Summer Activities for Elementary Students

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Summer activities for K-2nd students:

Do letter or word collages. Choose a single letter or word and have your child cut that letter or word out of newspapers, magazines, or junk mail. Then paste the letter or word on a piece of paper.
Use beads, candy, or anything with colors to make patterns. Start with a simple pattern like blue, red, blue, red. After they have mastered this, do a more difficult pattern like blue, blue, red, red, blue, blue, red, red. The more changes they have to make, the more difficult. Do only what they are capable of at that time, and progressively work toward harder patterns.
Make a scavenger hunt using letters, phonograms, numbers, or math facts. They have to correctly answer to get the next clue. End the hunt with a prize.
Use letter magnets or Scrabble tiles to create words. Help the child to sound out each letter.
Use word searches, magazines, newspapers (anything with letters or numbers) to have students find a letter, word or number. Start with one and when they have found 10-15, do another one. Have the child circle them in different colors so they can see the difference.
Create a book with your child. Just take any paper, write and illustrate a story, and then staple the pages together. This will help reading, reading comprehension (understanding setting, characters, and sequence), writing, and creativity.
Play a game, such as basketball, and keep score. Each basket counts as 2 points so the child will have to count by 2’s. Use other games to help them count by 5’s, 10’s and 20’s. You can even make up a game together to work on creativity.
GO TO THE LIBRARY!! Let your child pick out books they would enjoy reading. You can also model reading by picking out a book for you to read over the summer.
Play the railroad game. After one person says “railroad” the next person has to say a word that starts with the last letter (d). That person may say any word that begins with “d”. If they choose “dog” the next person has to think of a word that begins with “g” and so on. If they are ready, you could begin spelling these words instead of just saying them.
Write letters, phonograms, or words on old calendars. Give your child a number to find, tell them what to write, then have them write in that box. This combines both Math and Language Arts skills.
Form letters or numbers using pretzels.
Use sidewalk chalk or shaving cream to write outside. The child can write letters, numbers, words, or create patterns.
Write a letter or thank you notes to relatives or friends.
Keep a journal. Draw a picture and write a sentence about what the child did each day.
Go on a walk. Read road signs, numbers on houses, look for patterns, and/or count steps from one point to another.
Play games that involve letters, numbers, counting, patterns, question/answer. Example: Junior Monopoly, Boggle, SceneIt games, Mancala
Play I Spy. One person says “I spy with my little eye something that is _________”. Put a word that describes the object in the blank such as its color or shape. The other person or people try to guess the object.
Play the alphabet game while traveling. Try to find each letter of the alphabet on road signs. You can work together or make it a competition.

Keep a journal. Write in it every day or even just once a week. Write about what you have done, or something that is making the news.
Have art time. Draw a picture of your house, or your dream house. Do a project with patterns, or symmetrical pictures.
Make jewelry using beads. Come up with different patterns.
Go for a walk. Look for different animals and plants then go find more information about them. Not only are you learning about nature, you are improving your health.
Write a short story or a book. Create a comic.
READ, READ, READ! Set aside 20 minutes a day for reading. Books are not the only reading material. Consider newpapers and magazines if they are more interesting to you.
Learn a foreign language. Look for programs and books at the public library.
Follow current events, and discuss as a family.
Use sports as a math tool. Play a game where you have to keep track of points or keep stats on a professional team.
Plan “school at home” activities where you explore your family’s history, plant a garden, do simple science experiments, or build something.
Buy inexpensive books with word games or Math puzzles at the grocery or dollar store.
Have a summer job. Do chores around the house or work for a neighbor.
Make a scrapbook about what they did over the summer. You can use the journal listed above to help you keep track of all your fun activities.
Make a collage. Cut out pictures from old magazines or junk mail and past on another piece of paper. Choose a theme such as animals or flowers.
Plan and fix a meal with an adult .
Find other states license plates and look them up on a map – for older students have them figure about how far they have traveled.
Play RAILROAD. The first person spells the word RAILROAD. The second person spells a word that starts with the last letter “D” like DOG. The next person then spells a word starting with the letter “G”. And so on.
Another car game is to say “On our way to _______(destination), we took a _______ (starts with the letter A). The next person says the same and also adds something that starts with a B. Continue on until someone makes a mistake. Great for memory.