All MS students are tasked to read the novel Fish in a Tree by Linda Mullaly Hunt (as part of the SSFS All-School Read) and two other books of interest. Humanities faculty recommend titles from Maryland’s Black-Eyed Susanand Newbery nominees and award winners.

While students are not required to generate a product (e.g. book report, poster, etc.), English classes are launched with conversations about students’ favorite summer reads. There is no need to bring in these titles in the fall; faculty encourage families to utilize their local libraries for books and suggestions.

Global Languages REQUIRED summer work for NEW 7th or 8th grade students: See below or download the PDF here. 

Welcome to Sandy Spring Friends School! We hope you are excited to learn French or Spanish! In order for you to feel comfortable and be familiar with the material you missed in our program, we ask that you complete EACH Quizlet set created for you.

Everything given below is optional and is meant to be used to help students be successful when they come back in the fall. If you have questions please reach out to heidi.duff@ssfs.org. Download PDF version of this information here. 

Below are the skills that students need to be proficient in so that they are successful in the class they are entering in the fall.

Sixth Grade Math

•  Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division with whole numbers
•  Understanding of fractions
• Understanding of place value and decimals

Pre-Algebra

• Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division with fractions
•  Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division with decimals
• Understanding of negative numbers

Bridge to Algebra

• Solving one and two step equations
• Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division with fractions, decimals and integers
•  Understanding slope
• Combining like terms and distributive property

Algebra

• Combining like terms and distributive property
•  Solving equations, including putting an equation in slope-intercept form
• Graphing a line in slope-intercept form
• Solving a system of equations by graphing

Geometry

• Solving equations and systems of equations
•  Evaluating expressions and using formulas
• Simplifying and evaluating radical expressions and equations
• Understanding scale factor
•  Applying area and perimeter to figures with algebraic side lengths

General websites to use to strengthen the skills given above. Some of the websites have games, some are meant for students to do the work on them and some allow for printing of worksheets to be done with paper and pencil.

• https://www.mathsisfun.com/
• https://khanacademy.org/
• http://www.math-drills.com/
• http://www.mathworksheets4kids.com/
• https://ixl.com – if you have an account or want to create an account
• http://kutasoftware.com – for students entering Algebra or Geometry

The DC metro area is ripe with summer events and opportunities for enrichment in Science. All of the museums in the following list have great regular daily exhibits to visit; in addition here are some of the calendars and websites the Middle School Faculty use to find special events with our families. See below, or download the PDF here.

For 6^th graders, who will study Earth’s systems and structures, some great options might be:

• Events at Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (usually free)
• The Irvine Nature Center
• Events at the National Aquarium

For 7^th graders, who will study Sustainability, some great options would include the above places as well as:

• Events at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (visits and talks are free, but classes, camps, and some events require tickets)

For 8^th graders, who will center their study on the Human Body, some great options might be:

• The National Museum of Health and Medicine
• Events at the Maryland Science Center (also runs camps and classes)

Because of our spiraling curriculum in which every year of Middle School Science explores multiple scientific disciplines, there may be particular events or exhibits at all of the above locations that would interest students. In addition, there are a few event calendars that are not particularly tied to our curricula but often have things that are of interest to our students.

• DC STEM Network calendar
• Events at the National Building Museum
• Events at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (usually free)
• National Geographic Museum Calendar

(Click here to download PDF of info below)

Rising Sixth Graders: World Cultures and Geography

Local Day Trips: The following Smithsonian museums on the Mall in Washington: African Art Museum, Freer Gallery and Sackler Gallery (Asian Art), The National Gallery of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, National Museum of the American Indian, Natural History Museum, National Museum of African American History. Also, the National Geographic Museum (17th St. NW).

Books: Excellent historical fiction available at the public library.

• Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi (An orphaned boy in medieval England leaves his village and is taken on by a traveling juggler known as Bear. He learns about the social, cultural and political world of England during the time of plague and warfare.)
• Stowaway by Karen Hesse (Based on a true story, a boy stows away on the ship on which Captain Cook began a secret mission 1768 in search of an unknown continent on the bottom of the globe. He survives storms and cannibals and proves himself a valuable member of the crew.)
• Dragon’s Gate by Laurence Yep (A boy leaves his village in China in 1867 to join his father in California to work on the transcontinental railroad. He survives danger, disease, death and racial prejudice, hoping someday to return to China and fight for independence from Manchu rule.
• Journey to Jo’burg: A South African Story by Beverley Naidoo (A sister and brother journey from their village to find their mother in Johannesburg and learn about the dangers of their country during the fight against apartheid.)

Rising Seventh Graders: U.S. History from Colonization through the Civil War

Local Day Trips: In Washington D.C.: Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of African American History, American History Museum, the National Archives, Frederick Douglass House (Anacostia), President Lincoln’s Cottage (Rock Creek Church Road, NW), Ford’s Theater (10th St., NW)

In Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia: Mount Vernon (Alexandria); Monticello (Charlottsville); Manassas National Battlefield (Prince William County); Antietam National Battlefield (Sharpsburg); Monocacy National Battlefield (Frederick); Harpers Ferry National Historical Park (West Virginia); Fort McHenry (Baltimore); the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park (Washington DC to Cumberland, MD), USS Constellation (Baltimore).

National Parks: The National Park Service has many historical sites across the country. If you are traveling, check their web site for parks around the country.

Books: Excellent fiction and historical fiction available at the public library.

• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (An orphaned young woman moves from the Caribbean to live with her aunt and uncle in the Puritan settlement of Wethersfield, Connecticut and struggles to find her place in a very different world.)
• A Break with Charity: A Story about the Salem Witch Trials by Ann Rinaldi (While waiting for a church meeting in 1706, Susanna English, daughter of a wealthy Salem merchant, recalls the malice, fear, and accusations of witchcraft that tore her village apart in 1692.)
• Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson (A yellow fever epidemic wipes out 10% of Philadelphia's population in three months. 16-year-old Matilda, separated from her sick mother, is forced to cope.)
• The Fighting Ground by Avi (Thirteen-year-old Jonathan goes off to fight in the Revolutionary War and discovers the real war is being fought within himself.)
• The Girls by Amy Goldman Koss (Each of the girls in a middle-school clique reveals the strong, manipulative hold one of the group exerts on the others, causing hurt and self-doubt among the girls.)

Rising Eighth Graders: U.S. History from the 1870s to the present

Local Day Trips: Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of African American History, American History Museum, Baltimore Immigration Museum (Locust Point), Baltimore Museum of Industry (Key Hwy.), B & O Railroad Museum (Baltimore).

National Parks: The National Park Service has many historical sites across the country. If you are traveling, check their web site for parks around the country.

Books: Excellent historical fiction available in the public library.

• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. (A classic coming of age story of an Irish American adolescent girl struggling to survive life in a tenement in early 20th Century New York.)
• Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix. (The story of the shirtwaist factory strike and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in 1911 from the perspective of two immigrant girls and the daughter of a wealthy businessman. Excellent history about industrialization and labor in early 20th Century America.)
• Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (The hardships of living in Oklahoma during the dust bowl in the 1930s told in a series of poems.)
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (The story of the children of an African American family living in rural Mississippi during the Depression. An instance story of the horrors of growing up in the Jim Crow South.
• Red Moon at Sharpsburg by Rosemary Wells (As the Civil War breaks out, India, a young Southern girl, summons her sharp intelligence and the courage she didn't know she had to survive the war that threatens to destroy her family, her Virginia home, and the only life she has ever known.)
• True North: A Novel of the Underground Railroad by Kathryn Lasky (Because of the strong influence which her grandfather, an abolitionist, has in her life, fourteen-year-old Lucy assists a fugitive slave girl in her escape.)
• Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (The unforgettable story of young Jethro Creighton who comes of age during the turbulent years of the Civil War.)
• The Cold War Pigeon Patrols and Other Animal Spies by Danielle Denega (How animals are used for espionage in a setting that deals with war.)
• Crash by Jerry Spinelli (Seventh-grader John "Crash" Coogan has always been comfortable with his tough, aggressive behavior, until his relationship with an unusual Quaker boy and his grandfather's stroke make him consider the meaning of friendship and the importance of family.)
• The Girls by Amy Goldman Koss (Each of the girls in a middle-school clique reveals the strong, manipulative hold one of the group exerts on the others, causing hurt and self-doubt among the girls.)
• The Greatest: Muhammad Ali by Walter Dean Myers (An illustrated biography of boxing great Muhammad Ali that addresses his politics, his fight against Parkinson's disease, and boxing's dangers.)
• Guts by Gary Paulsen (The author relates incidents in his life and how they inspired parts of his books about the character, Brian Robeson.)
• Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson (Sixteen-year-old Hattie Brooks inherits her uncle's homesteading claim in Montana in 1917 and encounters some unexpected problems related to the war in Europe.)

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