With summer quickly approaching, teachers and parents are thinking about the “summer slide”. It's completely normal for students to lose some of what they learned over the past year if they are not practicing those skills. But with a few simple tips, you can help your students retain what they've learned and Stop the “Summer Slide”.
What is the Summer Slide?
The “summer slide” refers to the slide backward children can make in academic skills over the summer months. This can happen when the skills that were taught during the school year are not practiced during the summer to ensure ongoing proficiency. While I believe that all students deserve a break and should enjoy their break, students must practice the skills they have learned in a FUN way to prepare for the next school year! I have a few tips to help stop the summer slide and keep your students engaged in practicing skills over the summer!
5 Ways to Stop the Summer Slide
It's essential that we make learning fun and connect it to real-life experiences so that children are engaged. This will make children want to learn and use their skills!
1. Read Daily
This is the number 1 tip I tell my students' parents at our end-of-the-year conferences. Read every day! Whether it's a bedtime story, a trip to the library, or your child “reading” the shopping list, it's essential to keep reading!
2. Journal
I like to encourage my students to continue writing over the summer. You don't have to put together a fancy summer writing journal with 50 prompts! I send my students home with a stapled pack of writing paper and tell them to write. If they do something fun, write about it! If they go on vacation, write about it! If they miss a friend, write them a letter! This will help them practice writing skills over the summer in a fun way.
3. Play Games
I know what you're thinking. Playing games doesn't sound like learning but you'd be surprised with the number of skills that are practiced by just playing a game! Skills such as taking turns, matching, counting, and so much more are practice when playing a board game.
4. Try a New Recipe
Put all the reading, math, and problem solving skills to the test in the kitchen by whipping up something yummy!
5. Send Home Summer “Work”
You can find summer work packets all over the internet but I have a few reservations with these. First, I do not like to prep these lengthy packets of worksheets to only send them home to maybe be used! My “summer work” is completely digital so it requires very little prep on my end and I do not have to waste reams and reams of paper at the copy machine.
Boom Cards are interactive, digital task cards that can be accessed on the internet! At the end of the school year, I assign my students 40 Boom Card decks that focus on many of the math and literacy skills that we learned throughout the year. This requires very little prep on my end (no printing or assembling packets that may or may not be used) and parents love that their child can easily access Boom Cards on their iPad or home computer. Here are some Boom Card bundles that I use to assign decks for the summer months.
If you want to learn more about Boom Cards, check out this blog post.
Not sure how to communicate these fun summer activities to your student's parents? Grab this FREE handout that you can send home on the last day of school that tells parents how they can help prevent the summer slide over the summer!
Use these tips to prevent the summer slide and your students will be ready for next school year! Comment below if you have any other tips I could add to the list!
