Summer is a great time to reinforce learning and explore personal interests. Help your students apply the
skills they have learned during the school year to real life. Consider the suggestions below as
opportunities to continue learning through the summer months and find relevance for the literacy and
math topics presented through the school year.
Summer Reading Suggestions for Families
1. Designate a daily time as “reading time.” Reading on a regular basis is important to reading
growth.
2. Read with your child. Depending on your child’s reading ability you can either take turns reading
aloud, or each read the same book independently and discuss chapter by chapter.
3. Listen to an audio book as a family. This is great entertainment for a road trip. Most libraries have
a large collection of books on cassette, CD, and digital formats for downloads on MP3 players or
iPods.
4. Make family visits to the library on a regular basis. Ela library has a wonderful program of
summer events.
5. Join a book discussion group. Local libraries and book stores often have mother/daughter or
father/son groups and activities.
6. Research a topic that interests you. Summer is a great time to explore those special interest topics.
Choice is an incredible motivator for most students.
7. Read online news, the newspaper, or magazines and discuss the articles during dinner or family
time.
8.
Do crossword puzzles together. Discuss the words, their spelling, and all types of wonderful
trivia.
9. Place a magnetic poetry set on the refrigerator and take turns creating a new poem each day.
10. Have a game night once a week that focuses on vocabulary. Popular games are Pictionary, Apples
to Apples, Boggle, Taboo, Scrabble, Password, and Balderdash.
Writing Suggestions
1. Keep a journal or diary. Daily diaries are great, but your family may prefer to keep trip journals
of road trips or vacations.
2. Scrap-booking with journal entries are another way to incorporate writing into your summer.
3. Write letters to friends and relatives you don’t often see. Everyone loves to get mail, whether it is
snail mail or email.
4. Involve your child in the day to day writing activities we all take for granted. They can write up
grocery lists, shopping lists, to- do lists, etc.
5. Write a family cookbook. Have each member of the family write the ingredients and steps to
create their favorite meals. This is a good time to include funny stories or happy memories that go
with the meal. Place everything in a binder for a family keepsake.
6. Having a party? Let your child help with invitation, menus, and any other writing associated with
the event.
7. Encourage your child to keep a writing notebook. He/she could write stories, poems, interesting
facts and statistics, etc. Not every piece needs to be completed.
8. Keep a dream journal. Some authors find inspiration in their dreams. Encourage your child to
write their dreams each morning. This may spark an idea for a fiction story.
9. Plan a dream vacation. Even if it is a virtual trip, your student can look up travel information,
research tourist attractions, and write up an itinerary.
10. Write a letter to the editor. Is there an issue your family feels strongly about? Draft a letter
together and send it.
Math Suggestions
1. Have a family game night. Games such as Yatzee, Uno, dominoes, Phase 10, and Monopoly can
involve even very young players. Let your child do the math and keep score.
2. Plan shopping trips and create a budget. Whether it’s a virtual spending spree or weekly grocery
shopping, real life planning and budgeting involves a lot of math.
3. Look for geometry in everyday life. Geometry surrounds us in architecture, masonry, and
landscape. Take time to notice the details and help students see the relevance of geometry.
4. Count money or make change.
5. Tell time by being the time keeper. Have students practice telling time on both traditional and
digital clocks.
6.
Pose real-life math applications such as,
 How long will it take us to get to…?
 How many miles between point A and point B?
 How much time will elapse?
7. Evaluate or compare the nutritional information of foods. Simple comparisons may include
greater than/less than discussions, as well as the meaning of percentages. More advanced students
can apply algebraic equations to determine the nutritional content of more than one serving.
8. Look for charts and graphs in everyday media. What does the information tell you? Is there
another way the information could be expressed?
9. Explore fractions through cooking.
10. Investigate statistics through your favorite sports. From baseball to golf, summer sports offer lots
of math opportunities.