6 Engaging Summer Activities for Students
Can you believe that summer is almost here?! AHHH! It’s crazy to me how quickly time flies, but here we are, at the edge of another summer. You’re AMAZING and have done so much for your learners this year. Your well-deserved break is just around the corner!
As the year wraps up, teachers start to think about what kinds of activities to send home with students to encourage learning and keep their brains active over the summer months. Many parents love having something simple to use avoid their kids losing ANY of their hard-earned knowledge. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just effective. So, here are 6 ideas for engaging activities to send home with your learners over the break.
Sending kids home with calendar-like worksheets full of fun review assignments is a super sneaky way to keep them using their brains and learning without them even realizing it. This kind of activity can be super effective because it combines the element of choice (“pick any activity you want for today!”) with reviewing critical skills in a risk-free way. These activities are usually quick and will take kids just a few minutes each day to complete.
Click HERE to grab these EDITABLE daily summer activities! You can use the pre-filled version with activities for early elementary learners or add in your own text to change the activities to be on level with what your students and kids need to practice. :)
If you teach younger students, like preschool and kindergarten, sending home ideas and resources for sensory bins is a great way to encourage parents to play and learn alongside their littles over the summer. These summer sensory bins for toddlers and preschoolers are not only super engaging, but are also very simple to set up and use again and again. Change out the kind of materials your kids are manipulating for a whole new experience as they learn some new skills!
3. Summer Reading Challenges and Programs
Reading is one of the simplest and best ways to keep students learning, in my opinion. Encouraging that love of reading in any way possible is a win for all teachers and parents. :) You can send home information about free summer reading programs from places like Barnes and Noble and Half Price Books. Some of these programs offer free printables and other fun incentives to kids for reading throughout the summer, like, PIZZA, for example!
Here is a simple, free reading challenge resource from Briana that you can send home with your students to keep them reading, learning, and growing. Encouraging reading can be a simple gift you gives your kids with the right resources and a tiny bit of planning.
So, this one might seem obvious to some, but I’m honestly a lover of a good old fashioned “summer packet”! I know worksheets are not every student’s jam, but if you can find some printables that mix learning with some more enjoyable elements, like coloring, cutting, gluing, etc., worksheets can be engaging activities to let your kiddos review their skills and keep them fresh in their minds for the following school year.
These are some of my favorite summer worksheets to make into packets for young learners!
Sending students home with task cards sounds weird. When I first considered this, I thought, “I am NOT printing, cutting, and laminating SETS of task cards to send home to each and every student in my class.” But, I sat with the thought for a minute and came up with a few simple options to make this work.
OPTION 1: Use a small part of one of your last days of school to let your students cut out their OWN sets of task cards. Print them out, pass them out, and give every kiddo a ziplock bag. Then, let your kids spend time chatting quietly or watch a Bill Nye video while they prep their own summer activity!
OPTION 2: Print out the task cards you want to send home in packet form, slap some simple instructions on the top for parents and students to figure out what the heck to do with these cards, and send them off!
Summer Math Task Cards
CRAFTS!! If we can make all this summer “review work” FUN for students, I totally believe they’re MUCH more likely to do it and not be bummed about it. So, another option is to send home a few ideas for crafts that students can work on over the break.
These math crafts from Jana at We Heart Teaching are all the great things…cute, educational, editable, simple, amazing. They get a HUGE thumbs up from me. All you would need to do is make sure they include the skills you want your kids to practice, print them out as a packet for each student, and send them home with a short instructions page. DONE. Low prep, high engagement, happy summer! Haha.
You could also create a list of other fun ideas that involve a craft with an academic component to send home with your students. Include ideas like, “Choose a video from Art For Kids Hub and write a story about your drawing.” Or, “Read your favorite book or chapter from a book. Recreate a setting from the story using items from your house (with parents’ permission, please!).” These kinds of ideas give students the freedom to make choices, but are still nudging them toward practicing academic skills they need to keep fresh.
Even simple writing crafts like these are a quick, simple way to make writing work engaging! Just print and send!
Well, there you have it…6 super engaging activities and ideas to encourage your students to keep learning all summer long. Do you usually encourage learning throughout the summer? I hope you found something inspiring here to try this season!
Have a happy, safe summertime, friends! Cheering you on!
