May 2021: Avoid the Summer Slide the Fun Way
May 2021: Avoid the Summer Slide the Fun Way
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What a year! If there is one goal we give ourselves and our children this summer, let it be to relax and reconnect. Let that breath out, that we’ve been holding all year. I am hopeful of a new beginning.
I am hopeful that our children will spend most of their summer days outside exploring. I am hopeful that their bodies will experience fun, strenuous, physical activity. I am hopeful that they have opportunities to grow their brains by having new experiences. I am hopeful they take time to play in the mud, dance in the rain, build structures with sticks and stones, watch grasshoppers and bumble bees, explore a creek, and so much more.
Make time to play together, to create time for fun, casual, easy connection. Consider the following activities to avoid the summer slide the fun way!
World Exploration
Start a collection (be creative when categorizing or displaying your rocks, plants, bugs, etc)
Take a picture walk (each participant can take pictures of cool things they find on a hike, a walk or in your backyard. You may consider starting the activity by naming a category like take pictures of things that are brown or of animals or things that are funny or surprising.)
Journal (stop periodically during an outdoor activity to journal your emotions or observations, to be shared and compared later.)
Collect natural materials and create a village of fairy houses.
Stare at the clouds and find pictures.
Stay up late to star gaze.
GAMES to Build Brains!
Blurt (self control, meta cognition)
Sodoku (perseverance, memory)
Scrabble (spelling, planning, organization)
Clue (organization, memory)
Distraction (memory, attention)
Pictionary (flexibility, time management)
5 Second Rule (time management, task initiation)
Tall Tales (picture story telling)
Sequence Letters (letter recognition, sounds)
Boggle (spelling, time management)
Apples to Apples (reading, flexibility)
Quiddler (spelling, flexible thinking)
Sum Swamp (addition, subtraction, evens/odds)
Qwirkle (shapes, counting, addition)
Set (pattern recognition, spatial reasoning, logic)
Skip-bo or Skip-bo Jr. (number recognition, number sense)
Uno or Uno Flip (number recognition, color recognition, strategy)
Read Aloud BOOKS Maybe new to you.(Adventure, multicultural, special needs, grief & loss)
The Eye of Ra series, by Ben Gartner
Lost on a Mountain in Maine, by Donn Fendler
The Trail, by Mieka Hashimoto
Blended, by Sharon M. Draper
Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan
New Kid, by Jerry Craft
The Gauntlet, by Karuna Riazi
Song for a Whale, by Lynne Kelly
Caterpillar Summer, by Gillian McDunn
A Boy Called Bat series, by Elana K Arnold
The Sign of the Beaver, by Elizabeth George Speare
Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, by Jack Gantos
Finding Perfect, by Elly Swartz
A Mango-Shaped Space, by Wendy Mass
Small as an Elephant, by Jennifer Richard Jacobson
The Center of Gravity, by Shaunta Grimes
Red, White, and Whole, by Rajani LaRocca
The Messy Life of Blue, by Shawna Railey
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