As the school year winds down, students are ready to say goodbye to the classroom and hello to summer. However, teachers hope that students will not forget all they have learned while on break. Honestly, it is heartbreaking to see how much summer learning loss occurs each year. Thus, teachers work hard to create fun ways for students to focus on summer learning. Even if students just work on a few activities over the summer, it will help keep their minds sharp and ready for school in the fall.
The Focus of Summer Learning
During summer break, students do not have the support of a teacher. Additionally, they may live in households where parents are busy working or taking care of other children. Thus, learning may not be the focus. Thankfully, the focus of summer learning is not learning new content! It is about reviewing essential skills, such as reading comprehension and sight words. Or, it may be addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division depending on the grade. Since the material is at home, students need to be able to complete it independently or with minimal help. Honestly, this may even encourage them to complete the activities over summer break since many children crave independence.
Fun Ways to Encourage Summer Learning
Thankfully, there are tons of creative ways that encourage students to keep learning over the summer.
Editable Building Brick Task Cards for Sight Words
Students will practice their fine motor skills and sight words at the same time! They will pick a card with a letter or sight word. Then, they will build it using small bricks. Since the cards are editable, teachers can choose which words or letters to focus on. Additionally, a writing template allows students to record their sight words. Even six color-coded sets are included, such as Pre-Primer words and Fry’s First 100 words. Students will have a blast while practicing words!
Shark Unit
Many times, students love shark week! Even if they do not like sharks, there are so many fun activities to complete during this week. Thus, it is the perfect way to encourage students to review critical skills over the break. Thankfully, this unit will take students on an underwater journey to the world of sharks! They will work on reading skills to learn about sharks, such as their habitat, characteristics, and essential facts. Additionally, students will focus on science standards, such as the life cycle of a shark and different types of sharks. There is even a shark-themed math unit! Best of all, there are multiple levels of reading and writing activities for differentiation! Ultimately, this resource allows students to work on all academic areas in engaging ways throughout the summer.
Shark Week Craftivity
Students will create their own All About Sharks booklet to show off all they know. There are even opinion-based prompts that students will love to respond to! This includes them explaining if they would rather swim with a dolphin or shark. Since students are new writers, there are graphic organizers and differentiated prompts to help. Honestly, students will have so much fun creating their booklet that they won’t even realize they are learning during the summer.
If you buy the Shark Unit, you already have access to this incredible product!
Ocean Animals Color by Sight Words
Sight words are essential to learn! Luckily, these quick and engaging pages make practicing sight words exciting. Each page has ocean animals and a list of sight words. Then, students use the code to color the adorable animals. Since every classroom and sight word list is different, each page is editable! Teachers can choose the skills or words students need to work on. The colors can even change! Students will be so proud of their design when finished!
Summer Learning Color by Code Freebie
Color by Code is an activity students love! They are fun while being educational. Thus, this FREE Color by Code activity is perfect for summer! Students will design cute summer-themed pages by following a code. Best of all, teachers can customize the skills/words and colors!
Teachers know the impact summer learning loss makes on students. Thus, it is essential to encourage students to work on a bit of learning over the summer. Reviewing skills is critical whether they are in a summer program at school or at home! With the fun activities above, students will have so much fun that they want to keep learning. If you want to incorporate even more fun, read about my indoor recess activities here to help beat the summer heat.
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