The Summer holidays are approaching and the kids will be off school for nearly two months! We’ve heard a lot about the Summer Learning Loss that occurs when the kids take these long breaks away from school. To guard against these losses, it’s important to include some Summer holiday learning activities to support your child’s learning and development.
Summer Holiday Learning Activities
What can we do to stop the Summer Slide? These were some activities that our teacher sent us…
Read Every Day
We have recommended reading lists here:
- Recommended Reading List to Encourage Reading
- G1’s Reading List
- G2’s Reading List
- A Recommended Reading List for Tweens
We also recommend reading aloud and audio books:
Write Regularly
- Write on a regular basis, e.g. diary, blogs, postcards, letters, emails, stories.
- Create a scrapbook of summer.
- Write a postcard to family/friends.
- Keep a journal in a special book.
Regular handwriting practice is especially important for the younger children so they don’t go back to school and find that their hand hurts because they have not been using their writing muscles all summer.
Younger children can also practice their handwriting using programs like:
- LetterJoin
- Handwriting Practice
- Student Handouts – Handwriting Practice Worksheets
- Make Your Own Handwriting Worksheets
Younger children will also benefit from fine motor skills activities that build hand strength:
- Construction
- Bread making
- Play dough (or Clay Art)
- Lego
- Jewellery making
Related:
- More ways to support handwriting practice
- Resources for encouraging writing
- Encouraging the reluctant writer
Times Table Games
Like it or not, there are some things that do require rote learning. Times Tables is one of those things. Unfortunately, rote learning for younger kids is tedious. It also requires regular practice to reinforce recall. To ease the process and remove some of the pain, make it fun using games and songs:
- Missing number times tables – Share a times table number sentence and ask what is missing? For example:
- 2 x ? = 18
- ? x 3 = 9
- 5 x 5 = ?
- Using coins or counters, scatter them on the table, estimate how many are there and then count them in multiples of 2, 3, 4, and so on.
- Flippy floppy fingers – for two players. This game is like rock paper scissors but after a count to 3, display any number of fingers from 1 – 10. The first player to multiply the numbers on both hands first wins a point.
- Dominoes – Play 3s and 5s or a basic game where you add up the number of spots. Let the number of points equal the number of spots. The first person to 51 wins.
- ‘33’ game – count in multiples of 3. Each person can say 1, 2 or 3 numbers during their turn. The person that lands on 33 is out. Repeat with other multiples.
Yahtze dice game – a bit more complex but great for mental maths skills and lots of fun!- I Spy Multiplication
- Ipad Games:
Times Table Activities
- Count in multiples – e.g 2, 4, 6, 8, 10…. Count forwards and backwards together. Miss one out and ask: which have I missed? Use fingers to support counting.
- Times table frenzy grids. Time yourself to see how fast you can do it. Can you beat your record each time? Use a completed multiplication grid if you find it tricky.
- Take a 100s square and colour in the multiples of the times table you are focusing on. Can you spot a pattern?
- Test each other as a family on your times table – try to beat each other!
- Download some times table songs/raps for those tables you find tricky. Mr DeMaio‘s channel has some good ones, like:
Math Practice
- Consolidate formal methods of written addition and subtraction (column method). Videos like Math Antics can be useful:
- Maths problem solving activities – have fun solving problems together by playing games like dominoes, connect 4, sudoku. You can also try these problems at home.
- Practise telling the time using an analogue watch. You can also use these apps:
Spelling
- Practise high frequency spellings – 100 high frequency words and 200 high frequency words. Done that? Check out Fry’s 1000 high frequency word list.
- Play word games:
- More fun ways to practice spelling at home.
More Activities to Beat the Summer Slide.
Education.com
For more resources, you should also check out Education.com. They offer loads of Summer activities for kids from Kindergarten to Sixth Grade. In addition to this, their resources page offers an extensive range of materials from preschool all the way through highschool covering a variety of subjects like:
- Math
- Reading & Writing
- Typing
- Science
- Social Studies
- Foreign Language
- Arts
And enrichment activities, such as:
- Arts & Crafts
- Coloring
- Recipes
- Offline Games
- Social Emotional Learning
This is one example of the numerous worksheets they have on their resources page:
Download this worksheet:
Worksheets are another way you can encourage your child to exercise her handwriting muscles.
Last But Not Least…
Spend time as a family, go out, have fun, and socialise. Have an adventure or two because there is more to your child’s development than simply academics. Some of the most powerful learning a child can have occurs through experiences.
Nurture for the Future 
