Summer 2025
First time visiting our WPS Elementary Summer Math Resources? Please bookmark this page and read through it entirely to explore all of the optional math activities available. Then, upon future visits, you can use this Table of Contents to quickly click and navigate to the section you plan to use on that particular day:
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Dear Families,
All of us at WPS want to thank you for your efforts to support your students and keep meaningful learning happening at home. Over the summer we want to ensure students have access to fun and varied resources to continue their math learning and start the next school year on a great foot.
The suggestions and activities on this page are all OPTIONAL, and a wide variety of online and unplugged activities are included. Some are independent tasks for your child to do, and others involve fun games to play with family/friends. Many suggested activities highlight the math we use in our everyday life experiences. An optional printable summer math packet for each incoming grade level, K-5, is available at the bottom of this page.
Why encourage your child to participate in summer math activities? Summer learning loss has been extensively documented in studies dating as far back as 1906!
Why so many options? Choice is one of the greatest learning motivators for all ages leading to higher levels of engagement and success. Options increase access and reduce learning barriers by providing a variety of activities for students to use their preferred learning style. Take some time to explore the many opportunities and suggestions provided to promote a love of mathematics. We are confident you'll find something for everyone in your home to enjoy at least a few times each week (approximately 90 minutes per week total) while strengthening and stretching math minds all summer long!
Unplugged: ST Math Summer Play Choice Board .pdfHave you completed this past year's grade level journey yet? You can log in to ST Math by clicking on Jiji to the left to finish your journey before the next school year begins. Also, be sure to check your screen for any unfinished assignments. Click HERE for tips about using ST Math's online program at home and an optional fun BINGO card tracker.
Jiji has 10 different math card games for you to play with family & friends this summer! All you need is a deck of cards! Click on Jiji holding the playing cards for game directions and an optional printable card game tracker.
Click on Jiji's ST Math Summer Play Unplugged Choice Board to the left and challenge yourself to complete three (or more) activities this summer.
More Ideas: Enjoy these 16+ Summer Math Activities for Kids from the Mind on Ma+h blog with fun indoor and outdoor activities that emphasize mathematical thinking.
The Math Learning Center, creator of the Bridges in Mathematics Curriculum, and the Maier Math Foundation have created summer at home math modules of thought-provoking activities, games, and practice to review this past grade's math learning. There are 3 options to explore at home:
Click on the round button of the grade you are entering after summer break to access your summer module.
In addition, there is a link below each button to fun Family Math Games to print and play that will reinforce this past year's learning and continue to strengthen your math skills.
Click on the image above for an overview of the challenge.
Click on the image below for interactive versions of the games and books used in the summer challenge.
7 page printable Packet of Game Board and Puzzles to Download
• Level 1 (Finished Kindergarten)
• Level 2 (Finished 1st Grade)
• Level 3 (Finished 2nd Grade)
• Level 4 (Finished 3rd Grade)
• Level 5 (Finished 4th Grade)
• Level 6 (Finished 5th Grade)
• Level 7 (Finished 6th Grade)
• Level 8 (Finished 6th Grade)
Reading math story books together is an engaging way to show your children that math occurs every day all around us and reinforces classroom learning at home. Imagination Soup lists 80 Educational Children’s Math Picture Books sorted by mathematical concept. Save the site on your phone for reference during your summer family trips to the library. Math picture books build connections between what happens in our daily lives and how we apply math to situations. They present story problems, similar to our real life experiences, and encourage us to think of ways to solve them.
In addition to the website of suggested children's books above, there are five virtual bookshelf slides below. Click on a book cover to open a read aloud video to enjoy.
Summer is a great time to master basic math facts practicing at least several times per week. Parents, if you would like more information about helping your child develop fact fluency, please click HERE.
Kindergarten: Fluently add and subtract within 5.
1st Grade: Fluently add and subtract within 10.
2nd Grade: Fluently add and subtract within 20.
3rd Grade: Fluently multiply all products up to 10×10 and related division facts.
4th Grade: Fluently multiply all products up to 12×12 and related division facts.
5th Grade: Keep practicing all facts for fluency!
Students, click on the image above for fact fluency practice resources and games.
“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning.
Play is really the work of childhood.” - Mr. Rogers
Check out the games below that you can play all summer long! These games are motivational and, with family involvement, are an excellent way to get your child to communicate concepts while sharpening thinking skills. They also provide an opportunity for discussion and questions. Encourage your child to evaluate answers, draw conclusions, and strengthen reasoning skills and attention span. Games are a low stress way to engage your child in math while developing necessary skills and having fun together. What's better than a board game on a rainy summer day? Not only are games just plain fun but many of the most popular ones sharpen kids' math smarts without them even noticing! Click on each of the three types of games below for suggestions, and the round button for outdoor math activities.
Discussions: Natural opportunities for parents to bring up Math topics with their children frequently occur throughout the day. During everyday play is the best chance to slip in some Math vocabulary. For example, families can talk about geometry, symmetry, measurement, problem-solving, and counting while they build with LEGOs or while drawing with sidewalk chalk. Have conversations about numbers and encourage questions. When there is an opportunity to order, count, match, or describe with a child, go for it! Children benefit from seeing numbers in natural, fluid ways.
Figuring it Out: Mental Math is the perfect skill practice on the go, even on short car rides. Math can be practiced by posing questions to children on any topic that requires them to think about the answer in their head. For example, quiz basic math facts, or present problems such as “It is 10 miles from our house to the mall. We’ve already driven four miles. How much farther do we have left to drive?”
During Play: Things like blocks, crayons, toy cars, puzzles, and crafts can be used to review skills such as counting, recognizing/creating patterns, comparing, and ordering. Telling analog and digital time can be practiced by setting out a clock for children or having them wear a watch. Say things like, “At 4:00, we’ll clean up and have a snack. You tell me when it’s time.”
Around the Home: Math is easily integrated into daily tasks in the kitchen, such as measuring ingredients, doubling and halving recipes, counting, and dividing meals into equal servings. In this way, cooking and baking provide natural learning opportunities. From measuring to timing, math is a main ingredient for cooking! Designate one night per week this summer when you and your child make a recipe together. Yard work and home repair are other examples of this. Measurement and planning, ordering, area and perimeter, and recognizing patterns can be discussed while gardening and working around the house. Bring some math fun to the ho-hum chore of laundry. After pairing up socks, skip count by two to figure out the total number of socks in the laundry. Organize laundry by family member then practice comparing numbers by calculating who has the most and least. You can also do this by categorizing by color to see what colors your family wears most and least. Point out symmetry while folding laundry. When folding a shirt, for example, show how the sleeves line up together and review that the fold is called a line of symmetry. Practice elapsed time skills by having your child take note of the time you turn on the washer or dryer. Tell how long the laundry will take and have your child calculate what time it will be ready. When the cycle is done, they can figure out if the calculations were correct.
Estimate constantly: Before you fill a bowl with apples or put a stack of folded towels on a shelf, ask your child to estimate how many will fit. Then count afterward to compare the actual number to the estimate. Learning to make appropriate predictions will help them see how numbers are used in everyday life. Provide lots of opportunities for kids to guess how many things they see in their day to day lives. Ask prompting questions to encourage this thinking. Make sure kids know that they are estimating and that these are just guesses. Stress that estimates do not need to be exact but that they should be thoughtful. With more practice, estimates should become closer to the actual number of objects.
Money Skills: If children earn an allowance, they naturally learn about the value of money and how to count it. Suggest implementing a summer savings plan or giving children a coin for progress made towards a goal. Children will learn through the process of counting money, and exchanging smaller coins for larger value coins (such as 10 pennies make a dime). Shopping together is a great way for your child to brush up on real-life math skills and boost learning about money. Whether at the supermarket comparing prices of apples or calculating the percentage off on those cool new kicks, challenge your child to do the calculating for you. Encourage your child to read food labels, compare brands and prices, budget, and find the best deals. This will help your child understand the value of money and learn to understand numbers and prices. If using cash, count it out together at the register. You can find several financial literacy family resources HERE (scroll down to the "At Home Activities" section).
During Travel: Taking a family trip this summer? Use the opportunity to practice key math skills. Before heading out, have your child use an atlas/map to calculate how many miles you'll drive to your destination. Figuring out your car's fuel efficiency is another real-life math challenge. To solve this problem, your child will use a variety of operations: adding the cost to fill the tank over the course of the trip; dividing miles you drive per gallon of gas; multiplying cost of a fill-up based on miles you plan to drive. After you arrive at your destination, challenge your child to figure out your average speed. Younger ones can get in on the traveling math fun, too! While on a road trip, challenge them to count everything, from trucks and cars to trees and traffic lights! Continue the counting fun when you reach your destination.
The Kentucky Family Math Games webpage is a collection of simple yet engaging games families can play over and over again at home to build mathematical thinking. To help families know which games may be more appropriate for their aged child, they are organized by grade level bands.
Bedtime Math’s mission is to help K-5 children love numbers and discover the math in real life. Their Daily Math stories are meant for kids to do with their families so it doesn’t feel like school work. Getting families to enjoy math as a fun activity at home is what Bedtime Math is all about. And best of all, it’s proven to boost kids’ math skills. Click here to find out more about the available iPhone/iPad and Google Play Apps.
Youcubed helps students at home continue to explore and learn maths through rich and creative tasks. This is a collection of modified versions of their tasks that are home-friendly, as well as some new explorations designed for learners at home.
The benefits of reading stories to our children at nighttime have been shared countless times over, and for good reason. Reading improves literacy skills. Why is it that we don’t do math with our children before bed? Math Before Bed is a collection of prompts that can inspire mathematical discussions that your family can have before bed, at dinner, or anytime. Click HERE for parent information.
An optional printable summer math packet is available below, great for travel and math practice without a device. Click on the round button below for the grade you are entering in September to select and print a few pages at a time, or print the first half of the PDF to make a practice workbook for use throughout the summer (whatever works best for your child and family). The second half of the packet for students entering Grades 2-5 is an answer key that you do not need to print. There is also a button for our incoming Kindergarten students with optional family activities. Students moving up to Sixth Grade should check communications from their new middle school for summer math expectations and information.
