🦖 Free printable CM1 summer workbook: the summer that tames fractions

Your child has just finished their CM1 (9-10 years old), and that year was unlike any other: fractions fractions made their entrance, closely followed by decimal numbers, long division and dictations where a forgotten subject-verb agreement costs dearly. You would like them to keep all this fresh during the summer — but at 9 or 10 years old, they no longer really want someone sitting next to them to “do school.” Double good news: a free printable CM1 summer workbook is more than enough to maintain the essentials, and CM1 is precisely the age when a child can revise almost alone. We explain what to prioritize for revision, how to let them take control without losing the course, and where to download your free workbook — without giving your email address.

What should really be retained from a CM1 year?

CM1 opens the cycle 3, the consolidation cycle, which runs until 6th grade. Specifically: everything discovered this year — fractions, decimals, division — will be reviewed and deepened in 5th grade, then in middle school. Summer therefore does not have to "close the program." Its only job is to prevent the foundations from crumbling, so that 5th grade starts on solid ground instead of relearning everything in September.

Here are the end-of-5th-grade achievements, domain by domain, and what really deserves your revision minutes this summer:

Two projects clearly stand out: the fractions and decimals on the math side, thesubject-verb agreement and homophones on the French side. These are what will make the difference at the start of the school year — let's start with the biggest piece.

Why are fractions and decimals THE milestone of 5th grade?

Until 3rd grade, all the numbers your child knew were used to count whole objects : 3 marbles, 48 pages, 1,000 meters. Fractions break this comfortable representation: 3/4, it is less than 1, even though it is written with a 3 and a 4. And 2,5 is not "two numbers stuck together by a comma": it is 2 units and 5 tenths. This shift is the major intellectual project of 5th grade — so it is perfectly normal that it remains fragile in July.

Two classic traps you will see come back all summer:

• Comparing 1/3 and 1/4 : since 4 is greater than 3, many children answer that 1/4 is greater. You need to have cut (and eaten) quite a few pies to feel that the more you share, the smaller the pieces get.
• Comparing 0.8 and 0.25 : "25 is more than 8, so 0.25 is greater." This is the most common error in cycle 3, and it is corrected by going back through tenths and hundredths, not by repeating the rule.

The solution boils down to one word: manipulate. A pie to share in equal parts, the measuring cup during pancake batter preparation ("fill it to 3/4"), the double decimeter to measure in centimeters and millimeters, shopping money (0.50 €, that's 50 hundredths of a euro). Ten minutes of concrete manipulation anchor more than a page of abstract exercises — the page comes next, to check understanding.

What activities for the rest of the program, domain by domain?

Long division: one per day, not ten

Long division is the most demanding operation in CM1 (9-10 years old), because it chains everything else: "backwards" tables ("in 54, how many times 6?"), multiplications, and subtractions. If the tables from 6 to 9 are hesitant, the whole division collapses. The right balance for summer: only one long division per session, carefully done, plus an oral times tables game — in the car, at the beach, while doing the dishes. Regularity does the work, not quantity.

Subject-verb agreement and homophones: the hunt for traps

In CM1, you no longer learn to write: you learn to proofread yourself. Two habits to maintain: for each verb, ask "who is doing the action?" before writing the ending; and for homophones, use substitutions that always work — a/à (if you can say "avait" (had), it's a), and/est (if you can say "était" (was), it's est), not forgetting on/ont and ses/ces. A dictation of two well-proofread sentences is better than a whole page. A tricky variant: write a sentence yourself containing two errors, and let your child hunt them down — 9-year-olds love correcting adults.

Reading: the summer of the first real novels

CM1 is the year when you leave picture books for the short novel : 80 to 120 pages, short chapters, a real plot — adventure, mystery, prehistoric creatures… Aim for 20 minutes of silent reading per day, at the time the child chooses. Your role has changed here too: you no longer read for them, you ask "tell me about your chapter." Summarizing a story aloud is the best comprehension exercise there is, including implicit understanding — and it works very well while hanging laundry.

Can your child really revise alone? Yes — and here is how

At 9-10 years old, a child is capable of sustaining 25 to 30 minutes alone on exercises whose instructions are understood. This is not a bonus, it is a goal in itself: autonomy in work is the skill that CM2 (10-11 years old), then middle school, will expect from them. Your role therefore changes in nature. In CP (6-7 years old), you were co-pilot, sitting next to them for every line; in CM1, you become route planner :

• Before the session (2 minutes) : choose the page together, read the instructions, check that they are clear.
• During (25-30 minutes) : the child works alone, quietly. You are not leaning over their shoulder — that is precisely the goal.
• After (5 minutes) : correct together, without a red pen. A simple "are you sure about this line?" triggers self-correction, which teaches ten times more than a correction given outright.

Regarding rhythm, a schedule 4 days out of 7 preserves real holidays while establishing regularity:

And if just seeing the workbook triggers a bargaining negotiation? No arm wrestling: we gathered our methods in a guide to make a child who refuses revise, without blackmail or shouting.

Where to download a free printable 4th grade holiday workbook?

Many “free workbooks” online actually cost you your email address, or even a full registration. At Kidibook, it’s one click: you download the free holiday workbook in PDF format and print it at home. No forms, no ads.

The printable format has a decisive advantage in 4th grade: it allows you to target. If the tables are mastered, no need to waste ink on them; if decimals are tricky, print an extra page. You can also pick from the 4th grade online activities from the World of Dinosaurs, sorted by topic — fractions, decimals, division, homophones — to build a custom program.

Rex and the World of Dinosaurs: when fractions become fossils

A 4th grader doesn’t get up in the morning to “consolidate decimal fractions.” They get up to continue an adventure. That’s the principle of Kidibook workbooks: each grade is a world, and 4th grade is the World of Dinosaurs, guided by Rex. Sharing a clutch of triceratops eggs equally is fractions; measuring a diplodocus femur to the nearest millimeter is decimals; sorting fossils from the dig site into boxes of 8 is division. The concepts are the same — the desire to start isn’t.

If the free workbook hits the mark, the Kidibook 4th grade subscription takes over: a new adventure workbook every day, tailored to their grade, to 7 €/month. And for the car, the beach, or a week at grandparents’ without a printer, the book “My 4th Grade Holiday Workbook” gathers the complete adventure in paper version with 14,99 € (free shipping from €25). Finally, if the morning ritual took hold during the summer, My Super Year continue it at the start of school with a daily challenge throughout the school year.

In summary: a free printable CM1 summer workbook, a pace of 4 days out of 7, fractions handled before writing, and a child who ticks off their own sessions. At the start of school, they will approach 5th grade with solid decimals, reread dictations — and the pride of having managed their revision like a grown-up. Print the first page, put the chocolate bar on the table, and let Rex do the rest.