Summer Learning

Hello Chrystall Miner Families!  

"To succeed in school and life, children and young adults need ongoing opportunities to learn and practice essential skills. This is especially true during the summer months." Summer learning loss is a real thing.  Please take some time to read the facts and research to help your child start 5th grade with a bang.  I have attached a few easy, quick and fun ways you can have your child reviewing math & reading skills each day.  

Summer Reading Ideas

In addition to local park districts, programs and camps, there is a free online resource called the "Find a Book." It is so important for our kids to spend quality time reading books at their reading level over the summer.  This website is tied to Lexile® measures and allows students to build their own custom reading lists based on their reading level and interests. Go to www.lexile.com/findabook.  Students can search for books based on their reading abilities and topics of interest.  I will send home Lexile cards with the kids today so they know their scores (these will be based on their winter MAP scores, so you can round up a bit when looking for books.  I'm positive the kids all made growth this half of the school year, but we didn't take spring MAPs to show it).  

Below is a list of skills that are beneficial to work on and review to be ready for 5th grade.  Also, I attached a copy of a reading log many of the students will be using in 5th grade.  As they read good fit books, they can complete this log quickly each day. Or you can read the books along with your child and ask them questions about theme, inferencing, etc.  

• Inferencing (this is a big one for 5th grade and all future grades in reading) 
• Theme (identify it and comparing/contrasting it)
• Main Idea (for nonfiction, the kids should be able to identify the main idea and provide details from the text to support it)
• Text Structure (there are 5 main text structures for non-fiction texts: sequence, problem/solution, cause/effect, description, and compare/contrast.  Students should be able to identify the structure) 
• Text Evidence (how to provide evidence from a text to support an answer; explaining evidence and how it supports an answer)
• Types of Figurative Language (simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, alliteration, idiom, adages, etc)
• Genres of Literature

Summer Math Ideas

MetaMetrics, the company that designed the above literacy tool, also provides the Summer Math Challenge, a free maintenance program for students who have just completed grades 2 through 6. It is designed to help children retain math skills learned during the previous school year. If you enroll your child in the program you'll receive daily emails during the summer with fun activities and links to educational resources.  I have attached an example of a 4th grade daily email you would receive.  I also attached the flyer with more information.  Please take some time to check out this program.  I looked through all the samples and this really has beneficial skills for the kids.  Also, it's fun for the kids because it has a variety of ways to practice skills together; it's better than just worksheets or a repetitive website.  It challenges you to talk to your kids about math everyday!  Can you tell I like the program?  :)

Thanks for making sure your child is working on their math and reading skills all summer long.  As always, let me know if you have any questions!