Who's Who and Who's New: The Summer Skills Slip

Hi, Queen of the Jungle here. I'm so glad to be a guest blogger once again. I can't believe it is almost the end of the year for us here in our school district. In many districts across the country, this may be their last week of school. What a whirlwind this year had been.

Since we are heading into the summer, we know that many times our students experience a loss of skills during the break. I like to call this the Summer Skills Slip. They are busy enjoying vacation with family and friends and don't want to think about math or reading. Our hope as teachers is that we can get them to do some things over the summer that will help kids retain some of the skills they learn during the year.

At home, parents can do some fun activities that help support these skills. In fact, they can be done with items they find all around the house. There are many activities that support language arts, math and even science skills. To help reinforce math skills how about sharing the following activity with parents?

Paper Plate Pantry Math

Tape up paper plates next to the pantry or on the pantry door. On each paper plate, post a set of problem solving questions that your child must solve.

For Example the picture above has the following plates:

Plate #1 - Pick two cans of vegetables. Which can weighs more? How much more does it weigh than the other can?

Paper Plate #2 – Find three of your favorite items. Look at their calories. Put them in order of greatest to least calories.

Paper Plate #3 – Pick one box of cereal. How much sugar is in two servings of cereal? If you ate the cereal each morning for one week, how much fiber would you get?

Add other paper plates with questions you create about your pantry items. Change it up each week to keep it fresh and fun.

This activity and many more can be found in the product: Lazy Days of Summer Activities, Games and Puzzle Packet. This packet can help students engage their brains during the summer as they spend time with their family and friends. The packet has easy and engaging activities, games, puzzles and ideas that parents can use to help their child continue to learn and grow throughout the summer.