The first day of summer has come and passed and now we are into the dog days of summer. Parents and students alike are excited for the warm days, swimming, barbeques and other activities that only summer can bring. In addition, here are a few ideas parents can use to keep the summer fun, grow, and spend time together as a family.
Language Arts
There are many things you can do to work on language arts skills over the summer, including going to the library for story hour, puppet shows, and classes. Avid readers may enjoy a read-a-thon, in which you can challenge them to finish a certain amount of books and offer them a prize if they succeed. Another way to work on reading and listening skills is storytelling. This can be done while camping, even if it is out on your lawn. Make sure to make s'mores and take turns telling each other stories around the campfire.
To work on writing skills, encourage students to make up and write down their stories in a journal. They can use their imagination and come up with some wacky stories, or they can write about the day's events. If they have a friend in another state or another town, they may find it fun to be pen pals and send letters or emails to each other.
Math
Slip math into your summer by playing games. Board games such as Monopoly and Sorry both use math skills. If your student is sick of playing the board games in your closet, you can always try other games such as "Throw Down" or the "License Plate" game if you are on a long car ride.
To play "Throw Down," you need the number cards from a deck or regular playing cards. Hand out cards to all players. Then, have each player play one card in the center. Whoever plays the bigger card wins the hand and the points of the cards multiplied together. For example, with two players, player one plays a 3 and player two plays a 6, player two would get 18 points if they can correctly say the answer to 3 times 6. At the end of the game, both players add up their points to see who wins.
To play the "License Plate" game, you look for license plates with 2 or 3 digit numbers. Add the numbers together to see who can get the highest total. This person scores one point, and the player with the most points at the end of the trip is the winner. To vary the game, you can subtract the two numbers, and the person with the lowest difference scores the point.
Another way a student can work on math skills is to keep a record of the daily temperatures for a week or longer. Ask questions such as "Was it hotter on Monday or Tuesday? How much hotter?" Have them make a bar graph to view the temperatures and make a prediction about the temperatures for the next day and compare the predictions to the actual readings.
Science
Summer is a great time to plant a garden. Not only can experiment with different plants and soils, but they can also work on math skills as well. Have your child plan the size of the garden, the layout as to where plants should go and how close or far apart each plant should be, and whether to start the garden from seeds or little plants. When doing this, have a discussion with your child about how these decisions affect the proximity of each plant and the number of flowers, herbs, or vegetables the garden can sustain.
Your child can continue to use math and science skills throughout the summer by measuring plant sizes and keeping the data in a table to compare growth rates. Other ideas to extend this activity include determining how much fertilizer is needed to nourish the plants and how fertilizer affects the yield of different plants.
Social Studies
If you have a local museum, call them up to ask when or if they offer free hours. Most museums, especially in the summer, offer free hours or days for visitors.
Art
Most children love to take photographs, so give them an opportunity to take pictures of things they like. Some ideal spots for photography include parks and trails. If you don't feel comfortable with your child taking pictures on your camera, buy a disposable camera. They can later take these photographs and create a scrapbook. If you have a video camera, you can also make a video and let your child's inner star shine through.
For more ideas for enrichment, please contact Mrs. Wieneke, Mrs. Holland, or Mrs. Blind in the elementary department.