Preparing for first grade over the summer: 7 summer learning activities for the summer before 1st grade GreatSchools

7 summer learning activities for the summer before 1st grade GreatSchools

As your child’s first year of “big kid school” ends, take a moment to be proud of your child’s progress. This year, they learned basic reading, writing, and math skills that they’ll build on next year and beyond. These kindergarten skills really are the foundation of your child’s education. Here are some fun learning activities to try the summer before first grade to keep your child’s skills sharp for school in the fall.

1. Read a bedtime story (every night if you can)

   Snuggle time with a loved one is special. And reading aloud to your child is one of the most important things you can do to help your child succeed in school. Make reading together a reward at the end of a busy day. Read different books each night or the same book over and over, and talk about the story, the setting, the characters, or what might happen the next day, after the story ends.

2. Take a tour of your local library

   Visit the children’s area and meet the librarian. Ask about summer activities, such as story times or a read-a-book campaign with prizes. Ask the librarian if there are events for kids or families. Visit every week, if possible, and encourage your child to check out a pile of books that look interesting. Does your child only choose books about superheroes or dinosaurs? No problem! Keep the library books visible and within reach at home. Make sure there’s screen-free time when books are an appealing option.

3. Cuddle up with a math problem!

   Yes, math time can be just as fun as reading time. Bedtime Math is a free app for fun, grade-appropriate math problems you can talk through with your child. For more math skills practice, print a few kindergarten and first grade math worksheets. (Hint: many are fun and involve coloring!)

4. Run, jump, play

   Running around outside is good for more than just tiring out energetic kids. It’s important for children’s brains. Vigorous exercise helps kids build their brains’ super highways. Research has shown that exercise helps improve a child’s memory, concentration, and overall ability to learn. Any activity will do, from an organized sport to playing tag. Check out this list of age-appropriate PE challenges for ideas.

5. Get the fingers working, too

   Your child probably made a lot of progress this year with their fine motor skills — things like cutting with scissors and holding a pencil. Keep those skills sharp over the summer with fun activities. Have your child use scissors to snip bits of colorful scrap paper to make confetti for a party. (They can work on it all summer until there’s a big bag!) Or have your child trace letters in wet sand. They can also mix cookie dough by hand or make a necklace by threading uncooked pasta tubes on string.

6. Write a letter

   Sending a real letter is fun, and it’s great writing practice. Have your child write or dictate a letter to a relative or friend. Work together to address the envelope, place the stamp, and mail it. Make sure to ask the recipient to “please write back,” because receiving mail is fun, too!

7. Play the new word game

   “Do you want to know what ____ means?” Teach your child a new word each day. Building your child’s vocabulary will help them grow their reading and writing skills, too. Look for fun, new, descriptive words everywhere — on TV, in books, in articles, in advertisements, on labels in the store. If you need a guide, here are our lists of academic vocabulary words for first graders.

Want more summer learning ideas? See our recommendations for summer learning for kids of any age and specifically for the summers before 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade.

How to Prepare Your Student for 1st Grade Over the Summer – Urban Prairie Waldorf School

Written by Mat Riendeau – Urban Prairie Waldorf School teacher

Spring is making its way into summer, and before we know it, Fall will be upon us. One of the beautiful aspects of summer vacation is that it is, well, summer vacation. In the rhythm of the year, it is a wonderful and magical exhalation, a time to run barefoot through the grass, climb trees, fly kites, swim, and explore. In fact, some of these activities are actually the best way to prepare your child for their upcoming first-grade year. There is no need to worry about giving your child first-grade prep classes or workbooks or anything like that. What we are talking about is providing your child opportunities to continue on their developmental path and grow physiologically and emotionally in the next few months. The academic stuff will come later in the fall and is actually built upon this vital foundation. 

Below is a list of some ideas to think about over the summer in support of the 6 & 7 year old developmental needs. As with any material you get from me, these are merely suggestions and ideas; they are not prescriptive in any way! Each family will have its own unique needs and culture, so there is no one-size-fits-all method. And this list is by no means comprehensive, but I hope it does help you begin to wrap your heads around your child’s needs as a rising first grader.  

Sensory/Motor Development:

• I have mentioned this already, but it bears repeating again and again: So much of a child’s academic/educational success rests upon a foundation of well-balanced and integrated physiology. Summer is a great time for a child to develop their sense of balance further, practice fine and gross motor movement, regulate their vestibular system, etc. Here are some recommended activities:
  • Fine Motor Skills:
    • Learn to tie their own shoes
    • Other knotworks like tying a fishing lure or a kite string
    • Legos
    • Beadwork
    • Folding napkins
    • Chopping vegetables and helping to prepare a meal
    • Helping fold clothes
    • Sandcastles
    • Flossing teeth
  • Gross Motor Skills
    • Climb Trees
    • Swimming
    • Biking
    • Wrestling and roughhousing
    • Rolling down hills
    • Sweeping the floor
    • Slackline 

Cognitive Development:

• You may see rapid cognitive development during these summer months, or you may not. Everyone is going to develop and grow according to their own clocks. But allowing and encouraging your child to approach the world with wonder, curiosity, and imagination is always a good idea.
• A 6 & 7 year olds understand the world through questions, as you likely know. How do we help instill a sense of wonder and kindle the fire of curiosity with our answers?
  • “Yes, and…”
  • “I wonder” is always a great go-to response to a question. And then ask for a follow-up and another follow-up. Focus on what the child can perceive on their own through their senses. 
  • Here is an article from WaPo around answering an endless supply of questions. 
• Giving your child the opportunity to learn about the world through nature and play is an amazing gift to give them. For example, when they are throwing rocks and sticks, they are experiencing and internalizing the laws of physics (and likely cause and effect as well!). When walking through the forest and prairie, they are making their own scientific observations. It also improves our psychological well-being to a great extent. 

Sleep:

• Ah, sleep. I love you so. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children between the ages of 6 and 12 sleep between 9 and 12 hours a night. Summer nights can tend to go late, and bedtimes can be pushed later and later in the evening. Keep an eye on this; their bodies are not necessarily functioning on adult rhythms even though the family is. 
• Here is an article on the importance of sleep for children.
• Around the middle of August, consider starting to transition to school-year-bedtimes. It takes a few weeks for their internal clocks to catch up, so this is a good time. Experience leads me to suggest a 7:00 bedtime for first graders, asleep by 7:30. 

Social/Emotional Development:

• Rising first graders still primarily live within the world of imitation. Not only do they imitate what we do, but even more importantly, how we do things. This also figures into the realm of our social interactions. Modeling kindness, manners, and healthy relationship/communication practices provide a healthy model for our children to learn from and imitate. 
• Rhythm, rhythm, rhythm. You will hear this word a lot from me as well. A family culture with established daily, weekly, and seasonal rhythms and routines helps form the basis of an environment that feels secure and nurturing. Having predictable routines, including where things are kept and how things are done really helps alleviate a great deal of weight off the parental shoulders as well!.  Eventually, from the rhythms and routines that you set up today, will come independence and self-sufficiency. 
• Hopefully, summer will see the beginning of the end of our Covid lifestyles. Peer interactions are all the more critical at this time, so I encourage you to seek out opportunities for your child to interact with their peers as much as possible. Time away from adults is also important, so be sure to give your child their own space and agency in play. 

Resources: 

• For those who would like to dig a bit deeper over the summer, I have four books that I would offer up as recommendations. The first two give a general overview of Waldorf education, the following two are great books on parenting, which I have personally found very helpful, and the last is a link to the AWSNA website. 
  • Education Towards Freedom (A bit dated, but still informative)
  • Understanding Waldorf Education 
  • Simplicity Parenting
  • The Soul of Discipline
  • The Association of Waldorf School of North America (AWSNA)

How to prepare a child for the first grade in the summer. Checklist for parents

The first grade can be a serious challenge not only for parents, but also for the child. A new daily routine and a lot of strangers, for some reason you need to sit still for 40 minutes, and run only during recess. Psychologist Sergey Galiullin gives advice on how not to waste time in summer and prepare the future student for a new stage.

Introduce “new life”

1. Take a tour of the school. nine0008 Show me where the primary school classrooms, toilets, canteen are located. If possible, let him come into the classroom and sit at his desk. This can be done not only on an open day, but also later – even in summer, if you agree on this with the administration in advance. And anxiety will decrease, and information will be better absorbed – tactile and visual perception help in this.