At GES, our Learning Compact and Plan includes goals for student achievement.  This section of the Paw Prints will be used to share information parents can use to support their children in achieving the goals.  We hope that this information is helpful to you!

Summer can be time of learning loss for students.  To prevent this, your children should be reading and thinking all summer long, but they can do it without flashcards and worksheets.  Here are some activities that are fun and keep your children learning:

Ask your kids to create their own board games.  Let them choose something they love and challenge them to design a board game around it.  Have them create a game, and develop a written set of rules and directions.

Declare a weekly “Kids in the Kitchen” day. They can bake cookies, doubling the recipe to practice math skills.  Invite them to read through your cookbook, select a dinner recipe, and write a grocery list of ingredients.  Prepare the meal together as they practice
the skills of reading, measuring, and following directions.

Take your kids outside with sidewalk chalk.  They can draw pictures, play games (tic-tac-toe, hangman, etc.), write their names, draw a game board such as hopscotch - whatever they do helps them to develop their creativity!

Have your kids design an adventure course in your yard (or in your house on a rainy day.).  They can crawl under a lawn chair, jump rope at a station, make a balance beam from a folded beach towel, do a backwards crab walk from one station to another, etc. They
can use a stopwatch to time each other and see who is fastest, and they can take turns competing for the most style points for silly running, walking, and crawling.

Have your children play meteorologist and keep a running log of the weather.  Have them include temperature, humidity, clouds, precipitation, wind, and air pressure.  See if they can predict the following day’s weather.

Have your children learn how to make simple origami (folded paper sculptures.) You can buy origami paper at any craft store, but it’s not necessary.  You can use any paper - just trim it to make a square.  The following is a free website with instructions for making
simple origami: https://www.origamiway.com/.

Have your children learn a new card game.  The website www.classicgamesandpuzzles.com/Card-Games.html
has instructions for lots of games using a regular deck of playing cards.

Have your children start collecting change on the first day of summer vacation.  On the last day, estimate the change, count it, and make a special purchase.

Have your children try to improve their own personal record.  Have them use a stopwatch to time themselves running, roller skating, swimming, or biking.  Then have them try to beat their times.  (Be sure to keep the distance they're moving the same for each trial.)
Have them graph the results.

Have your children create a summer scrapbook, whether you are going on vacation or staying in your neighborhood.  They can save postcards and movie tickets, write about family stories or interesting events, and draw pictures of the things they do and see.