Keep The Learning Going: Summer Bridge Activities for Elementary Education
Learning loss can easily happen over the summer. Keep those young minds growing even when you have a busy schedule!
When school finally is over for the year, these kids get a well-deserved break from the challenging schedules they have been forced to live by. You do have to be cautious of the learning loss that can happen over summer break. I believe they call it the “summer slide.” If your child is anything like mine, if undisturbed he’ll watch TV or play video games for hours, rotting his brain away. With little time to devote to planning, I have had to come up with some clever routines and strategies to keep the screen time under wraps as a full-time working mom.
Make a screen time checklist your child has to complete first before they do any screen time. This helps to give kids the freedom and structure to manage their own day before they reward themselves with screen time.
These are some of my fun, low-stress summer bridge strategies that keep elementary-age kids’ minds and bodies active while still letting them enjoy a relaxing summer break.
1. Start a reading challenge or reading incentive program: Let your child pick out their own book from the library and for every minute that they read reward them with an equal value screen time ticket. Here are my favorite low-cost options
*As an amazon affiliate marketer I may earn compensation at no extra cost to you for your purchase through our website. Thank you for your consideration.
*This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you click on one of the links and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products or services that I genuinely believe will add value to my readers.
Reading Apps: We have tried numerous reading apps and reading programs for my children, from hooked on phonics, ABC mouse, to Reading.com. By far the one we had the best experience with was Ello, the reading elephant. It had the best phonemic awareness. It listens to your child read, dimming the words as they read. If the child does not read the word correctly at the end of the passage it breaks down the words so they can learn how to read it. It also calculates their accuracy and reading fluency which was extremely helpful to be able to see their progress broken down, not only hearing it in their reading. After set of books is called a reading quest, after each book that is read the child receives stars and can make purchases in the app for the Ello Elephant. I found this app to be especially useful in times when we were waiting in lines, driving in the car, and while I was making dinner. There were many times they requested to do their reading quests. My child’s reading fluency improved significantly over the summer break.
2. Everyday Math:
Baking: Measuring ingredients and cutting food into halves and quarters is a great introduction into fractions. My kids love to help in the kitchen, especially when they get to use their own plastic knives. I have these low cost and DISHWASHER SAFE, kid-safe knives. I love to include my kids when I am baking. Yea, it does often result in a BIG mess, but they love it and I love to see the smile on their faces. I want them to grow and learn. If I get to make memories that they hold on to, it’s worth any amount of cleanup. Plus, I can usually delegate some of that to them anyway.
Bonus Tip: Khan Academy and Education.com are great resources for free educational material and games. Any time I am able to gamify learning my kids are more likely to participate.
3. STEM in the home: There are so many low cost options to explore science at home. With the perfect combination of vinegar and baking soda you can inflate a balloon, erupt a volcano and make fizzy art. You don’t need a fancy lab to explore science and engineering. If you are looking for kits that are engaging, that you can use multiple times, then you may want to look into these. My 8-year-old loves this snap circuit kit. Dad showed him a couple basic circuits and he took to it like a fish to water. Whenever he brings it out, he plays with it for hours and if you are a busy working mom like me, you need activities that will entertain so you can catch up on the laundry, grocery list, and house cleaning.
It has a book of circuits to try and a tray that all the pieces go back into so it can be easily put away. Also, I recently found out his school will be incorporating STEM circuit boards into the curriculum, so we inadvertently gave him a head start on that. Fair warning, it does have pieces that can make noises (think 80’s arcade game sound effects). That said, they are not loud enough that I have ever gone crazy over it.
* These also make excellent Christmas list ideas.
4. Life Skills: Summertime is the perfect time to teach essential life skills, without the chaos of schedules, homework and extracurricular activities.
Have your kids help pack a picnic in the park, they get excited they can help and learn how to plan what food they will want for lunch.
Teach simple laundry routines. (Is it weird that both of mine want to help fold?)
With the increasing use of technology in school, work on their typing skills. Type rush and TypingGames.zone have some fun free typing games for kids and adults alike.
5. Get them kids moving: If your kids are anything like mine, they are constantly moving but getting them to do something productive while moving instead of bouncing off the wall like a couple of sugar rushed children can be challenging. Both of my children love using this awesome balance board trainer. It is great way to improve their balance and gives them a goal. My son has actually done really well with it, now incorporating tricks. The roller circumference is small enough that the board has never become a projectile when he has fallen. Use a thick carpet or rug to slow the roller and have them brace against a wall with their hands to get a feel for the act of balancing without holding your hands.
Another great purchase was the stair slide. There isn’t a whole lot of learning that happens, but it does help to get that wild energy out on a rainy day. I do recommend they wear socks while doing it and it should be used on stairs that have some good width, as well as additional space at the bottom of the slide.
Some other great options are:
Go to a national park or museum
Start a small garden
Complete an art project (paint, clay, tie-dye, etc.)
6. Spend Quality time Together: One of my main goals of summer learning is to create opportunities to be in the moment with my children. Reading together can sometimes take a backseat during the school year with homework and activities leaving limited opportunities before bedtime. Use the summer to really spend time reading with your child. Spark their imaginations further by discussing what you think will happen next in a book or talk about what you might do if you were the main character. Get creative to create opportunities to incorporate learning into the plans you make with your child.
