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Take learning on the road or makes discoveries right in your backyard. These ideas will help your child explore, learn, and play all summer long.

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Don't let your kids forget all they've learned this year! Discover how to stop the summer brain drain and make learning a fun part of your everyday routine.

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Summer Reading Clubs are an easy way to encourage students in grades 2- 12 to continue reading over the summer and explore topics that interest them. Click here for details about the 2018 Summer Re...

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Stuck for your next read? Answer a few questions and the amazing Book Sorter will sort out what books could be next on your list. All the book ideas come from other Summer Reading Challenge members, so you know they'll be just right for you too.

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1. Read any eight books this summer and record them in your Summer Reading Journal ( English or Español). Tell us which part of the book is your favorite, and why. 2. Bring your completed journal to a Barnes & Noble store between May 16th and September 5th, 2017.

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Let's team up this summer to prevent your kids from losing up to one month of grade level equivalency due to the summer slide.

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Click the pins below to see the top location in every state, and the number of minutes that location's participating children have logged so far. Coming in June: search for your school, library, community partner organization, or any other group that's participating in the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge!

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Today Box - A website for curious kids. Fresh links daily!

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A website for curious kids. Fresh links daily!

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OUR TREASURES

Every semester, we bury a real-life treasure somewhere in the world. So far, our students have discovered the Globe of Magellan, the Sunstone of Cortes, and the Mask of Tomoe Gozen. The first adventurer to pinpoint the location of the buried treasure will be flown to its location to dig it up.

SEE HOW THE SUNSTONE OF CORTEZ WAS MADE

PICTURES

Each webisode has hidden globes, maps, or other symbols relevant to the location of the golden treasure. Check our Facebook page after each webisode is released for hints about what to look for.

ENCODED WORDS OR NUMBERS

There's a reason Mae Merriweather is mailing each participant a real decoder ring-you're going to need it! Be careful when you spot hidden letters or numbers in an episode-you may need to run them through your decoder to understand them.

Background items, locations, and plot twists

Pay attention, because everything is fair game.

Things people say

You won't just want to watch, you'll want to listen carefully.

BONUS CHALLENGES

Pay close attention to both the challenges and the answers, as some of them will hold valuable clues. Many of the challenges will teach you skills that you'll need in the larger treasure hunt.

TAKE NOTES

Note-taking is a good academic skill in itself. Write down clues, words, symbols, and ideas that stick out, and refer back to them later. There may even be some clues you'll need to string together over several episodes.

WORK TOGETHER

We know it's a race and only one person will win, but some of you will spot clues and solve riddles that others can't. Share your thoughts and findings on our Facebook page or with your friends and family. After all, you're all part of the Grayson Academy of Antiquities.

REVIEW PAST CHASES

Check out the Brain Chase Blog and study solutions to past treasure hunts.

USE THE INTERNET!

Conduct online searches. Spend time on Google Earth. Get to know the world around you -again, anything is fair game.

WATCH THE VIDEOS AGAIN

You won't catch everything the first time. Slow things down. Pause where necessary. Go back to earlier videos later on.

BE PATIENT

There's no shortcut to adventure, and there's certainly no shortcut to finding the real Sunstone of Cortés. Finding the buried treasure will challenge your intuition, your focus, your ability to locate and decipher clues and riddles, and your commitment to completing the challenge.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR ANSWER

Students will have access to a virtual map board. Based on research and deductive reasoning, a student simply drops a pin on the map where they think the treasure is hidden. Students may only submit a new guess once every 24 hours. Opportunities to place pins on the map don't accrue over time, so if they wait for three weeks to start the search, they won't suddenly get three weeks' worth of submissions-they'll have to wait 24 hours after submitting each answer, just like everyone else.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO WIN BRAIN CHASE?

WHAT THE WINNER RECEIVES

A real-life adventure

The winner and a chaperone will be flown to the treasure's location. While Brain Chase cameras are rolling, the winner will unearth the treasure chest and claim the real treasure.

MEET OUR PAST WINNERS

Remember, you must pay to enroll in the Online Learning Challenge in order to be eligible to compete for this prize. Click here for a complete list of contest rules.

THE ADVENTURE AWAITS!
REGISTER NOW

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The Global Online Treasure Hunt - Brain Chase

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Every semester, we bury a real-life treasure somewhere in the world. So far, our students have discovered the Globe of Magellan, the Sunstone of Cortes, and the Mask of Tomoe Gozen. The first adventurer to pinpoint the location of the buried treasure will be flown to its location to dig it up.

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Great for ages 8 and up. Skills you can't get in school. Minecraft, Illustration, Animation, Engineering, Cooking. Learn what you love and love what you learn.

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We've rounded up some great resources on how to prevent summer learning loss, as well as some fun activities to do with your kids over the summer. 

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Cool Summer Reading and Learning for Kids

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Cool Summer Reading and Learning for Kids

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►The Horn Book's middle school summer reading list of 2017/2018 books: fiction, nonfiction, and graphic with multicultural characters;

►Librarians and teachers - and students - share what works and what doesn't in summer reading lists in Carly Okyle's SLJ post;

►Edutopia's Five-Minute Film Festival by Keyana Stevens provides motivating videos, explanations of summer slide, and book trailers for teens.

Let's begin with some excellent advice from a middle grades student, shared in an article at the What Kids Can Do website:

I think that if teachers are going to assign us books to read over the Summer... they should at least take the time to make it somewhat oh what's the word yeah, FUN!! If they don't it leaves kids with a feeling of not liking to read which I don't agree with because I love to read, but all you need is an exciting or good book to really get you going! All I'm saying is READING SHOULD BE FUN FOR EVERYONE!!!"
- by Mepride

Teachers have labored to enliven summer reading for decades. In a 1997 NCTE journal article, Florida middle school ELA teacher Gloria Pipkin, who later wrote books for Heinemann and edited for Scholastic in the 2000's, noted the challenges (quoted in ReadWriteThink):

Of course we want our students to read over the summer, but I've yet to be convinced that the typical summer reading assignment does much to extend love of reading or increase literary competence. There may be a handful of students who can't wait to tackle our scintillating assignments on their summer vacation, but for the most part, summer reading assignments are regarded as a plague and a pox, even by avid readers, who much prefer choosing their own books."

In 2013, NeverEnding Search blogger Joyce Valenza discovered Elissa Malespina, a teacher librarian who was as determined to help make summer reading a hit with 21st century students as Gloria Pipkin had been for kids in the 1990's. Using iBooks Author and Bookry, Malespina worked with her colleagues at South Orange (NJ) Middle School to develop Choices Summer Reading, an attractive 33-page "book" with summer reading choices across a range of fiction and nonfiction genres . (Click on the Expand button in the book icon and then click through the book's pages to see how up-to-the-minute graphics and succinct summaries can draw in young readers.)

Writing from her middle grades classroom, teacher Pernille Ripp also shared her ideas for Creating Great Summer Reading Plans. Her goal: a huge list from which students can choose freely. Among her methods: Skyping reading suggestions with other classrooms, checking Scholastic trailers, getting suggestions through her Twitter survey, and book "speed dating." Ripp links to Colby Sharp's book speed dating blog post on selecting books for quick looks and on how his 4th graders browse in a hurry.

Sarah Tantillo suggests a fresh approach to summer reading assignments: Character Analysis, two characters per book, with specific questions to answer. She provides forms to get you started in this MiddleWeb post.

At MindShift Holly Korbey makes the case for kids reading high quality fiction in Ready, Set, Read! Summer Fiction Ideas for Kids of All Ages and includes recommendations by grade.

Teachers will find more suggestions for building summer reading enthusiasm in a 2011 Scholastic blog post by Mary Blow. She shares ideas for promoting summer reading. In addition to providing family-friendly links about summer academic slide, she includes ways to avoid a slippage in reading skills both in fiction (series books can help less proficient readers) and in nonfiction. Blow also touches on poetry, myth, and folklore. She suggests having students read aloud to younger friends or the elderly as community service. Blow concludes with ideas for professional and general reading for teachers.

In a 2014 Nerdy Book Club post, resource English teacher Tamara Sakuda recounts her students' spring novel reading aimed at building their enthusiasm for the two books they would select to read over summer. The stretches of uninterrupted reading and then spirited discussions - along with plans for two summer get-togethers - boded well for her "Summer Reading - Ready or Not?" strategy.

Books They'll Go For

Do you have students who are "reading ahead" and are searching for books written for high schoolers? At YALSA's Hub, Erin Bush discusses Cross-Unders - teen books attractive to tween readers - and offers an annotated list including Spacer and Rat by Margaret Bechard and The Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter.

What happens when kids select their own books? Librarian Travis Jonker tallied the Top 10 Circulated Books of 2013 for at his elementary school in Michigan. Jonker, who blogs at School Library Journal, includes links to lists for younger students in 2018, too.

For reading recommendations for (and younger), visit Reading Rockets, a project of WETA, and its collection of summer reading lists. The site's brief, lively write-ups for ages 6-9 feature fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Highlights include ninja meerkats and punctuation marks with personality. Not to mention Iditarod dogs and Albert Einstein. Reading Rockets is also a great place to check for lists of award winning children's books. Students who want to get a look at their favorite authors can visit Reading Rockets' brief video interviews.

Of course, Reading Rockets goes beyond lists and videos to help teachers and parents build kids' interest in reading and learning . Get Ready for Summer! Ideas for Teachers to Share with Families includes a lengthy list of family-friendly resources, including free children's books online, interactive educational sites, and other resources to encourage literacy. A quick check of random links yielded a few dead ones.

Writing at Edutopia, Judy Willis MD shares some stealth tactics for parents to encourage summer reading. Parents will find the Washington Post's Amy Joyce and Scholastic's Maggie McGuire conversing with readers to offer lots of reading suggestions for grades 1-8 in this column taken from a live Q&A.

To give students a global take on reading , introduce them to the International Children's Digital Library. The website, started by the University of Maryland and now run by the ICDL Foundation, leads children to books in many languages. Elementary and middle school children will likely enjoy being turned loose on the site filled with online books in many languages, some with several translations. But you may want to show them all the search possibilities: book length, age, topic, genre, setting, shape (!) and much more. Students can register for free to keep up with their reading or just drop by to browse. The Teacher Training Manual suggests ways to use the site during the school year.

Students who are hankering for online classics , written in English or in English translation, can visit the Library of Congress for Kids Read or Teens Read. Both pages also link to book lists. Teens are treated to author videos.

Nonfiction, anyone? Writing in School Library Journal, Kathleen Odean suggests nonfiction books rather than excerpts help students grasp deeper learning as required by the Common Core State Standards. Her annotated list of 20 lively reads has offerings for every age.

Even More Lists!

For an easy handout or website feature, check the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) 2018 Summer Reading List brochures for K-8, which you can personalize . Available in color or black & white, the PDFs feature books predominately published in the 2000's. You may want to remind students that they can also enjoy the summer exploring all the super websites at the ALSC's Great Websites for Kids.
Want more lists of award winning books ? Don't miss the Cybils selected by KidLitosphere Central: The Society of Bloggers in Children's and Young Adult Literature. The 2017 winners, announced in early 2018, join lists going back to 2006 (they're arranged by genre and age). KidLitosphere also hosts hundreds of book reviews collected from a variety of sources, organized by author and by title.

Students may want to check out 20th and 21st century novels via the silver screen this summer. In the School Library Journal, Kent Turner evaluates A Wrinkle in Time's trip to the movie theater this year. Earlier Gabrielle Bondi collected what to watch in 2016's Page to Screen post, with most in the YA category.

Online Student Reading Challenges

Students can tackle nonfiction - news, features, essays, and more - via the NYT Learning Network's Summer Reading Contest. Teachers can access an archived webinar to learn more about the contest that runs from June 15 to August 24.

Kids must be 13 and over (that's a COPPA requirement) to submit comments of up to 200 to 300 words on favorite reads to the NYTLN contest. Teachers can have students use a code to have whole classes participate.

Students can access New York Times content through the Learning Network links - and there are lots of them - at no cost. And the Times has a 5-free-articles-a-month policy in its tiered subscription system.

Like some public library opportunities, such as those based on the Collaborative Summer Library Program, Scholastic encourages kids to keep a log - online - of time spent reading as part of its Summer Challenge. Teachers or the kids themselves can register. Scholastic offers long lists of books arranged by genre and age. And there's the possibility of prizes for ardent readers. Teachers will find articles and other materials to help build student engagement and lessen summer slide.

Beyond Reading

Here at MiddleWeb, Mike Fisher, a middle grades teacher turned literacy and tech integration consultant, suggests ways parents can involve their kids in reading and writing throughout the summer months - on their own and with family members. At his house, it's Harry Potter time!

Kids with computer access will find lots of anti-slide options this summer. Here's a quick sampling.

Kids and parents will find lots to like in Best Apps Lists, a selection of apps arranged by category from Common Sense Media, the nonprofit which rates "media on both age-appropriateness and learning potential based on developmental criteria."

Writing at MindShift, Ryan Schaaf recommends ten free online educational games sites featuring a variety of content areas and formats. Is math a concern? Hooda Math, started by a middle school teacher, invites kids to enjoy hundreds of math games. The free site is searchable by grade level.

Camp Wonderopolis, from the National Center for Families Learning's Wonderopolis, is intent on "enabling programs, families, and individuals to customize their experience to their own particular needs. Campers will explore different tracks of science and build their vocabulary, background knowledge, and literacy skills along the way." Educators, librarians and parents can sign on as camp counselors to work with kids in their families and communities. It's free!

For kids with Google+ pages (their own or their parents') the 30-day Maker Camp on Google+ is another free option, starting in June. While many Maker Camp materials and tools will be found around the house, students may need to buy some. Parents of younger kids may want to preview projects (soldering iron, anyone?)

Students will discover lots of games listed according to grade level at AAAS's ScienceNetlinks Summer Learning page. The page also links to award winning science books. Kids can dip into the lives of sea creatures and marine biologists via the videos featured in this PBS Summer Explorer Series.

Students who enjoy space and astronomy can browse the NASA page for 5th through 8th grade. Anne Jolly's STEM by Design post, Ideas and Activities to STEM the Summer Slide, offers parents suggestions to help their children stay connected to learning along with kid-centered links to National Geographic, Scientific American, and other super sites.

Find lots of online options in math, reading, art and more to share with parents in Matt Davis's 2016 Edutopia collection, Fun and Free Summer Learning Resources.

If you have found or created other resources that can help get kids reading and learning in Summer 2018, please share the links in the comments area on this page!
Photo credit: Bogart the Cat by Elaine Vigneault

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Middle Grades Summer Reading and Learning Resources

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►The Horn Book's middle school summer reading list of 2017/2018 books: fiction, nonfiction, and graphic with multicultural characters; ►Librarians and teachers - and students - share what works and what doesn't in summer reading lists in Carly Okyle's SLJ post; ►Edutopia's Five-Minute Film Festival by Keyana Stevens provides motivating videos, explanations of summer slide, and book trailers for teens.

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The school bell may stop ringing, but summer is a great time for all kinds of learning opportunities for kids. Reading Rockets has packed a bag full of activities for teachers to help families get ready for summer and to launch students to fun, enriching summertime experiences.

In this article:

Ideas for active summer learning

Offer recommendations for active learning experiences. Check with your local department of parks and recreation about camps and other activities. Find out what exhibits, events, or concerts are happening in your town over the summer. Create a directory or calendar of local summer learning fun to share with your students and their families. (Be sure to note any costs involved.)

Encourage parents to build reading and writing into everyday activities. Some ideas to pass along: (1) watching TV with the sound off and closed captioning on, (2) reading directions for how to play a new game, or (3) helping with meals by writing up a grocery list, finding things in the grocery store, and reading the recipe aloud for mom or dad during cooking time. More ideas at PBS Parents (in Spanish, too).

Kids blog! Arrange for a safe, closed community so that your students can blog over the summer. Edublogs and Kidblog offer teachers and students free blog space and appropriate security. Free, disposable e-mail accounts are available at Mailinator. Students can create an account there, use the address long enough to establish the blog and password, and then abandon it.

Be an active citizen. Kids who participate in community service activities gain not only new skills but self-confidence and self-esteem. Help them zoom into action! Resources from ZOOM can help them get the most out of helping others this summer.

Read about your world. Newsela builds nonfiction literacy and awareness of world events by providing access to hundreds of fresh news articles (you can filter by grade). Other good sources of quality nonfiction include Time for Kids online and many children's magazines offered by Cricket Media, National Geographic, and other publishers. The bloggers on The Uncommon Corps are enthusiastic champions of nonfiction literature for kids and young adults, and offer many ideas for integrating nonfiction into your reading diet. For more book ideas to share with parents, check out the Orbis Pictus Award winners - outstanding nonfiction for children, presented by the National Council of Teachers of English. Share these tip sheets with parents (available in English and Spanish): Getting the Most Out of Nonfiction Reading Time and How to Read Nonfiction Text. And don't forget to check out our Nonfiction for Kids section.

Active bodies. Active minds. From the American Library Association, ilovelibraries has suggestions for staying fit and having fun that start at your local library.

Watch a garden grow and build research, reading, and writing skills with this summer project from ReadWriteThink. Children are encouraged to write questions and observations in a summer garden journal. Or check out the Kids Gardening website for lots of great ideas and resources for family (and school) gardening. You can also browse the hands-on activities on our summer site, Start with a Book, in the section Nature: Our Green World.

Help parents plan ahead for fall. Work with the teachers a grade level above to develop a short list of what their new students have to look forward to when they return to school. For example, if rising third graders will be studying ancient cultures, suggest that parents check out educational TV, movies, or local museums that can provide valuable background information on that topic.

Ideas for summer reading fun

Make sure kids have something to read during the summer - put books into children's hands. Register with First Book and gain access to award-winning new books for free and to deeply discounted new books and educational materials or find other national and local programs and organizations that can help.

Get your local public library to sign kids up for summer reading before school is out. Invite or ask your school librarian to coordinate a visit from the children's librarian at the public library near the end of the school year. Ask them to talk about summer activities, educational videos, and audio books at the library and to distribute summer reading program materials.

Get to know your community public library better. Find out if your public library is part of the Collaborative Summer Library Program, a grassroots effort to provide high-quality summer reading programs for kids. The theme for 2016 is Build a Better World. Colorín Colorado has tips for parents in English and in Spanish about visiting the local library. Or check out our top 9 reasons to rediscover your public library.

Let parents and kids know about the free summer reading incentive programs. At Pizza Hut's BOOK IT! program, find out how to Ignite a Summer of Reading. Over at Scholastic, there's the Happy Camper Summer Reading Challenge that encourages kids to log the minutes they spend reading and map their accomplishments. Kids can participate in weekly challenges, earn digital rewards, and enter to win prizes. The Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program will give away a free book to children who read eight books (and parents receive a summer reading kit full of activities). With the TD Bank Summer Reading Program, kids who read 10 books will get $10 added to their Young Saver account.

Help kids build math and science skills over the summer. Share our Literacy in the Sciences series with families. Each one-page tip sheet (in English and Spanish) suggests easy hands-on activities as well as fiction and nonfiction books to extend the learning. In this section you'll also find links to great science websites for kids, blogs about children's science books, and links to PBS KIDS science programs and activities.

Suggest to parents that they set up a summer listening program. Listening is an engaging way to learn, and many children love listening to books, music, stage plays, comedy routines, and other works. Point out background sounds, such as the way the peppy tune on a sound track adds fun and humor to an adventure tale. Learning to listen is particularly helpful to children with learning disabilities.

Online activities for families

Share examples of good interactive educational websites that parents and young kids can explore together. PBS KIDS Lab offers the newest educational games, activities and mobile apps, for kids PreK to grade 3.There are lots of other quality websites for kids - here are a few more of our favorites:

Suggest audio books as an alternative to print, especially for kids with learning disabilities that make reading a struggle. See our article, Listen and Learn with Audio Books (available in English and Spanish). You can now download stories to iPods and other mobile devices, perfect for car rides or a lazy hot afternoon. Tales2Go offers high-quality kids' books through a mobile streaming service. AudibleKids has an extensive collection of downloadable books, and some of them are free through a partnership with RIF. Browse our list of Favorite Audio Books and find even more titles on Book Finder.

Print and share with parents

Distribute a checklist for parents that provides tips on how to find a great summer program. This one, developed by the National Summer Learning Association, is a good basic resource.

Build background knowledge. Put an article about summer learning in your school or PTA newsletter.

Use books as a springboard for conversation, creativity, and acquiring new background knowledge by sharing the Reading Rockets Reading Adventure Packs with your students' families. These themed packs combine fiction and nonfiction books with simple, hands-on activities that kids and parents can do together.

Give parents a tool to help them promote healthy and balanced media use at home during the summer months. The PACT from the National PTA may help families come up with good screen time compromises. The PTA also offers this helpful article, Hitting the Off Button: How parents can stand up for less screen time at home.

Offer reading reminders to parents with these tip sheets from Reading Rockets available in 11 languages.

Recommend good summer reads that match your students' interests. You might start with our Summer Reading Booklists with suggestions for kids 0 to 9 years old.

Print and share with kids

Promote simple, fun items that support the reading habit. Reading Rockets has created a "Warning! Reading Rocket in Orbit" door hanger in English and Spanish.

Recommend some great summer reads that match your students' interests. Download the Reading Rockets summer reading booklists - lots of good suggestions for kids up to 12 years old. Or ask your school or public librarian for an age-appropriate reading list.

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Get Ready for Summer! Ideas for Teachers to Share with Families

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The school bell may stop ringing, but summer is a great time for all kinds of learning opportunities for kids. Reading Rockets has packed a bag full of activities for teachers to help families get ready for summer and to launch students to fun, enriching summertime experiences. Offer recommendations for active learning experiences.

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When it comes to summer, reading may not be the first thing-or even in the top 10 things-children have in mind. But reading can be the ideal summer activity. It's fun, portable, can involve the whole family, and can help children academically.

These resources can help you put good books into kids' hands and connect them to vibrant summer learning adventures.

All about summer reading

Summer reading resources and activity ideas (that won't have you spending half your summer at the craft store)

Ways to challenge kids to read this summer

Summer reading recommendations for kids

Great web resources to help raise readers

AdLit.org supports the parents and educators of struggling adolescent readers and writers with multimedia information and resources

Colorín Colorado provides resources for educators and families of English language learners (ELLs) in grades PreK-12

NAEYC for Families helps parents understand how children ages 0-8 learn and offers creative learning ideas to try at home

National Summer Learning Association focuses on closing the achievement gap through high-quality summer learning for all children and youth

Reading Rockets offers strategies, lessons, activities, and ideas designed to help young children learn to read

ReadWriteThink provides access to the highest quality practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction

ReadKiddoRead is the biggest get-your-kids-reading movement on the web

Understood helps the millions of parents whose children, ages 3-20, are struggling with learning and attention issues

Reading tips

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Summer Reading: Resources, Recommendations, and Tips for Students and Parents

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When it comes to summer, reading may not be the first thing-or even in the top 10 things-children have in mind. But reading can be the ideal summer activity. It's fun, portable, can involve the whole family, and can help children academically. These resources can help you put good books into kids' hands and connect...

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Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge Teacher Resources | Scholastic

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Get students excited about reading with the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge, a free online reading program designed to motivate children to read all summer long.

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Fun and Free Summer Learning Resources | Edutopia

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To help combat summer learning loss, Matt Davis has curated a few fun and free education resources for students and parents to use over summer break.

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Resources to Help Your Students Avoid Summer Brain Drain

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Resources to Help Your Students Avoid Summer Brain Drain

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Resources to Help Your Students Avoid Summer "Brain Drain" | NEA Member Benefits

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Before the school year ends, share these fun, free websites with your students to reinforce the lessons you've taught them so they'll be ready to succeed in the fall.

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Summer Reading Tips for Students and Parents

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Summer Reading Tips for Students and Parents

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Summer Reading Tips for Students and Parents | Scholastic

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Get book recommendations, activities, and tips to help you encourage students and parents to read together all summer long.

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25 Activities To Keep Kids Brains Active During The Summer

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25 Activities To Keep Kids Brains Active During The Summer

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As students set out on summer adventures, send their parents a much-needed "life preserver" -- a list of 25 activities to share and enjoy with their children. These fun activities cover all subjects and grades; there truly is something for everyone. And, if you have your own summer adventurers at home, this list can rescue your kids from the boredom and blahs of rainy summer days. This year, do more than amuse and entertain your kids and hope for the best for your students, keep their minds working all summer long!
It's summer -- that time of year when teachers bid farewell to students, hoping their gleefully escaping charges don't forget everything they've learned during the school year. It's also the time of year when nervous parents take on the challenge of keeping their children physically busy and mentally active during long summer days. To help those efforts, Education World offers 25 ideas that not only reinforce skills taught during the year, but also to entertain students through the summer months. Share these resources with parents to help them and their children make the most of the lazy, hazy days to come!

Many of these activities link to online resources. In most cases, however, the activities can be completed even by those without Internet access. The activities that do require Internet access can be printed and distributed to students before school ends or accessed and printed by parents at most public libraries.

1. Fill in summer's special days and events on the Education World Coloring Calendar for June, July, or August. Or help children use pencils, drawing paper, and rulers to create, decorate, and fill in their own summer calendars.

2. Teach kids to cook with the step-by-step lessons and recipes at Cooking With Kids. The site also includes measurement reminders, safety tips, and suggestions for involving kids in the cooking process. Or check out your local library or book store for one of the recommended Heritage Cooking for Kids: Taste History books and try out recipes from Colonial days, the Civil War, and the Lewis and Clark expedition.

3. Make homemade Bubble Solution and experiment with such unique Bubble-Blowing Tools as strings, milk containers, and garbage can lids.

4. Read aloud The Paper Crane by Molly Bang. Then introduce the art of paper folding by printing and following the instructions for How to Make an Origami Crane. Younger children: Try making a fish.

5. Go on a Light Walk, an outing designed to teach kids the properties of light and facts about the sun. Bob Miller of the Exploratorium explains it all. Can't take an online tour? Do your own image walk by printing the directions and template found at the site.

6. Create musical instruments from materials found around the house. Need help? Enchanted Learning provides instructions for such Musical Instruments as a rattle, box guitar, maraca, and rain stick.

7. Cool down by making Ice Cream in a Bag. The simple technique produces delicious ice cream in about 5 minutes. What ice cream varieties will you and your child concoct?

8. Read aloud a selection from Candlelight Storybooks or your own favorite myths or fairy tales. Discuss the stories with your child. Then invite your child to choose a favorite story, and together make a diorama depicting a pivotal moment in the tale.

9. Catch a firefly and then go online to learn more about fireflies or read a book, such as Fireflies by Sally M. Walker, to help your child learn more about them. Then invite your child to complete the Education World Firefly Facts work sheet. Firefly Facts Answers:

Fireflies are really beetles because they have four wings; true flies only have two wings.

Most fireflies like warm, humid areas.

In the United States, glowing fireflies are found east of the middle of Kansas.

Firefly larvae feed mostly on earthworms, snails, and slugs.

Scientists believe fireflies use their ability to flash as a warning signal to predators and to attract mates.

10. Print a grid of dots from Connect the Dots by Math Cats and invite your child to make an original tessellation.

11. Staple together pieces of plain paper or use a notebook to help your child make a cartoon flip book. Kids draw a sequence of cartoons and simulate motion as they "flip" through the pages. (Note that the first image in the series should be at the bottom of the stack of pages, and the illustrations should progress from bottom to top.) How to Draw Cartoons or The Complete Cartooning Course by Steve Edgell, Brad Brooks, and Tim Pilcher, offer simple instructions for drawing cartoon figures.

12. Learn about national parks from the comfort of your own home, and encourage your child to complete online activities and become a Web Ranger. Materials are grouped by age and include cool awards and a membership card.

13. Start a rock collection. Collecting Rocks, a Web site by the U. S. Geological Survey, offers advice to help the novice collector gather, identify, and store neat rock specimens. The Audubon Society Pocket Guide Familiar Rocks and Minerals North America will help children identify and label the rocks and minerals they find.

14. Plan with your child a family activity day. Decide how much money to spend, and help your child research events and activities in your area and choose an affordable activity the whole family can enjoy. Remind your child to be sure to allow enough time for the activity, and to remember to include food in the day's plan. (The online Planning a Party guide will help.) Don't forget to bring a camera and take lots of pictures. Your child can mount and label each photo and create a family scrapbook of your special day. You might provide the questions below to help guide your child's thoughts as they plan this special day.

Describe the event or activity your family will attend.

Will everyone in the family enjoy this activity? Why do you think so?

What do you need to arrange ahead of time? Will you need to purchase tickets? Pack a lunch? Make reservations?

What supplies or materials will you need?

What costs will be involved?

15. Take a virtual CampusTour of colleges and universities your high school student might be considering. Tour the schools' grounds, look at maps, view videos and photos, and request information about those institutions of higher learning. If you don't have Internet access at home, take your tour at the local library.

16. Have your child follow instructions to Build the Best Paper Airplane in the World. Then ask your child to design an original paper airplane and diagram the steps for constructing it, so another family member can recreate it!

17. Start a family or neighborhood book club. Even a parent and child can form a book club, by reading the same book and chatting about it. For larger groups, check out some online hints for starting a book club.

18. Hang a white sheet outside at night and shine a light on it. Observe the variety of insects it draws. To identify some of those nighttime visitors, explore links such as this one or read the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders.

19. Kids rarely have the opportunity to design their own rooms to best suit their individual needs. Invite your child to devote some thought to ways to improve his or her living space. Explore with your child Kids' Room Decorating Ideas to find ways your child might individualize his or her room. Then have the child draw the layout of their "new" room. The following questions might guide kids as they consider the possibilities:

Other than sleeping, what do you do most often in your room? Play games? Work on a computer? Listen to music? Do homework? Entertain guests?

What furniture or other items do you use most often? What do you use least often?

What kind of storage do you need? A dresser? A bookcase? A clothes hamper? A desk?

What do you like best about your room? What do you like least?

How do you want to change your room?

20. Help your child make a set of tangrams with instructions found at the Math Forum's Constructing Your Own Set of Tangrams. Trace the designs on a piece of paper, mix up the tangram pieces, and use them to create jigsaw puzzles.

21. Create a thing of beauty from a lump of coal! With a few common ingredients, you and your child can grow a "Magic Crystal Garden" with pieces of coal. Instructions for the crystal garden can be found at Joey Green's Mad Scientist Experiments.

22. Soar into space (the space in your bedroom, kitchen, or dining room) by constructing Science Bob's Balloon Rocket. This simple science experiment using a balloon, string, straw, and tape, illustrates the use of air pressure to produce movement.

23. Turn plain white carnations or fresh-picked Queen Anne's Lace into dramatic colored creations by Coloring Flowers. Using just food coloring and water, flowers can be changed from white to any tint, usually in just one day. Colors deepen over time, and kids will enjoy modifying the experiment to see what unique combinations they can make.

24. Invite your child to play a Math game and record his or her scores on a sheet set up like the illustration below. Choose a probability game, a timed flashcard activity, an online game from a site such as FunBrain, or another favorite math activity. Then have your child graph the results of the Game Challenge chart. Celebrate your child's effort with a special treat.

Game Title: _________________________________

25. Put old wallpaper and magazine scraps to good use by using them to create Recycled Paper Beads. This easy activity requires very few common materials and keeps kids very busy on rainy days. When they're finished, children can string their beads and give them as gifts or wear them for fun.

Article by Cara Bafile
Education World®
Copyright © 2009, 2016 Education World

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25 Activities to Keep Kids' Brains Active in Summer

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As students set out on summer adventures, send their parents a much-needed "life preserver" -- a list of 25 activities to share and enjoy with their children. These fun activities cover all subjects and grades; there truly is something for everyone.