It’s important for kids to engage in educational activities during the summer in order to prevent the summer slide (the slide backwards in skills that children can make over the summer months).
Here are some fun ideas for keeping your students or children engaged in learning this summer.
Science Experiments & STEM Activities
Hands-on science experiments are a great way to engage children in learning, especially when they can be done outdoors. Not only are they fun to do, they also help develop their problem-solving, questioning, observation, & critical thinking skills. Recording their observations also helps keep their math & language arts skills sharp.
Click here to find sun science experiments and STEM challenges for the summer months that teach children about solar energy, the sun’s heat, sundials, the importance of sunscreen, the refraction of the sun’s light, shadows, and more.
These water cycle experiments can also be done during the summer months and are great visuals for helping children understand condensation, evaporation, precipitation, and collection.
Read Daily
One of the most important things kids can do over the summer to keep their language skills sharp is read daily! However, with the pandemic it may be difficult for students to find books. CLICK HERE for Free Children’s Books During COVID-19.
Squirt Gun Learning Races & Activities
CLICK HERE to see how to set up activities that let children “take aim” at letters, numbers, math, sight words, etc. These water squirting activities are such a fun way for children to review skills – they won’t even realize they are learning!
Free Sun Math Game
CLICK HERE to download this free sun themed learning game that can be customized for any skill – addition, subtraction, counting, colors, letters, numbers, etc. Make it extra fun by letting children put on a fun pair of sunglasses while completing the game.
Writing
In order for children to retain their writing skills learned during the school year they need to practice them over the summer months.
Encourage children to keep a journal over the summer or create their own stories or books.
CLICK HERE to download these cute Dog Days of Summer Writing Prompts & Crafts as an incentive to get students to write about their summer plans or activities.
Interactive Summer Learning Games
These digital Boom Cards resources have fun summer themes to keep student interest as well as interactive, engaging skill practice. They are easy to assign for the summer months, self-checking with sound files, and students won’t even realize they are learning!
Click any of the links below to view free playable previews and additional details or watch this short video to see them in action.
ABC Letters Under the Sea (Matching Uppercase & Lowercase Letters)
ABC Beginning Sounds Under the Sea
CVCe Under the Sea (CVCe words)
123 Under the Sea (Numbers to 20)
Summer Making 10 Differentiated for Google Classroom
