Summer here we come!

Wondering what to do over the summer to help your kids maintain what they learned this year?  It’s simple - keep practicing - every day.  Every day???  Yes, a simple 15-20 minutes a day of reading practice and math practice will help your students retain what they learned this school year.  Don’t worry about teaching them anything new.  Reviewing and practicing what they learned this year will help store it into memory.  

Here are more ideas to support your student:

• There are many web based learning games that help students review and apply math facts or phonics skills - so google it and play on!

• Check out the summer programming at one of the local libraries.  

• Have students keep a journal of the fun stuff they did to support spelling and writing.

• Look for a reading genre bingo and complete it with your students (you may have picked one up at Family Literacy Night.)

• Do a book club with your family.  

• Download some reading response helpers to complete with your students after reading a book (you may have picked one up at Family Literacy Night.)

• Keep track of your favorite summer reads in a fun way (a paper book chain or sticker chart.)

• Do read alouds with the whole family.  

• After reading a new story, grab a notebook and rewrite the ending to support comprehension and spelling/writing.

• There are also tons of reading/word related or math related board/card games out there (you may have seen some at Family Literacy Night.)

There are so many fun things to do over the summer and if you add in a little reading, writing, and math, students will love it!

 

And here’s a little tip to try when you’re reading with your student this summer.  

When they make a mistake when reading out loud, try to use positive error correction.  So if they say "vegetable" instead of "veterinarian" when reading, stop them and say a positive first, then remind them of a strategy they know to decode words.  Something like "you got the first sound /ve/ correct but look again at the rest of the word and see if you can chunk and blend those sounds."  This way, they hear something positive before being corrected and it's a little easier on them.

As always, I’m available by email at erin.verhagen@mgschools.net if you have any questions or comments.