Login to DreamBox:
On a Computer: https://play.dreambox.com/login/4x6r/m3ez
On an iPad: Download both free DreamBox Apps (Green and Blue). Use this code when prompted: 4x6r/m3ez (iPad Directions linked on SpartanNet Class pages)
Under the Text Login section, type in username (first initial + last name + grad year) & password (spartan1). (You should not need a classroom code.)

While we hope all students will take advantage of this online option, we know that some students may have a summer without internet access or just need a break from online work. If you fall in this category, students should complete the Math Minutes workbook for the grade level they recently finished. For Rising 5th grade, this is Math Minutes for 4th, ISBN 978-1574718157. These workbooks are available for purchase online or through local bookstores.

If you have questions or need assistance, please contact MS Dean, Natalie Luke, at nluke@athensacademy.org.

Optional Multiplication and Division Practice:

Review the following websites with your child to determine which are preferred and would be beneficial. Have fun!

mathplayground.com (favorites include Thinking Blocks and Grand Prix)
multiplication.com
coolmath.com (Math Lines: XFactor is great)
gregtangmath.com (Kakooma and Breakapart are excellent)
fun4thebrain.com
xtramath.org
arithmetic.zetamac.com (timed drills for math operations)
Regular flashcards
Math "War" Card Game: Remove all face cards from a deck of cards; keep Aces and count them as ones. Each player flips over a card and the first one with the correct product of the two cards wins and keeps the cards. If a tie, then "war"; place 3 face down cards, flip the 4th and the winner gets the whole bunch. Play until one has all cards.

Optional Keyboarding Practice:

For students entering grades 3- 7, computer keyboarding is an essential skill that will benefit them greatly as we increase the use of technology. Typing.com offers fun, helpful, and free keyboarding practice. Students should create an account to keep track of their progress (not for teachers to monitor).

Required Books
Read BOTH books and answer associated discussion questions.

A Long Walk to Water
by Linda Sue Park

Ghost (Track, Book 1)
by Jason Reynolds

Choice Books
Choose at least TWO, preferably from different genres; as well, select titles you have NOT read previously.
Printable lists available below.

HISTORICAL FICTION
The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson
This, the only memoir published by a former Schindler’s list child, perfectly captures the innocence of a small boy who goes through the unthinkable.

Boys Without Names by Kashmira Sheth
Eleven-year-old Gopal and his family leave their rural Indian village for life with his uncle in Mumbai, but when they arrive his father goes missing and Gopal ends up locked in a sweatshop from which there is no escape.

My Brigadista Year by Katherine Paterson
Cuba in 1961, Lora, 13, volunteers for Premier Castro's literacy brigadistas, a governmental initiative designed to abolish illiteracy in the country. The brigadistas are tasked with going into the countryside to teach others how to read and write. Despite her family being reluctant, Lora soon leaves for training and journeys to the countryside finding deep satisfaction in teaching, but the atmosphere is intense with the ever-present threat of attack.

A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen
When the Berlin Wall went up, Gerta, her mother, and her brother Fritz are trapped on the eastern side where they were living, while her father, and her other brother Dominic are in the West-four years later, now twelve, Gerta sees her father on a viewing platform on the western side and realizes he wants her to risk her life trying to tunnel to freedom.

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
Eleven-year-old Delphine is like a mother to her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, ever since their mother, Cecile, left for a radical new life in California. When they arrive from Brooklyn to spend the summer with her, she sends them to a day camp run by the Black Panthers. Unexpectedly, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern learn much about their family, their country, and themselves during one truly crazy summer.

Stella by Starlight by Sharon Draper
When a burning cross set by the Klan causes panic and fear in 1932 Bumblebee, North Carolina, fifth-grader Stella must face prejudice and find the strength to demand change in her segregated town.

Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm
In 1935, when her mother gets a job housekeeping for a woman who does not like children, eleven-year-old Turtle is sent to stay with relatives she has never met in far away Key West, Florida.

Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk
Growing up in a rural Pennsylvania town in the aftermath of two world wars, Annabelle confronts a violent new bully and must defend a traumatized World War I veteran who is wrongly implicated in the bully's disappearance.

REALISTIC FICTION
Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed
In Pakistan, Amal holds onto her dream of being a teacher even after becoming an indentured servant to pay off her family's debt to the wealthy and corrupt Khan family.

Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea (or any in series)
It’s the start of fifth grade for seven kids at Snow Hill School and only Mr. Terupt seems to know how to deal with them all. He makes the classroom a fun place, even if he doesn’t let them get away with much . . . until the snowy winter day when an accident changes everything—and everyone.

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander (or any in series)
Fourteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health.

The Ethan I Was Before by Ali Standish
Ethan was always willing to accept a dare, especially from his best friend, Kacey. But that was before the accident. Before his family moved to the small town of Palm Knot, Georgia; the home to Coralee, a girl with a big personality and even bigger stories. Coralee may be just the friend Ethan needs, except Ethan isn’t the only one with secrets. Coralee’s are catching up with her, and what she’s hiding might be putting both their lives at risk.

The Janitor's Boy by Andrew Clements
Fifth grader Jack Rankin finds himself the target of ridicule at school when it becomes known that his father is one of the janitors, and he turns his anger onto his father.

Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks by Jason Reynolds
An inside look at one day’s walk home from school. Ten tales (one per block) about what happens after the dismissal bell rings. A funny, poignant look at the detours we face on the walk home, and in life. Through this format, we see a range of experiences, highlighting what binds us as well as what makes us and our lives unique.

Merci Suarez Changes Gear by Meg Medina
Merci Suarez had no idea just how different sixth grade would be. For starters, Merci and her older brother, Roli, are scholarship students. They don’t have a big house and they do extra community service to make up for their free tuition. So when Edna Santos sets her sights on Merci’s school-assigned buddy, Merci becomes the target of Edna’s jealousy. And things aren't going well at home. Merci’s grandfather has been acting strangely lately. No one in her family will tell Merci what's going on, so she’s left to her own worries, while feeling alone at school.

Moo by Sharon Creech
When 12-year-old Reena's parents lose their jobs in the big city, they decide to move to a small coastal town in Maine. Reena and her brother, Luke, are volunteered by their mother to help Mrs. Falala, an elderly and cantankerous woman whose collection of animals includes a pig named Paulie, a cat named China, a snake named Edna, and the ornery, stubborn, slobbering, bellowing cow, Zora. This book easily could have been titled Love That Cow (or Hate That Cow, actually).

The Only Game by Mike Lupica (any in Home Team series)
Can a young baseball star maintain his love of the game after the loss of his brother?

Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
Eleven-year-old Melody is not like most people. She can't walk. She can't talk. She can't write. All because she has cerebral palsy. She also has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She's the smartest kid in her whole school, but NO ONE knows it. Most people--her teachers, her doctors, her classmates--dismiss her as mentally challenged because she can't tell them otherwise. But Melody refuses to be defined by her disability. And she's determined to let everyone know it...somehow.

Peak by Roland Smith (or any in the Peak Marcello series)
After fourteen-year-old Peak Marcello is arrested for scaling a New York City skyscraper, he's left with two choices: wither away in Juvenile Detention or go live with his long-lost father, who runs a climbing company in Thailand. But Peak quickly learns that his father's renewed interest in him has strings attached. He wants his son to be the youngest person to reach the Everest summit--and his motives are selfish at best. Even so, for a climbing addict like Peak, tackling Everest is the challenge of a lifetime. But it's also one that could cost him his life.

Short by Holly Goldberg Sloan
A girl who is rather petite for her age is cast as a Munchkin in a regional theater production of The Wizard of Oz. She finds friendship in an elderly neighbor and in a number of people involved with the show: her director, a talented costume designer, and Olive, a woman with dwarfism who plays a fellow Munchkin. Julia's tendency for self-analysis and her unique view of things is often very funny. It's refreshing that Julia doesn't mind being short and believes she's "little, but big inside."

Spy School by Stuart Gibbs (or any in series)
Ben Ripley may only be in middle school, but he’s already pegged his dream job: C.I.A.. Unfortunately for him, his personality doesn’t exactly scream “secret agent.” Because of his innate nerdiness, Ben is not surprised when he is recruited for a magnet school with a focus on science—but he’s entirely shocked to discover that the school is actually a front for a junior C.I.A. academy. Could the C.I.A. really want him? Actually, no. There’s been a case of mistaken identity—but that doesn’t stop Ben from trying to morph into a supercool undercover agent. And through a series of hilarious misadventures, Ben realizes he might actually be a halfway decent spy…if he can survive all the attempts being made on his life!

Terror at Bottle Creek (or any title) by Watt Key
In this gritty, realistic wilderness adventure, thirteen-year-old Cort is caught in a battle against a Gulf Coast hurricane. This thrilling survivalist story is Hatchet for the post-Katrina generation.

The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo
Rob, who passes the time in his rural Florida community by wood carving, is drawn by his spunky but angry friend Sistine into a plan to free a caged tiger.

The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle by Leslie Conner
Mason Buttle is the biggest, sweatiest kid in his grade, and everyone knows he can barely read or write. Mason’s learning disabilities are compounded by grief. Fifteen months ago, Mason’s best friend, Benny Kilmartin, turned up dead in the Buttle family’s orchard. An investigation drags on, and Mason, honest as the day is long, can’t understand why Lieutenant Baird won’t believe the story Mason has told about that day.

Ungifted by Gordan Korman
When Donovan Curtis pulls a major prank at his middle school, he thinks he’s finally gone too far. But thanks to a mix-up, instead of getting in trouble, Donovan is sent to the Academy of Scholastic Distinction, a special program for gifted and talented students. Although it wasn’t exactly what Donovan had intended, the ASD couldn’t be a more perfectly unexpected hideout for someone like him. But as the students and teachers of ASD grow to realize that Donovan may not be good at math or science (or just about anything), he shows that his gifts may be exactly what the ASD students never knew they needed.

Wonder by R. J. Palacio
Born with a facial deformity that initially prevented his attendance at public school, Auggie Pullman enters the fifth grade at Beecher Prep and struggles with the dynamics of being both new and different, in a sparsely written tale about acceptance and self-esteem.

MYSTERY
Framed! by James Ponti (or any in series)
In Washington, D.C., twelve-year-old Florian Bates, a consulting detective for the FBI, and his best friend Margaret help thwart the biggest art heist in United States history.

Masterminds by Gordon Korman (or any in series)
Eli has never left Serenity . . . why would he ever want to? Then one day, he bikes to the edge of the city limits and something so crazy and unexpected happens, it changes everything. Eli convinces his friends to help him investigate further, and soon it becomes clear that nothing is as it seems in Serenity. The clues mount to reveal a shocking discovery, connecting their ideal crime-free community to some of the greatest criminal masterminds ever known. The kids realize they can trust no one—least of all their own parents.

Scat by Carl Hiaasen
Nick and his friend Marta decide to investigate when a mysterious fire starts near a Florida wildlife preserve and an unpopular teacher goes missing.

NONFICTION/BIOGRAPHY
Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl
Find out where the bestselling author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG got all his wonderful story ideas in this autobiographical account of his childhood! (And where did he find them? From his own life, of course!)

Dare to Dream!: 25 Extraordinary Lives by Sandra McLeod Humphrey
In this inspiring collection of biographies - covering historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Helen Keller as well as contemporary figures such as Michael Jordan - we learn that heroes were once ordinary people whose strength of character helped them to achieve extraordinary things. The message is clear: No matter who you are or where you come from, you too can accomplish extraordinary things, as long as you dare to dream and never, never, never give up!

SCI-FI/FANTASY
Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix (or any in series)
In a future where the Population Police enforce the law limiting a family to only two children, Luke has lived all his twelve years in isolation and fear on his family's farm, until another "third" convinces him that the government is wrong.

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (or any in series)
When a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and demanding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly nasty troll.

The Books of Elsewhere by Jacqueline West (or any in series)
When eleven-year-old Olive and her distracted parents move into an old Victorian mansion, Olive finds herself ensnared in a dark plan involving some mysterious paintings, a trapped and angry nine-year-old boy, and three talking cats.

The Hidden Oracle (or any in the Trials of Apollo series) by Rick Riordan
How do you punish an immortal? By making him human. After angering his father Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus. Weak and disoriented, he lands in NYC as a regular teenage boy. Without his godly powers, the deity must learn to survive in the modern world until he can somehow find a way to regain Zeus's favor. But Apollo has many enemies and he needs help. And he can think of only one place to go… Camp Half-Blood.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (or any in series)
Percy Jackson is no ordinary teenager. He's the son of Poseidon and is accused of stealing Zeus' lightning bolt, the most powerful weapon ever created! With storm clouds brewing, Percy embarks on an incredible cross-country journey to prove his innocence, recover the bolt, and prevent a war among the gods that could destroy our world!

Orphan Island by Laurel Snyder
Nine orphans live by themselves on an idyllic island, which provides them with everything they need as long as they follow a few rules: learn to swim, learn to read, and there can never be more than nine children on the island. Each "year" a boat arrives with a new youngest child and departs with the oldest. When Jinny rebels and refuses to leave and the balance is skewed, the island responds in kind, and when disaster strikes, Jinny has only one choice if the rest are to survive.

LEGENDS
Beast by Watt Key
Adam says he can’t remember where he was when he went missing in a Florida swamp. But he does remember. He was driving with his parents, and the car crashed when his father swerved to avoid colliding with a giant, Sasquatch-like creature. Haunted by his parents’ disappearance and hounded for claiming to have seen Bigfoot, Adam sets off into the deadly wilderness on a hunt for answers as to what really happened that night. The answer he finds is more terrifying—and more fascinating—than he could have imagined.

Holes by Louis Sachar
As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a horrible correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.

Wishtree by Katherine Applegate
Red has stood her ground for more than a century, watching over the houses in her neighborhood and befriending the animals that call her home. Each May, her branches are strung with wishes, a tradition stemming from an Irish immigrant who once lived on the property. Red sees all, including an act of hate aimed at new renters, a Muslim family. After so many years of keeping quiet, Red and the animals take action, aiming to connect Samar, a young Muslim girl, with her neighbor Stephen.

Rising 5th Grade Summer Reading List (alpha by title)

Rising 5th Grade Summer Reading List (alpha by genre; includes summaries)

Discussion Questions for Required Reading
Answer the discussion questions in complete sentences. You may type or write your responses. We will discuss them as a class in August.

Summer Reading Record