FB: Christian School Teachers

I am excited to announce that I have created a Facebook group for Christian School Teachers! This group has been created for you to connect with other Christian School Teachers. It is my hope that we will all be able to share ideas, thoughts, and activities that promote learning from a Biblical perspective. Interested? CLICK HERE!

How to Fight Summer Backslide in your Kids

Are you looking for some ways to keep your students or children learning this summer? In the summer, it is good to switch up the routine a little bit and have a good stretch of relaxing. However, as a mom, I do not like seeing my four kiddos lying around playing video games all day each day! I also find a bit of structure is needed. So, I have a list of things my kids do each day. I find that giving them responsibility makes our summer go much smoother. I also find that having some structure and routine prevents my kids from the infamous summer backslide. No one wants to see their children forget the hard work they have just learned in reading, writing, math, and language. 

Here is how I add in structure a bit to our day

Today I want to share with you some ways to fight the summer backslide. 

1. A Summer Review

I decided two summers ago that I wanted my children to have some sort of daily review of the skills that they had worked on all year in school. I wanted a short (no more than 10-15 minutes) worksheet. So I went ahead and created my own "Summer to Third" and "Summer to Fourth" packs. The entire packet is available to you. 

2. A Summer Reading Program

There are tons of great opportunities to keep you kids reading in your community. The easiest place to start is your local library. My kids and I try to go at least every other week. We have also discovered audio books. This has been great for my older ones who enjoy listening to reading. 

If your local library does not have a summer reading program and you are near Barnes and Noble, there is another option for you. Bookadventure.com has an amazing free program. It is available all year long, however, we mostly use it in the summer. 

3. Fun Educational Trips

Taking into account your children's interests and ages, you can give your children some amazing educational experiences. Check out local museums, library education programs, zoos, aquariums, or explore nature near your local parks. There are so many opportunities out there to keep our kids learning and still have fun! 

Summer Math Skill Packs

CLICK HERE TO PREVIEW

Click Here for  Preview

  

Prepare your 2nd or 3rd grade students or children for success with this huge 49-page NO-PREP printable review pack! These are fun, hands-on worksheets that will get kids ready for 2nd or 3rd grade and prevent the summer slide. 

Perfect for:

• End of year 3rd grade review
• End of the year 2nd grade review

• Beginning of school refresher in 2nd grade
• Beginning of school refresher in 3rd grade

CLICK HERE FOR PREVIEW OR PURCHASE

Included in 2nd grade math skills pack

Addition/Subtraction fluency
Missing numbers (hundreds chart)
Missing operations- addition
Identifying 2D and 3D shapes
Measuring triangles
Measuring rectangles
2 digits addition and subtraction
Two step story problems
Equations on a number line
Rounding to the nearest 10 and 100
Measurement: length in centimeters and inches
Bar Graphs and Line Plots
Time to the 5 minute 
Place Value to 100
Comparing numbers
Shade and represent fractions
Equivalent Fractions
Counting cents
Counting dollars

CLICK HERE TO PREVIEW or PURCHASE

Included in 3rD grade literacy skills pack

Comprehension: Read and Remember

Drawing conclusions

Cause and Effect

Non-Fiction text features

Finding Details

Main Idea

Reading Information

Context Clues

Beginning, Middle, and End

Sight Word Practice

Bossy R

Complete or fragment sentences

Regular and irregular plural nouns

Present Tense plural nouns

Past Tense verbs

Irregular verbs

Conjunctions

Prefixes

Parts of Speech

ABC order

Capitalization and Punctuation

Making words

Opinion Paragraph

Writing Prompts,Obstacle Course,Riptides along the lake,Water Park

CLICK HERE TO PREVIEW OR PURCHASE

Included in 3rd grade math skills pack

Multiplication/Division fluency

Missing factors

Missing operations

Two step story problems

Identifying Shapes

Identify Quadrilaterals

Identify Triangles

Perimeter

Area

Measurement: Capacity and Length

Bar Graphs and Line Plots

Time to the 5 minute and 1 minute

Reading line plots

Place Value to 1,000

Comparing numbers

Adding and Subtraction to 1,000

Identify Fractions

Write Fraction Units

Shade and represent fractions

Draw a Fraction

Comparing Fractions

Writing Fractions on a number line

Equivalent Fractions

Going into Fourth Grade

The school year is almost complete and summer is just around the corner. Your students won’t have to see the inside of a classroom for a couple of months. Unfortunately, 8 weeks without practice is a long time, especially for struggling readers. Often students forget some of what they've learned over the past school year during the summer months. 

Top education experts have a few tips for teachers and parents to help their students avoid the summer brain drain and make warm weather reading easy and a lot of fun!

• Explore your local library. Find out when it is open and how to get a library card. Many libraries even have free summer programs and offer online books. 

• Encourage your student to read at least four to six books over the summer break. Research shows that reading just six books during the summer may keep a struggling reader from regressing. Make sure the material is age appropriate and match the child's interest and abilities.  Libraries often run summer reading programs that motivate kids to read, so find out what's available in your area. 

• Read daily. Encourage your child to read something every day. Parents can help identify opportunities such as the newspaper, a magazine, TV guide, recipes, arts and crafts book, read to a sibling or friend, share a comic strip, while out in the car select a billboard or ad, even a license plate. You don't have to search far. The opportunities to read are endless. 

• Make it fun. Encourage parents, of students ages 5-12, to get involved in the The Scholastic Summer Challenge. It’s a free global reading program aimed at encouraging students to read throughout the summer months. Kids read books, log their minutes, and earn virtual rewards all summer Active Bodies, Active Minds.

• Activity Packs- Suggest grade level activity books or packs. These are great on the road or for parents to enforces each day to keep kids from doing more than just playing video games.  

As a third grade teacher, I have created a pack for students who were in third grade and moving to fourth grade. The summer to fourth pack includes 122 pages of skills and concepts for both math and language. 

Language Arts Pack only CLICK HERE

Math Pack CLICK HERE

Math and L.A. pack CLICK HERE