Remember those long summer days spent at the beach, soaking up the sun and the sea breezes? Or jumping off the dock, into the lake with your friends? Maybe you were at camp, perhaps a little homesick, but having fun despite the bug bites and mediocre food?
Adding some Summertime Math and Science Fun into the mix means your kiddos won’t lose the edge you’ve worked so hard all year to give them.
(And we know our friends in Australia and in Year-Round School are still full swing!)
Summertime Math
- Nothing says summer like a lemonade stand! Performing in Fifth Grade’s Project Based Learning: Lemonade Stand 5th Fraction and Decimals is just the ticket for fun and fractions — it’s CCSS aligned. Or play her Candy Fan Board Game: Summer Game Fun! while lounging poolside. It’s packed full of review and will make a big splash!
- PrepToon – Bring Math to Life using visuals, share their Summer Camp Themed Number System Activities Bundle and Building a Clubhouse geometry activity that’s sure to be a crowd pleaser. These resources are “short story based animations that incorporate math in daily life so kids can relate to it and have fun watching colorful animations to learn new math concepts.” Huzzah!
- Speaking of keeping concepts fresh, Scipi tutors and works with her grandchildren on their math concepts over the
summer. She says, “All of them love, love, love my number tile activities because they can move the answers around, use guess and check and problem solve a puzzle all at the same time. Since they don’t write in the booklets, I can use them over and over again.” Try her Number Tiles: Hands-On Math Activities for Primary Grades and her 26 Magic Square Puzzles.
- Did someone say ice cream? Erin Holleran is a fan — “My students will do anything if it has to do with ice cream, so I have a week’s worth of ice cream related activities. At the end of the week we make our own ice cream!” Her Ice Cream Centers and Ice Cream Math and Language Bundle look delightful!
- And banish cabin fever with Pamela Kranz’s Hi Lo Place Value Game and PEMDAS (Order of Operations) Bowling Computation Game. She says these are ” a couple fun math games for road trips or cabin fever” and loves playing them too!
Summertime Science
Let’s be honest, sometimes this just happens when the weather turns hot and humid, but don’t be afraid to turn it into a science experiment! I’m talking about Science Stuff’s Let’s Make a Mold Terrarium! Fungi lab for upper elem/middle grades. All it takes is a glass jar, some old food and some water to “watch a tiny spot of mold grow into a big hairy monster!” Or you might let your kids turn your kitchen into a science lab and extract some DNA. Science Stuff says, “This is one of my favorite labs/activities that I do with my Biology I students. It doesn’t take long to do, it uses very simple household materials, and it works every time!”- They’ll know if it’s a good day to take a bike ride or stay in and clean up their rooms if they use Arlene Manemann’s Weather Activity Lesson Supplement or Summer Packet, which helps kids “chart the daily temperatures, sunrise &
sunset times, and weather conditions fourteen days in a row — it’s a great supplement to your lessons on weather.” - Even if it’s not summer where you are, you can pretend with a Camp Out in the Classroom! Curriculum Castle says, “Who doesn’t love a summer camp out? Our camping unit gives students a chance to practice important math, literacy and science activities that are so fun and interactive…they won’t even know they are learning! Best of all, there’s a nature scavenger hunt included to get kids outside and exploring nature!” They also have a Camping & My Five Senses Craftivity Freebie! that’ll have students exploring the wonders of camping using all five senses.
- Green Grubs Garden Club is down under and wishes everyone in the Northern Hemisphere a happy summer with her Here Comes The Sun Bundle and Sun Safety booklet. Both are great reminders of staying safe in the sun while having a fun summer!
- Get out in the garden and practice the scientific method with Hello Learning’s Scientific Method and Seeds and her Scientific Method and Bugs resources — “they can be used for take home investigations to reinforce the scientific method over the summer (kids will have fun doing these alone, with their family, or with a friend).”
Endless Days of Summertime Math and Science
There’s something for everyone in Vivify’s Summer/End of School STEM Activity Calendar. “Keep your students engaged in learning during the summer with this packed STEM calendar! Activities are straightforward and accessible to students of all levels with little or no supplies needed. Get them up, outside, and exploring the world! Students will build a bird feeder, make a lava lamp, cook with fractions, and so much more! The world outside is their new and exciting classroom.”
The Dual Language Garden has a Spanish version for kindergarten and 1st graders. Try her Summer Homework Packet: Spanish Kindergarten. Packed with two months worth of activities that will “keep them wanting to work during the summer and learning at the same time! Complete with a monthly calendar that will give students and parents simple directions, ideas of activities to do with number cards, alphabet cards and high frequency word cards.
Or give Rainbow City Learning’s Summer Fun Activity Calendar 2014 a spin. She says, “My Summer Fun Activity calendar is packed with ideas to keep kids involved in learning all summer long! The activities include reading, writing, math, science, social studies, and technology, kids won’t even realize that they are keeping their school skills sharp over the summer. There are ideas for family time, friend time, alone time, inside rainy day time, and outside in the sun or under the stars time.”
Math Projects: Grades 3-5 isn’t exactly a calendar, but it’ll keep them busy just the same! It’s from K-5 Math Teaching Resources who says it “provides lots of opportunities to solve real life problems while applying key math concepts and skills. The 39 projects in the grades 3–5 file include building a marble run using knowledge of angles, using measurement and geometry skills to build a kite, comparing the costs of different family outings, planning a family vacation using a set budget, using perimeter and area to calculate the cost to paint a bedroom, calculating and comparing the costs of keeping different pets, and building paper airplanes and measuring flight paths.” Awesome!
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We hope you’ve found some great activities to keep your own or your classroom kids busy with Summertime Math & Science activities. Don’t be afraid to encourage parents to purchase and download some of these resources when they ask, “What should my child work on over the summer!”
(Thank you Kari Bolt for the Butterfly Life Cycle Clip Art, Yvonne Dixon for the Beach Umbrellas, The TLC Shop for the Sunshine and TeachesThirdinGeorgia for the TTGSkinnySticks Font used in the feature image).
