Most of us have heard of the “summer slide” that occurs when students are out of school for 2 plus months. Here are some tips for making the most of your summer and keeping your child’s brain engaged!

This is a huge packet of practice sheets that you can print and complete this summer to review 2nd grade skills and get ready for 3rd grade.  2ndGradeSummerPacket

iReady will be available during the summer through July 22nd! This is the easiest way to provide your child with reading and math practice that is tailored to his/her individual needs. The goal is 45 minutes of Reading and 45 minutes of Math per week.

The Reflex math app might also be available this summer. I encourage your child to continue using it daily and working until he/she gets the greenlight. We want all 2nd graders to enter 3rd grade with 100% mastery of their addition and subtraction facts. Being 100% fluent in multiplication and division would be a bonus!

Read, read, read and read some more this summer! Take weekly trips to the library (if they are open!) and help your child select high-quality books in a variety of genres (realistic fiction, fantasy, informational, historical fiction, mysteries, biographies, poetry, traditional literature, etc.). You can also continue reading books online using Epic! https://www.getepic.com/ Keep building those comprehension skills. Your child is bringing home his/her Reading Notebook which contains all of the strategies and skills we learned about this year. It is a wealth of knowledge and perfect for a summer review. Have your child create a “Reading Journal” or use post-it notes to record their thoughts as they read. During or after reading, tell your child to record his/her visualizations, connections, questions and predictions. This will keep your child engaged as he/she reads and will boost comprehension.  Summarizing and retelling are great comprehension builders, as well. Also, remember to have your child read aloud to build fluency.

Our class used Lalilo this year to practice and strengthen phonics skills, and it is another website you can continue using over the summer. Class Login: ZJFTNH

3rd-5th grade students also get to participate in the Sunshine State program! Summer is a great time to get a head start on reading these award-winning books. Here is a list of next year’s 15 books. 

Here’s a copy of a great interactive reading log your child can use to incorporate some writing into his/her daily reading: IndependentReadingLogs

And here are some question/answer stems to use as you read with your child. I love the format of these because they have the students answer in complete sentences by “flipping the question” to begin their answer. The students have heard me say “flip the question” a million times this year so this will keep that habit fresh! You can also have your child answer these questions in writing to keep their writing skills up, particularly those pesky conventions (capitalization, punctuation and spelling). Just print the cards and cut them apart. Your child will read the question and then literally flip (turn) the card to answer it. FlipItRLAskandAnswerQuestionsFreebie

We have been reading the book series The Sisters 8 by Lauren Baratz-Logsted. We have already read the first 3 books in the series and made it to Chapter 8 of Book 4: Jackie’s Jokes. Many of the students have expressed interest in finishing the series over the summer. These books might be a bit challenging for your child to read independently (most of them are written on a 4th grade level), but they would be great to read WITH your child. Here are the books in the series: Book 1: Annie’s Adventures; Book 2: Durinda’s Dangers; Book 3:Georgia’s Greatness; Book 4: Jackie’s Jokes; Book 5: Marcia’s Madness; Book 6: Petal’s Problems; Book 7: Rebecca’s Rashness; Book 8: Zinnia’s Zaniness; Book 9: The Final Battle…For Now. The publisher’s website has tons of fun resources and activities to enrich your reading. I definitely recommend checking it out! http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/sisters8/

Keep building vocabulary by creating your own “Juicy Word of the Week” program at home! You can find “juicy words” anywhere- television, movies, radio, newspapers, magazines, children’s books, advertisements, signs, etc. Pick one word a week to focus on. Complete one of these word maps about the word to help you really analyze its meaning: Juicy Word of the Week Word Map PDF. Then keep track of how many times you hear it, say it, or use it using this chart: Juicy Word of the Week Tracking PDF.

There are TONS of math websites and apps to help your child review 2nd grade skills and even get a jump start on third grade skills. IXL is a terrific website with games broken down by grade level, subject area and specific skill. I highly recommend checking it out: http://www.ixl.com/  

Feel free to email me with any questions you may have over the summer, or next year and beyond! Happy learning!!!