Summer Learning

            Summer is a time to relax and enjoy the leisure of not having the obligations of school. There are plenty of opportunities to continue the learning that curious minds need. Many families have asked what can be done during the two months gap to help prepare our children for the fourth grade. Here are some suggestions:

    Keep a scrapbook with pictures of your vacation/ adventures this summer. Have your child contribute to the scrapbook by adding a paragraph or two of writing describing these events. This will help your child prepare for writing personal narrative next year and provide many ideas for writing workshop.

   A stay-cation in New York can be a great opportunity to explore local historical sites. The fourth grade curriculum will focus on the early history of our state up to the time of the Revolutionary War. Fourth graders will take trips to the Wyckoff Farmhouse, the Hall of Eastern Woodland Indians at the American Museum of Natural History, the Old Stone House, and the Brooklyn Museum as part of the study. There are other sites such as the Lefferts Historic House, the New York Historical Society, Fraunces Tavern Museum, The South Street Seaport Museum, or the National Museum of the American Indian, etc. that can support the learning your child will do next school year.  

   Apply math learning to real world situations. Have your child help with back to school shopping or making a vacation budget using their calculation skills. Plan a day of activity using time skills. 

   In the Standards Practice Workbook for Go Math, which is the homework book, there is the Getting Ready for Fourth Grade section (page 259- 306). These pages are designed to help prepare your child for the fourth grade. Each lesson starts with a brief explanation of the skill followed by problems for independent practice.

   For those indoor days with the iPad, your child can play with the IXL Math Games link or the Sheppard Math Games link on our blog, which will still be active this summer. These games can provide review of many third grade topics. The multiplication games can help your child develop speed and accuracy with math facts, which will be very handy for working with fourth grade math topics. These websites will allow you to play the games for about ten minutes without a subscription, but that is about all the practice you child will need daily to keep their skills sharp. Practicing multiplication and the inverse, division facts, can be simple as you can quiz your child during waiting times.   In third grade, we’ve learned the facts up to the ten times table; in fourth grade, the facts will go up to the twelve times table.

   Help your child maintain their reading skills by taking trips to the library or bookstores.  Students should read daily to avoid summer lag.

            I hope these suggestions are helpful and easy to implement.  Above all, have a wonderful, relaxing vacation!