Summer activities

Summer activities

Post the following list of activities on the refrigerator or a bulletin board, and ask your children to do just one activity each day. Completing the list will help your children keep their school skills fresh so that they can start the new school year with confidence. Younger children will need your help in reading and completing some of these activities.

Summer activities for grades 1 through 3

  • Make a list of 5 things that you hope to accomplish this summer. Then post the list somewhere in your home. Look at the list each week, and be sure to cross out the things that you have done.
  • Find the United States and the city and state where your family lives on a map or globe.
  • Write down all the words that you can think of that rhyme with cap, night, dig, rock, peck, rug fine and king.
  • Use a measuring cup to find out how many cups are in pint, quart and gallon kitchen containers.
  • Make as many words as you can out of the letters in summer vacation.
  • Write the first or last names of 5 of your friends, and then put them in alphabetical order.
  • Make a birthday card. Decorate the card, and write an original message.
  • Throw a ball with a friend for 10 minutes, and count how many times you can catch the ball.
  • Write your phone number, then add as many of the individual numbers as you can. Try doing the same thing with the phone numbers of several friends.
  • Look at a calendar. Count how many days there are before school begins again.
  • Print or write all the letters from "Z" to "A."
  • Find 5 things in the kitchen that begin with the letters "S," "T," "CH" and "N."
  • Make an alphabet book using letters and pictures from junk mail or old magazines.
  • Write a TV log of all the programs you watched yesterday and today.
  • Play Blackjack - the card game Twenty-One.
  • Count the number of windows and doors in your home. Then subtract the number of doors from the number of windows.
  • Make a list of the different jobs of 10 people you know.
  • Find at least 6 things in your home that have the shape of a square, a rectangle and a triangle.
  • Draw the United States flag, then color it.
  • Make a list of all the fruits you can think of, then write them in alphabetical order.
  • Make up 10 addition and 10 subtraction problems, and solve them.
  • Count how many steps it is from your bed to the front door.
  • Play "I Spy" in your home. Try to find objects that start with the letters "A," "B," "C" and so on. "I spy an apple." "I spy a book." "I spy a candle."
  • Take a walk. Write down the names of 10 natural and 10 mechanical sounds that you hear.
  • Write a paragraph describing what you think the first day of school will be like this year.

Summer activities for grades 4 through 6

Children in this age group may wish to do some of the activities for grades 1 through 3 just as children in the primary grades may wish to do some of these activities. Children may require your help to complete some of the following activities.

  • Find Mexico, Canada, Hawaii, and Alaska on a map or globe.
  • Play Monopoly or Scrabble.
  • Read a younger child a story.
  • Write down the weight of everyone in your family. Then guess what the average weight of the members of your family is. Next figure the average weight.
  • Go to the library and find a copy of a newspaper for the day you were born. Find out what the weather was like that day. See if you can find your favorite comic strips. Then read the headlines to find out what was happening in the world that day.
  • Play a game of dominoes following the rules that give players points each time a domino is added that results in a multiple of 5. You can try it with other multiples, too.
  • Take the recipe for your favorite cookies, and double the quantity to make a special treat for your family and friends.
  • Find the area of 2 closets and a bedroom in your home. (Area = length x width)
  • Look at a map of your state. Find out where you would be if you were 10, 20, 50 or 100 miles from your home.
  • Change yesterday's high and low temperatures from Fahrenheit to Celsius. (C = 5/9 F - 32)
  • Look at the comic pages of the newspaper. Find 10 words that begin with "S." Write these words in alphabetical order. Do the same thing with "C" and "B."
  • Write down all the words that you can think of that rhyme with block, late and bike. Then write a 4 line poem using one of the sets of rhyming words.
  • Write the multiplication tables in Roman numerals for the 2's and the 5's.
  • Trace a map of the United States. Write in the names of all the states.
  • Glue your map of the states to a piece of cardboard. Next, cut out each state or groups of states to form a puzzle. Then put the puzzle together.
  • Look at the nutrition information on several boxes of cereal. Find out which cereal has the least fat. Also, find out which one has the most calories.
  • Make up a language with your friends. Be sure to have 10 nouns and 10 verbs.
  • Count all the electrical appliances in your home and multiply that number by 2, 5, 17 and 34.
  • Find out how hot it gets in the Sahara Desert and on the planet Mercury.
  • Figure out how many gallons of water your family would save in a week if family members turned the water on and off while brushing their teeth instead of letting the water run.
  • Measure the perimeter of your home. (P = side + side + side, and so on)
  • Find 20 words with the prefix "re" or "dis."
  • Count all the toes in your family and divide by 8.
  • Find out which President was oldest or youngest on the day he took office. Then find out which President was oldest or youngest on the day he left office.