Grade 8 Grade Kit: Printable Practice with Little Bear (PDF)

The Grade 8 Grade Kit is a 141-page printable practice kit for children ages 13 to 14, for home or classroom. Little Bear, a fluffy black Pomeranian, cheers your child on from page to page. Twenty minutes a day is plenty.

What is inside

• Math, 31 pages of first-year algebra: properties and closure, rational and irrational numbers, zero and negative exponents, roots and fractional exponents, equations with variables on both sides, equations with fractions and decimals, solving formulas, multi-step inequalities, absolute value equations, graphing lines, writing equations of lines, graphing linear inequalities, parallel and perpendicular lines, systems of equations by graphing, substitution and elimination, systems word problems, systems of inequalities, adding, subtracting and multiplying polynomials, special products, factoring, adding and subtracting rational expressions, rate, work and mixture problems, relations and functions, function notation, solving quadratic equations, the quadratic formula and parabolas, conditional statements, always, sometimes or never, a review and a check.
• Reading, 16 pages: literal and figurative meanings, the history of English, words in context, comparing consumer documents, proposition and support, comparing texts, judging a summary, a story (The Last Mile), setting, mood and tone, forms of poetry, themes across time, spotting fallacies, and true-facts pages on Newton's laws of motion, density and buoyancy, the periodic table and the transcontinental railroad.
• Spelling, 20 pages: eight weeks of word lists, practice pages and tests (-tion, -sion and -cian; the prefixes in-, im-, il- and ir-; -ary, -ery and -ory; math and science words from Greek and Latin; words that sound alike; -ize, -ise and -ify; doubled consonants; and words that are often misspelled).
• Language and writing, 10 pages: varied sentence openings, parallel structure, combining ideas, editing for grammar, who, whom and pronoun case, commas that matter, dashes, hyphens and ellipses, a biographical narrative, a persuasive composition and a letter of application.
• Study tools, 7 charts: exponents and roots, properties and algebra rules, lines and systems, polynomials and quadratics, formulas, units of measure, and grammar and writing.
• Games, 7 pages: Function Match memory cards, a word search, Secret Code Riddles, a Solution Path Maze, a logic grid, number riddles and two Math Cages puzzles.
• Super Smart Challenge, 24 pages: optional pages that reach two grades up, to Grade 10 level. Parallel lines and transversals, the triangle inequality and exterior angles, similar triangles, proportions in triangles, quadrilaterals, areas of regular polygons and sectors, surface area of cones, pyramids and spheres, equations of circles, systems of three equations, complex numbers, exponential growth and decay, logarithms, sequences, permutations and combinations, compound probability, allegory and archetypes, reading drama, evaluating an argument, diction and tone, comparing sources, DNA and protein synthesis, atoms and isotopes, energy and momentum, and World War I. Each page teaches first, then lets your child try.
• For the grown-up: a how-to page, an 8-week plan, a skills checklist, a progress tracker, a reward chart, a full answer key and a certificate.

Good to know

Traditional, skills-first practice based on California's pre-Common Core standards (math and English language arts, 1997; science and history-social science, 1998). Grade 8 math here is the 1997 Algebra I course, the first-year algebra many students take in Grade 8. The challenge math pages follow California's 1997 Geometry, Algebra II and Probability and Statistics standards. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the California Department of Education. States set their own standards. Check yours.

This kit is supplemental practice, not a curriculum. It was made with AI assistance. Every answer in the key is computed by code and checked, and each science and true-facts page is checked against at least two reference sources, listed after the answer key.

Some pages are shared with our other kits: 24 Grade 8 level pages (15 math, 2 reading, 4 true-facts and 3 language pages) also appear as the Super Smart pages of our Grade 6 Grade Kit. The exponents and roots chart and the properties and algebra rules chart also appear in our Grade 7 kit, and the formulas and units of measure charts also appear in our Grade 6 and Grade 7 kits. The lines and systems chart and the polynomials and quadratics chart also appear in our Grade 9 kit. The 24 Super Smart pages (Grade 10 level) also appear as regular pages in our Grade 10 Grade Kit. If you own those kits, you already have them.

Print on US Letter paper. The inside pages print well in black ink; the cover looks best in color. Print the cut-out page (the Function Match cards) on one side only, on heavier paper if you have it.

You receive one PDF file, delivered after purchase. For your own family or your own classroom. Please do not resell or share the file.