Summer fun!

Wow, I can not believe it is the end of the school year already! We have 7 days left with students after today and then 1 work day before officially beginning summer break.

One of my main goals for my students during the summer is to try to prevent regression of skills. A study done by Harris Cooper, a psychology professor at Duke University, showed that children lose about a month of their academic achievement over the summer. For students in special education (and really all students) this is HUGE!

Packet of Fun!

Every school year I send home a packet of activities and games that the kids can use over the summer.  I essentially work on this all year, as whenever I have an extra copy of an activity sheet I throw it in this pink basket and then at the end of the year I sort the papers and divide them among my different students depending on needs.  I also include copies of games we have played during the year.

Fun Stuff At Home

A few years ago I created a calendar to give to my students that will provide a prompt for a skill to work on each day of summer vacation. This could be something as simple as a question to discuss, reciting the alphabet, going on a number hunt etc. My hope is that this will help my students retain some of the skills that they have worked so hard on all year. There is a great post on this on a blog called Kindergarten Nana where she shares what she does with her students at the end of the year and what she sends home.

Summer is also a great time for students to get their creative juices flowing. As we know, kids love to get dirty! A favorite summer experiment in my house is making flubber, seeing reactions when combining baking soda & vinegar, and. Last year, my husband has introduced my boys to Steve Spangler. I see lots of experiments in our summer and lots of video watching so I can find some great new ideas to implement next year.

Keep them writing! 

One last thing I like to give my students are a few postcards or envelopes stamped and addressed to me so that they can write to me about their summer happenings. When students write to me, I always write them back. If you are not comfortable with students having your home address you can give your email or address the envelopes to reach you at school.

How do you encourage your students to keep their skills fresh in the summer? Please share your ideas in the comments below and have a great end of the year.