Wow, it is really the end of the year already?!? With maternity leave it really crept up on me, fast.

One of my main goals for my students during the summer is to try to prevent regression of skills. A study done by  Harris Cooper, a psychology professor at Duke University, showed that children lose about a month of their academic achievement over the summer. For students in special education (and really all students), this is HUGE!

Summer Activity Calendar

I have decided to come up with a calendar this year to give to my parents that will have a skill to work on each day. This could be something as simple as a question to discuss, reciting the alphabet, going on a number hunt etc. My hope is that this will help my students retain some of the skills that they have worked so hard on all year. 

There is a great post on this on a blog called Kindergarten Nana where she shares what she does with her students at the end of the year and what she sends home.

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Skillbuilding Websites & Local Resources

I also like to give my students’ parents a list of websites that they could use to practice different skills throughout the summer. In addition to this, I am going to add some of the local free activities going on in our area. To help with this, I am going to refer to a great local website we have that is called My Active Child. It lists lots of free activities going on by the day and is constantly being updated. What a great resource for busy teachers and moms!

Teacher Postcards

One last thing I would like to give my students are a few postcards stamped and addressed to me so that they can write to me about their summer happenings.

I would love to share with you what I am giving my parents.  Feel free to share it with your students’ parents and anyone else that you think may benefit.  I have posted the files to my Learning Ahoy! Blog.   

You can check out some other resources on preventing the summer slide by checking out the links below.

• TeachHUB Student Book Club Guide
• Summer Activity Calendar & End of the Year Activities (Fun in First Blog)
• What Are Your (K, 1st & 2nd) Students Doing This Summer? (Teacher Tam's Educational Adventures blog)
• Promoting Summer Reading (Go Fourth! with Mrs. Owens)
• Summer Reading Programs List (Surviving a Teacher's Salary blog)
• Scholastic Summer Resources

Share your tips and resources to prevent summer slide in the comments section!