Summer learning loss or as it is sometimes referred to – the dreaded summer slide! What is it and how are we going to prevent it?
Summer learning loss is the loss of academic skills that can happen over long vacation times. This can be especially damaging to reading skills that have been gained over the school year. But you already know that!
So how do we prevent summer reading loss and still have fun??
We have 4 literacy ideas to share today that can prevent or lessen the summer learning loss for your students! Ideas that are fun and that are easy for parents to do with their child!
#1 – FREE SUMMER READING
We have worked so hard over the school year to build up our students’ reading skills and we sure don’t want all those skills lost. The only way to prevent this is to KEEP READING!
So how can parents (who may or may not have books at home their child can read) help with this? Finding FREE online books for students to read over the summer is a huge help! And we have to provide the links to the parents. They may not know how to find good sites so we need to point them in that direction
One site, Storyline Online, is especially good for younger readers. You most likely have used it or seen it used. Celebrities read the books online. This site is free and students really enjoy it.
Another free site is Booksmart by Worldreader. This site has lots of books to choose from that students can practice their reading skills on by reading to themselves.
And, of course, we can’t forget to mention the public library! Our city libraries are sometimes forgotten about but are a wonderful free way to enjoy books all summer long.
#2 – WRITE A LETTER
Another super easy activity to help prevent summer learning loss is to suggest to parents is having their child write letters or notes over the summer. Then mail them! Mailing a grandparent, family member, their teacher and getting letters back is exciting for kids! They love it and will be practicing reading and writing skills too.
#3 – Summer Review Packets
Another super easy way to prevent the summer slide is to send home summer review packets!
This is how it usually happens for me…..
The end of the school year is notorious for being super busy and crazy with all the field trips, award ceremonies, grades, packing the classroom, etc…. You name it and it is due now! And in the midst of all this craziness, you get requests from well meaning parents for you to gather some work to send home for over the summer.
We love that parents want to work with their child over the summer. That isn’t the problem. It is just the timing! Gathering work for multiple students who have different literacy needs can be very time consuming.
The easiest and best thing to do is have fun summer packets on a variety of learning levels already printed and ready to go when parents ask for this!
One of the great parts of these packets is they do not have grade levels stated on the packets! You can send home kindergarten level work to those students needing that level but also send home to other students second grade level work who need that. Appropriate levels to keep the learning going over the summer!
Parents will be happy, students will have fun and you will be thrilled that your students didn’t experience summer learning loss. AND you didn’t have to spend hours hunting down all those activities when you were already short on time!
#4 – PLAY OUTSIDE
Our last tip is to be sure parents know it is good for kids to get a break from screen time and get outside to play! Not just organized play, but play where they have no agenda but to use their imagination, creativity and to have FUN! These can be free too- go on a backyard or porch picnic, take a bike ride or go play at the park…Just get outside and have some fun too!
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