Chores can do more than keep the house tidy? That’s right! Invest your learner in hands-on sorting activities like sorting the silverware or sorting laundry that also helps build cognitive development and motor skills! Sorting involves both visual memory and discrimination, as well as identification of patterns, relationships, similarities, and differences to help children learn problem solving.
For lower elementary students: Word Family Eggs
- Supplies needed: plastic easter eggs, permanent marker
- Write word ending (like “-at”) on top half of the egg. On the other half, write letters like b, c, f to make different words in the -AT family.
For upper elementary/middle school students:
- Sorting (words into parts of speech, prefixes/suffixes, main ideas vs. supporting details, genres)
40 Summer Reading & Math Activities for your Learner
Do you find yourself out of ideas but with lots of time with your child over the summer? Wanting to avoid “the summer slump?” Look no further than these 40 fun ideas that will engage your child as well as continue their learning over the summer!
Build reading and writing into everyday activities.
- Take a weekly trip to the library to pick out new books to read aloud, read independently or read side-by-side.
- Choose a chapter book to read aloud to the whole family.
- Let kids choose their reading material (at least some of the time). When kids can pick a book that interests them, they are more likely to stick with it.
- Non-fiction books can make great read-alouds too. Ask a librarian to suggest books that match your family’s interests.
- Listen to kid-friendly podcasts. Check out NPR for kids or The Past & the Curious: a history podcast for kids and families, to name a few. Podcasts are especially great for older kids. Have a conversation about it – even better!
- Listen to an audiobook
- Choose a book that’s been made into a movie. Read the book and then watch the movie and compare
- Watch TV with the sound off and closed captioning on
- Watch a classic movie together as a family and discuss the plot and characters
- Have your child read directions for how to play a new game and explain the rules to play to the family
- Have your child help with meals by writing up a grocery list, finding things in the grocery store, and reading the recipe aloud during cooking time. They can even practice their math skills by measuring the ingredients!
- Summer trading cards. Kids can dive deeper into summer reading by exploring characters with the Trading Cards activity from ReadWriteThink, which provides students with the opportunity to expand their understanding of the reading by creating new storylines and characters. A nifty Trading Card interactive tool provides additional support.
- Encourage writing. Give your child a stack of stamped, addressed postcards for them to write to grandparents, friends, or cousins about their summer adventures. Another way to engage young writers is to encourage your students to spend some time researching and writing community stories — not only does it build research and writing skills, but helps kids develop a deeper sense of place. Find more good summer writing ideas from Start with a Book: keep a nature journal, create a poetree, share a recipe, or keep a scrapbook of reviews of summer adventures.
- Kids blog! Arrange for a safe, closed community so that your students can blog over the summer. Check out Kids Learn to Blog for some of the options of free blog space for kids with appropriate security.
- Track Reading, Enter a Contest, or Set a Goal. Try a tangible chart to help as an incentive. An alternative idea, especially for older readers (adults included) is to download the county library app and sign up for the summer reading program. Teens (rising 6th grade-12th grade) who complete Summer Reading will be entered into a raffle for Visa gift cards. There will be multiple chances to win! More information about summer reading can be found at Arlington Public Library.
- Read about your world. TIME for Kids online builds nonfiction literacy and awareness of world events by providing access to hundreds of fresh news articles (you can filter by grade). There are many children’s magazines offered by Cricket Media, National Geographic, and other publishers for purchase as well.
- Get into geocaching. Everyone loves a scavenger hunt! Try geocaching, where families search for hidden “caches” or containers using a GPS app. Try a variation on geocaching called earthcaching where you seek out and learn about unique geologic features. Find more details about geocaching plus links to geocaching websites in this article from the School Family website, Geocaching 101: Family Fun for All, in Every Season.
- Make cool things. Find loads of hands-on activities at Start with a Book. Just choose from one of 24 topics (art, music, dinosaurs, bugs, detectives, flight, sports, stars, planets and the night sky … and more) and start exploring.
- Practice sorting. Sorting develops executive function skills, improves memory, problem solving, and fine motor skills! Your child can practice sorting with silverware, laundry, toys, and playing cards (by shape, color, or number). Check out this word family easter egg activity from Natural Beach Living and even more word families to practice with your reader. To practice letter sounds, try a muffin tin letter sound sort!
- Have a family game night! Play games like Boggle, Scrabble, and Bananagrams to strengthen your child’s word building skills. Challenge older children with focus on words with the same prefix or suffix and talk about how the words are related.
- Make a travel brochure. Create a travel brochure for a place you are going to travel to for vacation or a dream vacation spot! Check out books from the library and use online sites for research.
- Create an outdoor journal. Press wildflowers, find their botanical names, and add them to an outdoor journal. Find bugs/small creatures outside or on a hike and research scientific names, what the animal eats, fun facts, etc.
- Have a library scavenger hunt. Create a list of different types of books for your child to find at your local library. For example, find a book with “dog” in the title, a book about dinosaurs, super heroes, etc. Check out the books they find and add them to your summer reading chart!
Take Math Outside:
- Practice important skills with Water Balloon Math | No Time for Flash Cards
- Make a hula hoop clock to review time related problems | Creekside Learning
- Build 3D shapes with sticks | Creative Star Learning
- Play Marshmallow Shoot and Measure | No Time for Flash Cards
- Practice measurement in your flower bed or garden | The Educators Spin On It
- Heading to the beach? Use seashells for counting, sorting or a fun memory game | No Time for Flash Cards
- Practice math facts with a beach ball | Saddle Up for 2nd Grade
- Have a shape scavenger hunt (try 3D shapes for a challenge!) | Math Geek Mama
- Use a hundred’s chart to play Euclid’s Game or Hundred Chart Nim | Let’s Play Math
Try Lego Math:
- Work on place value with LEGO | The Science Kiddo
- Create a visual for multiplication | Frugal Fun 4 Boys
- Build a rocket powered Lego car | Frugal Fun 4 Boys
- Play LEGO Baseball (and discuss statistics!) | Teach Mama
- Practice double digit addition and subtraction | Real Life at Home
- Create LEGO Duplo Puzzles for your kids to put together
- Play with Puzzles: Work on a jigsaw puzzle together or try some brain teaser puzzles, like Magic Squares, Magic Triangle, Sudoku or Kidoku puzzles . Challenge each other to mental math races, or discover a new board game. Research is showing that board games can help kids develop the intellectual, cognitive and social skills they need to succeed in school and life. Used in conjunction with therapy or tutoring, they can be an especially effective, simple and inexpensive way to help kids with executive functioning and learning issues improve in these areas. Check out the link for some ideas of games that are not only fun but that also work the brain!
- Have a Family Game Night! Counting, adding, and subtracting are all parts of the popular game, HiHo! Cherry-O! Add an addition and subtraction sign and numbers to the spinner to make the number sense connection. Monopoly Junior is also a great game for kids to practice number recognition, money management, and counting.