Getting ready for 5th grade: a summer checklist
By Eric Green · Updated June 11, 2026
Fifth grade is the year fractions and decimals stop being a unit and become the whole game. It is also the year North Carolina adds a third EOG: science. A rising 5th grader does not need a summer of worksheets. They need their 4th-grade computation kept warm, their fraction sense intact, and a little curiosity banked for the science year ahead.
What 5th grade assumes your kid kept from 4th
- Multi-digit multiplication and division. Fifth grade uses these inside bigger problems without reteaching them. Slow computation makes every decimal and volume problem feel harder than it is.
- Fraction equivalence and comparison. Knowing 2/3 equals 4/6, and which of two fractions is bigger, is the floor that 5th-grade fraction arithmetic stands on.
- Adding and subtracting like-denominator fractions. Fifth grade moves to unlike denominators almost immediately.
- Decimal notation for tenths and hundredths. Fourth grade introduced it; 5th grade computes with it.
- Reading longer nonfiction with evidence. Fifth-grade passages, including the science ones, are denser and the questions lean on inference and text evidence.
What’s genuinely new in 5th grade
Fraction and decimal arithmetic, for real
Adding fractions with unlike denominators, multiplying fractions, dividing with unit fractions, and all four operations with decimals. This is the heaviest new math load since multiplication arrived in 3rd grade. Summer kitchen math (doubling a recipe that uses 2/3 cup) is genuinely useful prep.
Volume
The first truly three-dimensional math. Stacking and packing boxes, layers of cubes. Lego builders have a head start.
The Science EOG
New in 5th grade: a third EOG covering ecosystems, weather, matter, forces and motion, and body systems, drawing on science from earlier grades too. No summer cramming needed, but nature documentaries, museum trips, and “why does that happen” conversations all quietly count. EOG Practice includes 5th-grade science questions, so a rising 5th grader can preview the format early in the year.
A realistic summer plan
Ten to fifteen minutes a day, four or five days a week, weighted toward computation fluency and fractions. Use the final-quarter report card ratings to pick review targets, anything still marked developing in Q4 is where September friction will come from. Our guide to reading end-of-year reports shows what to look for, and the summer learning loss guide explains why little and often beats big and rare.
EOG Practice in summer mode covers 5th-grade reading, math, and science with short, low-stakes sessions and a poster your kid reveals as they practice. $14.99 covers the whole summer, no recurring charges.