Teachers and parents alike are always looking for ways to prevent the summer slide. We work so hard all year to help our students make progress and then summer happens and… they forget it all! Summer slide is a real thing, but teachers and parents can help prevent it in 3 simple ways.
Prevent the summer slide with fun learning
It’s summer! Kids want to be doing fun things, not stuck in school all day! Those workbooks and worksheets… throw them out the window. The learning needs to be fun in order to prevent the summer slide, or else kids won’t want to do it! They’ll choose a better, more fun summer activity instead. And who can blame them?!
This is why I give my families a lot of games and activities so that the kids can practice what we have learned in a fun way! I also frame the learning as challenges or BINGO to catch kids’ interest. Kids always love trying to get all the BINGO pieces and fill up their board, so why not fill up the BINGO board with reading ideas?! It keeps them reading and excited to keep practicing.
Prevent the summer slide with easy learning
A lot of families don’t realize just how much learning can be incorporated into what they are already doing over the summers. I also strongly believe that in order to help prevent the summer slide, the learning has to be easy for families to do in their busy lives! Families are still working, or juggling childcare, or traveling over the summer. They don’t have time to sit at tables and lead lessons on spelling – nor should they!
This is why I created a calendar for my families with 1 activity to try a day. One. That’s it. It’s not overwhelming, so it’s more likely to get done. It also is an activity that can easily be embedded into their everyday life. For example – help make a grocery list, write a letter to a family member, count how many rocks you can find, use chalk and write numbers outside, read outside, etc. And the great thing with only 1 challenge a day, is that if a family can’t do it one day, they can do two another day. If it’s raining outside, they could switch the activity for another day’s challenge that can be done indoor.
My hope is that families start to realize just how much learning can happen in what they are already doing. They will start framing questions and prompts for children to observe, count, read, and write about the world around them.
Offering resources to families
Families need help with knowing where to find great learning resources. Otherwise, they might end up reaching for those dreaded workbooks! (Can you tell I don’t like workbooks??) And you don’t need to reinvent the wheel here. There are a ton of free resources for families, specifically to help prevent the summer slide. One amazing free resource to families is their local library. Everything is free and they probably have events planned around ways to prevent the summer slide. My local libraries do book challenges and have readers and activities throughout the summer. Reach out to the local library to see what promotions you can share with your families. They also probably have a great summer reading list for your grade level. If your local library doesn’t, check with a nearby library, maybe one in a bigger city. I have yet to be disappointed by local libraries and their support with encouraging reading over the summer!
Conclusion
Finding ways to prevent the summer slide doesn’t have to be complicated! With these simple three ways, teachers and families can work together to make learning fun and easy for their students. Plus, you don’t have to do everything yourself! You can use local resources, like the library, to help! You also can grab everything I mentioned here in my Kindergarten to First Grade Summer Packet!
How do you like to prevent the summer slide? Let me know in the comments! Found something helpful? Share it on social media and tag me!
Families might also be interested in learning how to set up their own dramatic play center!
