Preventing the Summer Slide-Math at Home

Hey teacher friend! Do your children practice math at home in the summer months? If not, I’m glad you returned for Part 2 of my blog mini-series on preventing the summer slide. (If you missed the first post, no worries!  You can catch up by clicking here.) Today we will talk about FUN WAYS to incorporate math at home to prevent students from regressing over the summer.

Math at Home

By now we know that the summer slide is when students lose ground academically over the summer months.  In my last post, I talked about strategies for reading.  Now, let’s switch our brains over to math.

How can we integrate math at home over the summer to keep those skills sharp?

Liz Neiman of the MIND Research Institute says, “We believe that math is from everywhere, in everything, and for everyone, and that anyone can be a math person when they don’t just learn math, but experience it.”

That is a powerful statement!  Children should experience math activities at home to become a math person.  That being said, how can we design summer learning activities, so that children have the opportunity to experience math?

Math in the Kitchen

One of my must-haves for my classroom math lessons is manipulatives.  Primary students must have concrete items to touch and explore with as they develop their mathematical thinking skills.  I pass out pattern blocks, base-ten blocks, counters, cubes, and more for students to use as they work.

You might be thinking, “Hey Kate!  We are talking about summer here, and my students do not have math manipulatives at home.”

No problem!  There are plenty of other items that can stand in for those classroom supplies.  For example, pretzel rods and mini marshmallows can serve as ten rods and single units.  You can use summer snack time as a way to sneak in some number practice.  Children can experience building numbers with these fun, edible math manipulatives at home!  Small pieces of cereal or fish crackers make great items for counting.

Another way that you can practice math during snack time is by making a snack mix.  Break out the measuring cups and have children measure out each item into the bowl.  You can use the measuring cups to explain fractions by showing one whole, one half, and so on!

You can do the same thing by serving an apple or a sandwich.  Show your children one whole and then talk about how it changes as you cut it up into smaller pieces.  You can also talk about shapes when you cut a sandwich.  Ask your children if they would like their sandwich cut into triangles or squares!

If the kids are around while you are making dinner, try having conversations about time.  Show them on the clock how to count the hours until dinner, and talk about temperature as you preheat the oven.  Or talk about elapsed time, when you show them the time you start baking a casserole and the time that it will finish.

Don’t worry, your child is not going to master all of these mathematical concepts right away.  What your child will begin to see, is that math is everywhere!

So let’s get out of the kitchen and step outside!

Math in the Great Outdoors

Summer is a great time to have kids play outside.  Exercise is so important for both their physical and mental well-being.  Counting is a perfect skill to work on in the great outdoors!

Have children count the times they hit a ball while keeping it in the air or how many times in a row they can jump rope without missing.  Adding the counting challenge makes it more fun, and they are practicing those numbers at the same time.

Going on a math scavenger hunt at home is another great way to practice counting.  Your children can count the number of beds in your house or the number of containers in the cabinet.  Your children can also hunt for shapes.  They might spot a rectangular front door or a round mirror. They could even do an outdoor math scavenger hunt. Your child can count squirrels or hunt for shapes in nature like an oval stone.

You can also have a lot of fun with elapsed time by using a stopwatch.  This activity you will need to prep ahead.  

Ice Block Melt Activity

1.  Choose several different sized containers and fill them with water.  Stick them in the freezer overnight.  
2. The next day have your child predict how long it will take for all of the ice to melt and which shape will melt the fastest.  
3. Set those ice blocks outside and keep an eye on them as they melt.  Note the time that you put them out, so you can help your child calculate how long it took the blocks to melt.  This could also be a fun job for older siblings.
4. Check those predictions and discuss the results.

Not only are you going to have a lot of conversation about time, but you can also sneak in some scientific discussion of solid, liquid and gases. Bonus!

While your children are waiting on the big blocks to melt, give each child a Ziplock baggie with one ice cube inside.  Set a stopwatch and have a race to see which child can melt their cube the fastest.  The only rule is that they can’t remove the cube from the bag! 

Math at the Beach

Sometimes, we need a little getaway from home. Are you headed to the beach this summer?  Nature is full of beautiful patterns for children to explore.  Pick up a shell and note how the ridges go up then down and up then down.  Children can also use shells or rocks to make their own patterns arranging them by size or color.  Writing in the sand is a fun way to practice writing numbers or solving addition number sentences.  That could even be done in a sandbox at home!

Math at Bedtime

After a long day of playing and experiencing math, your children will be ready for a bedtime story.  There are so many beautiful picture books with a mathematical theme.  If you don’t have any at home, you can always grab some at your local library.  The website We Are Teachers has a great list of books for you to check out here.

I hope these tips help you think of ways to incorporate math at home into everyday summer play. These strategies will keep those mathematical skills sharp and prevent the summer slide.

Be sure to stay tuned for my upcoming and final post on preventing the summer slide!  Also, take a minute to sign up for my email list. You will receive a free guide to prepare for your teaching evaluation. Let’s go ahead and eliminate that fear and stress by getting ready for this fall in advance! Have a great week!