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 Practice for Kids

Activities for Kids that ENHANCE Summer

If you have ever worried about your kids suffering from summer brain drain, then there are some easy things you can do to keep them motivated to learn all summer.

Kids Reading, Relaxing, Kids On Vacation, Summer


Here is a list of things to tell children’s parents to do with your child at home:

Helpful Tips

1.Crack open a dictionary.  Ask them to find a hard word like, “integrity” in the dictionary. Then, have them explain the meaning to you.

2. Teach your child how to do the laundry.

3. Play a board game with your child.

4. Teach your child to set the table.  Have them count all the silverware.  Reinforce the “game” by offering desert for the right answer.  Continue with teaching them how to make a special dinner.

5. Children at any age love to paint! Give them water colors and paper outside. Let them go crazy with splattering/flicking paint on the paper.  If they have an outdoor playhouse, let them paint it with water colors.  When it rains, it come right off.

6. Encourage your child to tell you a prediction to an ending to a movie or story.

7. Tell your child they can only watch TV or play a video game if they can tell you the time on the clock. (not digital…) 

8. Encourage your child to do a garage sale with you or open a lemonade stand to earn a little extra money.  Tell family members to come visit so they can not only participate, but test them on giving change for items.

9. Father’s Day is often overlooked during the school year, so let your child make a project or go shopping for dad and give them a budget.

10. Ask your child to come up with words that rhyme and challenge them to make a rap using the rhyming words.

11. At bed time, ask your child to sequence the events of their day.

12. Create a new dance move or hand shake with your child. 

13. Do some wood working with your child, but letting them use a hammer and nails to build something like a birdhouse with your supervision.

14. Ask your child to show you a Jumping Jack, Push Up, or Skipping. 

 You would be surprised how many kids can’t do these tasks.

15. Use chalk outside to make Hopscotch. Teach them how to play.

16. Teach your child figure out how to play frisbee or tennis.

Summer Practice for Kids

Sending home summer practice packets for kids is a great way to keep kids actively learning all summer too!

Over 90 printables to review what students should already know from 4th Grade to practice on before they enter 5th Grade.  It has math, literacy, and writing activities.  There is a summer weekly journal for kids to write daily about their summer events.  Parents have suggestions and directions they can do to keep their kids prepared for the next level!

CLICK HERE FOR:

Related Products

☀️ End of the YEAR Summer Packet From 1st grade to 2nd

☀️ End of the Year Summer Packet For KINDERGARTEN to 1st Grade Review

☀️ End of the Year Summer Packet Pre-K to Kindergarten

☀️ Summer Packet for 2nd Grade to 3rd Grade

☀️ Summer Packet for 4th Grade to 5th Grade (NEW)

Keeping Kids Learning All Summer

It is always a challenge to keep children learning when it’s summer time.  My own children are glued to their computer games.  When they are not on the computer, they are swimming in the pool.  Traditional learning is hard to compete with summer activities, but it’s important to keep up with today’s rigor.  Here is a list of great oral and physical activities to keep your children engaged in learning:

1.Pudding Painting is one of my favorites for children to use to learn sight words.  Spread pudding on the bottom of a cooking sheet pan.  Call out a sight word and have them write it in the pudding.  If they get it right, they get to lick their finger.

2.Have your child sort laundry by color or size before you wash them. Let them pour in the soap with your supervision as a reward.

3.Ask your child to skip count to 100. Then count by 5’s to 100.  Tell them this joke they can use with friends. “I bet you I can count to 100 in 10 seconds or less.” When someone excepts the challenge, they can count by 10s to 100.

4.Teach your child to set the table.  Have them count all the silverware.  Reinforce the “game” by offering desert for the right answer.  Continue with counting other objects, like plates, cups or placemats.

5.Children love to paint! Give them water colors and paper outside. Let them go crazy with splattering/flicking paint on the paper.  This gets their creative juices flowing!  I use to let my kids pain their play house with water colors.  When it rains, it come right off.

6.Encourage your child to tell you the months of the year, and the days of the week in order.  High five them for reinforcement.

7.Tell your child they can only watch TV or play a video game if they can tell you the time on the clock. (not digital…)  😉

8.What kid doesn’t like to make things with dried pasta.  Take a cup full of various pasta and first have them sort them into piles by shape. (You can use food coloring to make them different colors, if you are that kind of special parent.)  Then have them glue the pasta on construction paper to make a picture.

9.Father’s Day is often overlooked during the school year, so let your child use your ipad or phone to record their voice and send a special message to dad.

10.Encourage your child to come up with words that rhyme with ones you say (e.g. cake, make, rake), then have them use the words to make a funny poem or song.

11.At bed time, ask your child to sequence the events of their day.

12.Create a new dance move or hand shake with your child.

13.Play a board game like Candy Land with your child.

14.Ask your child to show you a Jumping Jack, Push Up or Skipping.

*** You would be surprised how many kids can’t do these tasks.

  1. Use chalk outside to make Hopscotch. Teach them how to play.

You can also find some Summer Packets to have children sit down for 20 minutes a day and focus on skills to prepare them for the next grade.

End of the Year Summer Packet For KINDERGARTEN to 1st Grade ReviewEnd of the YEAR Summer Packet From 1st grade to 2nd