Stop the Summer Slide

As summer break gets closer and closer, teachers often worry about the dreaded "summer slide." If you haven't heard of the summer slide, it not a water slide or a park slide. When students get off for summer break, a lot of the time they think it is a break from learning and anything school related. They end up making no gains in learning over the summer, and even falling backwards and losing some of the skills they had gained.

As a teacher, you can't follow your students home and make sure they are reading and learning. It is up to the parents to make sure this happens. But you can give the parents some tips to help them along.

Here are some ideas for you to give to parents.

Visit your local library

Many libraries have summer reading programs for kids. Some also have story time and other activities that can be a lot of fun.

Read aloud with your kids

Reading aloud to your kids has different benefits. It helps them hear how reading should sound; it brings you closer together; it helps them see your love of reading. You can even use props and silly voices to make it more exciting.

Send home a summer packet

There are a lot of different packets available for purchase, or you could make your own. I have one for sale that has a variety of different types of activities to keep kids active and learning. You can click the image below to check it out.

Do activities that go along with books

Encourage parents to do fun summer activities and read books about what they are doing. If they go to a baseball game, they could read a book about baseball. If they go to the zoo, read some animal books. There are books on every subject you can imagine.

Set goals and celebrate

Parents and their children can set goals about what they need to work on. They could also set time goals, like working every day for a certain amount of time. If they meet their goals, celebrate! They could go out for pizza or ice cream, get a special prize, or any other type of celebration.


These are just a few ideas that can help you and the parents of your class stop the summer slide. Hopefully some of them will be helpful and your students can have a fun, engaging summer.