Teacher’s Brain

How to Help Students Avoid the Summer Slide

With summer fast approaching, it’s time to start thinking about how you can prevent your students from experiencing the dreaded “summer slide.” 

What is the summer slide in education? 

Summer slide is that phenomenon where kids lose some of the academic skills they gained during the school year when they’re away from the classroom for too long. Yikes! 

Is summer slide a real thing? 

Unfortunately yes, it is. According to research by the National Summer Learning Association, students can lose up to two months of academic progress over the summer months!

The National Summer Learning Association also reports that teachers spend between four and six weeks re-teaching material at the beginning of each school year due to summer learning loss.

summer slide

So how do you beat the summer slide?

Don’t worry, there are plenty of things you can do to help your students avoid the summer slide and keep their brains engaged all summer long. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Encourage Reading

As you know, reading is a great way to keep your students’ minds active and engaged over the summer. Encourage them to pick up books that interest them and make sure they have plenty of opportunities to read. You might consider hosting a summer reading program or creating a reading challenge to keep kids motivated. You can also suggest that they check out their local library for similar programs!

Make Learning Fun

Summer is the perfect time to get creative with your lesson plans. Try to find ways to make learning fun and engaging, whether that’s through hands-on activities, group projects, or field trips. The more enjoyable the learning experience, the more likely your students will be to stay engaged and motivated.

Utilize Online Resources

Thanks to the internet, there are plenty of online resources available that can help keep your students engaged over the summer. Whether it’s educational videos, interactive games, or virtual field trips, there’s something out there for everyone. Consider creating a list of resources for your students to explore over the summer.

Keep It Balanced

While it’s important to keep students engaged academically over the summer, it’s also important to give them a break and allow them to enjoy their summer vacation. Make sure your students have plenty of time for rest, relaxation, and fun activities that don’t involve schoolwork. Balance is key!

If you want the perfect resource to help minimize summer slide in your students, you should check out these Summer Packets! I created them with education, fun, and balance in mind so that your students can keep their brains engaged all summer long. 

summer slide

These packets are math and literacy-focused Google Ready digital activities that make it easy to do them at home with parents. 

Here’s how to use it:

This is designed with Google Slides. It includes a parent letter, physical and oral suggestions, a reading log, and a review of math and language arts activities. Download and TpT will force a copy of it on your Google Drive. Students do not need to have Google Classroom to participate.

Here’s what’s included: 

Pg. 1 Cover

pg. 2. How to use this packet and Parent Tips

pg.3 Oral and physical activity suggestions

pg. 4 Reading Log

Pg. 5 & 6 Sight Word List

Pg. 7-12 Sight Word Sort Review Activities

pg. 13-18 Word Families

pg. 19- 23 ABC Order Printables

pg. 24-25 Correcting Sentences

pg. 26-29 (Nouns, Verbs, Proper Nouns, Long and Short Vowels)

pg. 30-38 WRITING – Narrative, Opinion, Creative (Some printable to encourage handwriting)

pg. 39-41 Comprehension & Fluency

pg. 42- 59 Math Number Bonds, Addition, Subtraction, Shapes, measurement, 10 More 10 Less

Check out the video tutorial! 

Love this but need it for a different grade? Check out other grades or get the bundle! 

summer slide

By implementing these strategies, you can help your students avoid the summer slide and start the next school year on the right foot. Remember, summer should be a time of fun and exploration, but that doesn’t mean learning has to take a backseat. With a little creativity and planning, you can help your students keep their minds active and engaged all summer long. 


For more reasons to keep learning going all summer, check out my post here!

Summer Packets To Prevent The Summer Slide

Summer is just around the corner! This is one of the best times of the year because not only do you get a much-needed break, but you get to see all of the progress your students have made throughout the year and celebrate them for it. Seeing how far they have come in their reading levels or math skills is just wonderful. Even better, it’s amazing to see how their confidence has grown throughout the year! 

With the long relaxing break, however, comes one not-so-fun thing. The summer slide. 

summer packets for 1st grade pin image

What is the summer slide? 

This is the tendency of students to lose some of the achievement gains that they made during the school year and regress academically. This is especially prevalent in low-income areas. 

How do you beat the summer slide? 

I know, the last thing you want is for your students to go backward. But what can you do? One of the best ways to keep that knowledge fresh is to assign some educational activities for students to complete during summer break. Another idea is to keep them reading with some fun reading summer challenges. You could send home a reading log for students to fill in with everything they read on their own during the summer and if they bring it back completed they get to go to an ice cream party. 

For more reasons to keep students learning during summer break, check out my post here! 

How do you engage students over the summer? 

You’ll want activities that are engaging enough that they will stick to it and be excited to do. Need summer activities for students? Don’t worry, I have you covered! 

These summer packets for 1st grade are all you need! 

summer packets

I love these packets because they are completely digital. This means that you don’t need to print out a bunch of packets and spend time putting them together. Students can complete it all online! 

This is designed with Google Slides. It includes a parent letter, physical and oral suggestions, a reading log, and a review of math and language arts activities. Students do not need to have Google Classroom to participate.

Here’s what’s included: 

  • How to use this packet and Parent Tips
  • Oral and physical activity suggestions
  • Reading Log
  • Sight Word List
  • Sight Word Sort Review Activities
  • Word Families
  • ABC Order Printables
  • Correcting Sentences
  • (Nouns, Verbs, Proper Nouns, Long and Short Vowels)
  • WRITING – Narrative, Opinion, Creative (Some printable to encourage handwriting)
  • Comprehension & Fluency
  • MATH Number Bonds, Addition, Subtraction, Shapes, measurement, 10 More 10 Less

Check out the summer packets for 1st grade video tutorial here! 

If you love this summer packet, make sure to check out the packet for each grade in elementary school! 

summer packets bundle preview

These are perfect no matter what grade you teach. The activities can be explained by the adult, but on most pages, it should not be necessary since it is a review. Children should be able to complete most activities independently. 

I recommend setting a 20 to 30-minute block of time for the student daily to work on these activities. They should enhance their vacation! Each packet includes a summer journal, sight words, reading logs, math, and LA printables.

Do you assign summer activity packets? Let me know in the comments!

Spring Break Packets For Elementary

We all know how important it is for our students to get a break from school. To relax and take their mind off of it and just enjoy being kids. Spring break is a great time to do this! 

As important as the downtime is, it wouldn’t hurt for students to also get a little practice with those skills we’ve been working so hard on in class. In fact, parents are often asking for something for their children to work on while they’re out of school. 

spring break packets pin image

Naturally, with any break from school, there is a degree of regression. Studies actually show that students are more likely to score lower on tests after being on break than they are during school. 

Assigning light but engaging activities during spring break can be the perfect way to keep their brains active while not in school and prevent that learning regression as much as possible. 

The key is to assign work that is engaging and will get your students thinking, but won’t take up too much of their time. 

When I was in the classroom, I would let the students know that it’s not mandatory, but if they complete it, they will get some sort of reward or prize when they return it to school. This could be a homework pass, treat, pizza party, or something similar. 

I created Spring Break Packets for each elementary grade to help make it easy for you! 

These packets have a spring theme to make it fun for students. You can buy them as a bundle or individually for the grade you need! No prep required, just print these out and go! 

spring break packet preview

Here’s what you can expect for each grade level: 

Pre-K

Spring break word bank, reading log, sight word lists and progress monitoring sheet, handwriting, trace lines, find the letter, color the crayon, writing, upper and lowercase letter work, patterns, sight word find, coloring, comprehension sequencing cards, math printables (adding, counting, shapes, number charts, number line, counting on)

spring break packets preview

Kindergarten

Spring break word bank, reading log, sight word lists, progress monitoring sheet, narrative writing, printables on CVC word families, reading comprehension, rhyming word crossword puzzle, handwriting practice, ABC order, rewrite the sentence, adjectives and nouns,  math printables (addition, subtraction, counting on, adding single digit numbers, shapes, fill in the number chart, number bonds, 10 more, 10 less and 1 MORE 1 Less)

First Grade

Spring break word bank, reading log, sight word lists, narrative writing, printables on CVC word families, reading comprehension, , ABC order, rewrite the sentence, adjectives and nouns, Math Printables ( Addition, subtraction, mental math, adding 2 digit numbers, shapes, measurement, number bonds, 10 more, 10 less and 1 MORE 1 Less)

Second Grade

Word bank, reading log, sight word list, opinion writing, printables on adjectives, nouns , plural and singular nouns, collective nouns, reading comprehension, suffixes, ABC order, rewrite the sentence and word sorts, math printables ( expanded form addition, subtraction, mental math, adding 3 numbers, shapes, measurement, 10 more, 10 less)

Third Grade

Word bank, reading log, sight word list, opinion & narrative writing, printables on context clues, abbreviations, prepositions, verbs reading comprehension, suffixes, ABC order, and rewriting the sentence, math printables (bar graph, addition and subtraction 3 digits, rounding, perimeter and area, fractions, multiplication, division and comparing numbers)

Fourth Grade

Word bank, reading log, suggested sight word list, biography reporting, opinion & narrative writing, printables on context clues, to too two, there they’re their, a an, prefixes, root words, suffixes, relative pronouns, comprehension, past tenses, ABC order, and rewriting the sentence, Math Printables (factoring, 3-digit addition, rounding, multiping using the area model, greater than less than, rounding, fractions, multiplication and comparing numbers)

Fifth Grade

Word bank, reading log, 5th grade suggested sight word list, biography reporting, opinion, informative & narrative writing, printables on context clues, fluency, there they’re their, inference, main Idea, prefixes, root words, suffixes, relative pronouns, comprehension, past tenses, ABC order, and correcting sentences, math printables (graphing points, coordinate patterns, adding subtracting and multiplying decimals, order of operation, factoring, 3-digit addition, rounding, multiping using the area model, greater than less than, rounding, fractions, multiplication and comparing numbers)

spring break packets preview

Do you assign school work during spring break? Let me know in the comments!

 

Bring March Madness Fun Into The Classroom

March is officially upon us and that means March Madness has begun! March Madness is a yearly NCAA Division I basketball tournament. It takes place every year from the middle of March to the beginning of April. 

68 college basketball teams play against each other for the chance to win the spot as the year’s National Champion. Needless to say, it’s pretty exciting! 

March Madness pin image

Even for people who aren’t usually basketball fans, this time of year can still be fun. Everyone chooses their teams and predicts who they think will win. It’s also so fun to watch the games with family and friends. 

Given that it is so thrilling for students and teachers alike, I created some resources so that you can easily bring the March Madness fun into the classroom and celebrate while reviewing skills in math, language arts, and STEM.

First up, I wanted to share my March Madness Math and Literacy worksheets. 

March Madness Activities

These basketball-themed worksheets will enhance learning language arts and math skills during March Madness. It includes over 60 worksheets that you can easily print and go. Perfect for using all throughout the tournament!

This resource was designed for kindergarten and first grade students. It even includes some fun games to get your students excited to learn! 

march madness activities

You’ll get answer keys to the activities to make them easy to implement. Check it out here!

The second resource I wanted to share is my March Madness STEM Catapult Challenge! 

march madness stem activities

This hands-on STEM challenge is guaranteed to get your students engaged! Students will build a hoop and catapult to launch their “basketball”. This resource is great for learning about basketball and levers. 

This resource includes 3 days of plans and is perfect for kindergarten, first grade, or second grade students. It comes with 30 printables, 2 posters, print and go plans, answer keys, rubrics, and a journal. Everything you need! You can add your own materials or use the premade version. 

march madness stem activities

Check it out here! 

I hope you love these basketball-themed activities! What’s your favorite part of March Madness? Let me know in the comments!