Your child has worked SO hard this year and deserves to maintain or even increase his/her skills over the summer! Here are some ideas for keeping your child learning over the summer:
#1: READ!
No other skill is more important to maintain over the summer months. Children who read regularly are shown to have higher intelligence and general knowledge, less stress, better fluency, improved analytical thinking, broader vocabulary, better memory and increased writing skills. Please use every opportunity (long car rides, waits at the dentist/doctor, before bedtime, etc.) to have your child read to you.
- Your child’s RAZ Kids account will still be available to you over the summer. https://www.raz-kids.com/main/Login
- Visit the public library. Your public library has excellent resources for choosing appropriate books for your child. Weber County library has a reading program for this summer called “DOODLEBUGS,” which begins June 6th and ends August 13th. Check it out!! Barnes and Noble offers a “Summer Reading Triathlon” – pick up a triathlon journal from one of the Barnes and Noble stores! Or check out some great online resources, such as:
- http://www.greatschools.org/gk/book-lists/?grade=kindergarten
- http://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/book-lists-and-recommendations/ages-6-7
- http://www.public.asu.edu/~diann/Bibliographies/leveledbooks.htm.
- The last link is very helpful because the list shows books based upon A-Z levels. Your child has been told what letter he/she has been leveled at. If he/she doesn’t remember, it is a good idea to find a recognizable title that you know is within your child’s reading range and begin from there.
- Participate in the SCHOLASTIC SUMMER READING CHALLENGE!!! Below you will find the link, sign up sheet, usernames and passwords, and
suggested reading list for parents/students to get started on the Summer Challenge for Scholastic! Once you have logged in you can change the password as some of them are pretty long. The challenge is for all the schools nationwide to compete for logging the most minutes read during the summer, which actually starts on Monday, May 9th. If our school logs the most minutes, we will get to be featured in the 2017 Scholastic World Record Book, which would be VERY cool. 
Click below to get started! - CLICK HERE for the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge Sign-Up Instructions
- CLICK HERE for the Scholastic Booklist
- CLICK HERE for the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge Usernames and Passwords
#2: Write!
Writing is “backwards reading” and not only improves your child’s writing skills, but also improves his/her reading skills as well. Encourage your child to use best penmanship and to sound out words phonetically, and assist your child in creating complete sentences that include proper use of upper and lower-case letters, and to include proper punctuation.
#3: Math!
We learned SO many different math skills this year and it is important that your child remember these skills so that he/she can build on them in 1st grade! Review basic addition and subtraction up to 10, counting to 100, 2 and 3-dimensional shapes, skip-counting, etc. with your child!
- Your child’s IXL account will be available to him/her during the summer: ixl.com. Have your child review the kindergarten grade material, and, if you feel that your child has a good mastery, venture into some of the 1st grade material to keep things fresh and challenging.
- Your child’s X-Tra Math account will be available over the summer: https://xtramath.org/
- Find great online games and resources for sharpening math skills, including:
- Turtle Diary: http://www.turtlediary.com/games/kindergarten.html
- Umigo: http://www.umigo.com/
- Math Magician: http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/mathmagician/cathymath.html
- Education.com: http://www.education.com/games/kindergarten/math/