Summer Break Reading and Math Workbook | Summer Slide Prevention

Description

This set of summer break reading and math activities will help your upper elementary children avoid the summer slide. Engage students exiting 4th and 5th grades with these projects, worksheets, and activities designed to keep brains sharp over a long school break.

What is the summer slide?

The ‘summer slide’ is the phenomenon where, over the summer break, students lose a large amount of the gains they made in reading and math over the previous year. Academic studies have shown that achievement scores, especially in elementary, slide significantly backward over summer vacation.

How do you prevent the summer slide?
There is hope! The same academic studies that found evidence of the summer slide also suggested that regular practice in reading and math can help mitigate the slide. Students who practiced their math and reading skills over the summer were less likely to see a change in their achievement scores after the summer break.

How much reading and math practice do kids need over the summer?
The good news is that preventing the summer slide doesn’t take much time. I suggest setting aside 15-20 minutes a day to complete meaningful math and reading activities. The activities included in this bundle have been carefully selected to provide a well-rounded review of most math and literacy concepts.

Here are a few ways to structure your 20 minutes of daily practice:

• One page of Literacy Skill of the Day and one Math Logic Puzzle
• One page of the Summer Sports Reading Project and 10 minutes of Math by the Numbers
• Two pages of the Road Trip Math Project and one Reading Fluency card
• One page of Literacy Skill of the Day and one Reading Logic Puzzle one day, and then 20 minutes of the Summer Sports Reading Project the next day.

Which math and literacy activities are included in this bundle?

4 MATH RESOURCES

1. End of the Year Road Trip Math Project
2. Summer Sports Math by the Numbers
3. Summer Math by the Numbers
4. Summer Math Logic Puzzles

5 LITERACY RESOURCES

1. June Literacy Skill of the Week
2. July Literacy Skill of the Week
3. Summer Sports Reading Project
4. Summer Fluency
5. Summer Logic Puzzles Reading

These resources are best used as summer review for students exiting 4th and 5th grades. Some students exiting 3rd grade may also be able to complete these independently, though they may need some support.

Set Up A Consistent Summer Routine

• Print out the resources included in this bundle. They’re easy to print at home!
• Look at your schedule and set aside 15-20 minutes at a consistent time during the day. (After breakfast? Right before dinner? Before evening TV time?)
• Select both a math and literacy activity (I suggest starting with a week of  Literacy Skill of the Week and the Road Trip Math Project).
• Set out a page from each and work for 15-20 minutes
• Repeat each day!

Don’t miss the guide for parents!
The ‘bundle bonus’ file in your download is a step-by-step guide to help parents set up meaningful summer practice. It carefully breaks down each set of activities and includes 19 pages of quick-reference guides. These guides will help parents understand any unfamiliar reading or grammar terminology.