Welcome to Middle School!

Your math teachers are very excited to meet you this September!

To help you stay math-strong and get math-ready for 6th grade, we’ve put together a list of optional summer practice work. Anything from 5 minutes per day to 30 minutes per week is helpful in keeping you current with the math you learned in elementary school.

The skills practice is a mix of worksheets that you can print at home or online skills practice using iXL.  You will get a letter from Ms. Richard, the K-12 Math program coordinator, explaining how you can access your iXL account this summer.

Before you get started, here are some helpful hints to keep you organized for your optional summer work:

1. It’s always a great idea to keep your work in one location. So get a binder or a spiral bound notebook where you can write things down. Looking back on your problem solving later might be helpful to you. Even if you use iXL, sometimes you need to write things down to solve problems. If you have a lot of trouble in any specific area, your teacher can look at your work later to see where you might have made mistakes.  
2. Do your work in pencil so that you can erase, if necessary.
3. Try doing the work without a calculator if you can. Practicing your math facts while you are problem solving will help you to build your computation skills.
4. Don’t get frustrated. If you are stuck, just move on to the next problem. Maybe if you take a break, you’ll have a brainstorm :) And if you don’t, it’s ok. Your teacher will be happy to help you in the fall. Write down your questions so you remember to ask them later!
5. Have fun! This work is not intended to be stressful for you. It’s just summer exercise for your math-brain.

The important things we want you to focus on are:

            Multiplication and Division facts

Fractions

            Mixed Numbers

            Decimals

If you want to make flashcards to practice any of these skills, that’s a great idea! Multiplication and division facts (up to 12) are incredibly important to your success in middle school. Even a few minutes a day to keep up your fluency is worthwhile.

There is a “playlist” chart attached at the end of this letter. You can access the practice materials by clicking the links (or copying them to your browser). There are links to specific iXL skills for practicing concepts you learned in 5th grade and there are also “workbooks” (with answer keys) if you want to print your own materials so that you can problem solve off-line.

If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Richard, krichard@aps1.net.

Getting ready for Grade 6 Playlists