Summer Fun!
from your 1X teachers
Dear 1X Families,
It’s hard to believe that the year has come to an end. We have so enjoyed getting to know you and your child this year. It has been a fun-filled journey!
Many of you have asked about things to do over the summer. We have compiled this list of suggestions for you and your child to peruse and discuss. Of course, the most important thing to do over the summer is have fun! Play together inside and out. Take walks. Go to the zoo. Talk about things that are important to your child. Talk about things that are important to your family. Read books together. Play games. Run through the sprinkler on a hot day!
One of Our Favorite Ideas!
One favorite summer activity that we suggest we heard about from another teacher – Make a Summer Family Scrapbook. Everyone in the family should contribute to it. Your child can practice writing by captioning photos he or she chooses to include. Glue in things that will help you remember this summer – ticket stubs, newspaper clippings, favorite cartoons, letters, notes, emails, maybe even a calendar! Anything that is flat and can saved in a book will do. Include lists – grocery lists, packing lists, lists of books read, lists of movies seen. Your child can draw a map of places that you visit this summer.
Other Summer Suggestions - Collected from a variety of sources!
1. Bake something new. Look through cookbooks or magazines for interesting recipes. Have your child make the shopping list and go to the store with you to get the ingredients. Have them figure out how much money the ingredients will cost. Let them do as much of the cooking as possible.
2. Play “Virtual Hide and Seek” – this is a game that can easily be played in the car, at the dinner table, or even when waiting in line! Pick a place everyone has been. Someone will choose a place to “hide”. The others in the group then ask yes/no questions to figure out where the person is hiding. To add a challenge, limit the number of questions the guessers can ask!
3. Paint a picture.
4. Make something out of clay – good for developing hand muscles.
5. Create an obstacle course outside – Running around cones (or flip flops placed strategically in the grass), jumping on one foot, skipping are all great actions to practice.
6. Play hopscotch.
7. Find something to research – let your child choose something they would like to learn more about. Figure out where to research the thing/person/place. Should you go to the place? Find books in the library? Look on the internet (with a parent of course!).
8. Make up a dance. Have all family members try it out.
9. Make up a song. Use a simple tune. Change the words. (Songs like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and “Mary Had a Little Lamb” are good tunes to start with!)
10. Let your child plan a day for the family. Have them figure out where to go, how to get there, where to eat, what to do.
11. Play some card games. Our class loved card games this year!
12. Count change. Dump out a pile of coins and have your child sort them into piles – by kind of coin, piles of 5, piles of 10. Count the whole pile at the end!
13. Build with small blocks or Legos. Make a town. Make a building. Make a person or animal. Follow the directions, or make something completely new!
14. Play “ABC Geography”. Go through the alphabet in order and see if you can name a place for each letter of the alphabet. The choose other “ABC” games – “ABC Sport Figures”, “ABC animals”, etc!
15. Read together. Angela Smith has a wonderful selection of summer reading books on the Lower School Library website. Make sure you check it out!
16. Take a break. We are all so busy, make sure you leave some time for “down time” and just sit around doing nothing. It’s amazing what will happen when kids have to figure out how to keep themselves busy!