Sneak in Some Fun S.U.M.M.E.R. Learning

Don't let summer derail everything your students have learned! We know you can’t visit every one of your students over the break to make sure they are keeping up with learning, so here are some tips to send with your students into SUMMER! ...or to use with your own kiddos.

S Schedule a little fun and a little learning. Have students create a daily or weekly schedule for how they will spend their summer. Not only will this help them maintain some structure over the break, but you can help them understand time management, and encourage them to plan for reading time as well as chores, vacations, pool time, and mobile play time.

U Unplug the TV, the phone, the computer–get outside and play! Send students into summer break with a scavenger hunt challenge.  Ask them to come visit you after summer with at least three items from the list.  Include items like: a museum or zoo brochure; two different types of leaves; a receipt from the dollar store; a picture of something they made; a baseball, movie, or concert ticket stub; sand from the beach (or any other vacation souvenirs they couldn’t purchase).

M Mobile…okay you can plug back in now. There are so many apps that are educational and kids simply love to play them. Send students home with a list of your favorite apps to play.  Sneak in a few educational ones, and maybe even include your username so that students can challenge you to a game of Words with Friends or Yushino.  We recommend our Mini Mystery Readers App for iPad. Students will be intrigued by each mystery and won’t even notice they’ve put in 20 minutes of reading each day.

M Make something.  Encourage students bake a cake (check out our ice cream recipe that will improve following directions skills), write a book, make a bowl, a lantern, a musical instrument, or a gift for father’s day. Any hands-on activity that requires students to read and follow instructions is another opportunity for them to continue to learn and grow over the summer.  Plus they’ll have something they made and that they can be proud of.  Try this  craft <free download> to send home with students for the summer. 

E Experiments are a fun way to learn, and you don’t need a science lab to complete them—just some supplies from around the house.  Whether kids fry eggs on the sidewalk or melt crayons in the car, they’ll be learning.  Send students home with this experiment <free download> on freezing water. Get more science experiment ideas here.

R Read, Read, Read!  The last week of school choose a few novels to read aloud to the class. Read only the opening chapters and then stop at a cliffhanger. As a result, students will be so curious to find out what’s about to happen they’ll seek out the book to finish during the summer. 

We have tons of reading materials to help make summer reading easy and fun! Check them out here.

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Bonus Activity Ideas: 

• Nighttime bowling - Drop glow sticks in water bottles and make the bowling ball from a frozen water balloon.
  
• Play Out-Door Scrabble by creating scrabble letters on cardboard.
• Encourage students to take CPR lessons or pool safety lessons.Hand out flyers with sign-up information from your local pool on the last day of school.
• Make a plan to meet parents and students for a summer field trip to your local zoo or museum.