DreamBox Learning®» summer slide

Tuesday Teacher Tips: Encouraging Summer Learning

Lisa W — Tue, 24 May 2011 16:32:36 +0000

Welcome to the Tuesday Teacher Tips series! Each week we’ll highlight teaching and learning resources, ideas to use in the classroom, as well as things to ponder as you go about your teaching day. Do you need something to send home to parents at the end of the year to remind them of the importance of working on math skills during the summer? Print off our flyer, “Have fun with math this summer and avoid the summer slide." This handout includes fun activities families can enjoy together. They are based on the ten different standards of math learning for each grade level, recommended by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics; there are five Content Standards and five Process Standards.

The "Avoid the Summer Slide" parent handout includes suggestions like:

A card game with several variations, all of which reinforce number sense, number relationships like “greater than” and “less than”, and addition, subtraction
Games that help kids develop pattern recognition
Fun ways to experiment with 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional forms
Critical thinking and problem-solving activities

Sharing this handout with parents is a good way to support the home-school connection — you’ll help parents understand how to reinforce the key math concepts these activities relate to. Download the "Avoid the Summer Slide" handout today! For more resources, visit our home-school connection page. What are ways you encourage summer learning? Let us know. We’d love to hear your ideas!

Outdoor Math Games to Avoid the Summer Slide

Tracy — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 22:30:33 +0000

There's no better way to avoid the summer slide than to get outside! Summer is the best time of the year to go out and enjoy the great outdoors, and DreamBox Learning wants to add to the fun with exciting and easy outdoor math games kids will love. Break out the sunscreen and throw on the swimsuit because some of these games are going to get you soaked with water and knowledge (but, mostly water).

Wet 'n wild math games

1. Hole-in-the-Bucket Relay Race

Teach children how to measure liquids with a hole-in-the-bucket relay race. Materials:

Five Tupperware or coffee can containers
One large clean plastic garbage container
Five different five-gallon buckets
One nail and hammer

Set up: Use a nail to punch five to eight holes in one coffee can for each team. Have players estimate how many cans full of water it will take to fill up a five-gallon bucket. The rules: Give each evenly divided team a can. Players run to the container full of water, fill the can, and run back to the next person, who dumps the water into the bucket. The race is over when the first team fills up their five-gallon bucket. Give a special prize to the team that fills their bucket in the least amount of trips.

2. Water balloon toss

Discover distances by measuring how far you throw a water balloon in a game of catch. Materials:

25 water balloons filled with water
Measuring tape
Trash bags to collect water balloon fragments

Set up: Using the measuring tape, mark off every three feet on the ground for 30 yards. (If you have access to a football field, you can also use the yard markers on a lined football field. Be sure to clean up afterward!) Ask each player how far he or she can throw before starting. The rules: Pairing each team in a group of two, give each group a water balloon and have them start by standing three-feet apart in the middle of the 30-yard area. One person on each team will pass the water balloon to the teammate. If the water balloon doesn't break, each teammate can take one gigantic step backwards to the next yard marker. The game continues until there is only one team left with an intact water balloon.

Runnin' around math games

1. Get Even

Use a deck of playing cards to learn the difference between even and odd numbers. Materials:

One deck of playing cards (without jokers or face cards)
Eight cones
A large running area like a field

Set up: Using four cones make a box in the middle of the field called the "pen." Align the other four cones in the four outer corners of the field. The rules: Give each player a playing card with an odd number. Divide the rest of the deck into the four outer corner cones. Players must dash out to one of the four outer cones and find one card that equals an even number when added to the player's card. The player then returns to the pen to drop off their new card and races back out to the outer cones. The game is over when players collect all the playing cards from the outside cones.

2. One size fits all

Learn about different sizes in a clothing relay race. Materials:

Three XXL t-shirts
Three XXL athletic shorts
Three pairs of adult size shoes
Six cones

Set up: Place the shirt, shorts and shoes at the start line. Space a set of three cones ten-yards away from the start line. The rules: Divide each team into three even groups. When the leader says, "Go!" the first person in line races to put on the shoes, shirt and shorts and runs down field, around the cone and back the start line. The player must then hand off the shoes, shirt and shorts to the next person in line. The race continues until every person on the team dashes down field. For an extra math moment: Using a stopwatch, take the pulse of each player after he or she is done running. Be sure to check out our August Math Activity Calendar for even more summer math activities all month long. Have a great summer and comment below with your own outdoor math activity ideas!

New Math Activity Calendar: June is Turn-Off-the-TV Math Month

Tracy — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:49:42 +0000

We're still shivering in Seattle but according to the calendar, it's almost summer! So it's a new month with fun-in-the-sun kids activities and goofy holidays. Our new math activity calendar is better than ever. Teachers: you can send this calendar home to suggest fun family math activities. And parents: turn off the TV, get outside, and say so-long to the math learning "summer slide"! Comment below with your ideas on favorite outdoor educational activities. How can students keep learning when they're at the beach, the park, or in the backyard? Your activity could be featured in an upcoming calendar!

Activity calendar highlights

Don't miss Eat Grapes Until Your Belly Aches Day on June 8. The world record for eating grapes is 133 in three minutes! (How many seconds is that?)
Celebrate the summer solstice — the longest day of the year —by finding out how many hours of sun you'll get!
On Paper Airplane Day, fold four different paper airplanes and let them fly, then time which one stays in the air the longest.

We hope you and the kids enjoy our June activity calendar. As the summer starts, it can be tempting to take a vacation from education. But learning opportunities abound outside. Have a super fun, safe summer!

Education Vacation: Exciting Summer Math and Science Camps

Sue — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:12:51 +0000

To a kid, there are no sweeter words than summer vacation. No more pencils, no more books.... But this doesn’t mean they can’t have fun learning this summer. Research shows avoiding the “summer slide” can have a profound effect on your child's learning development. You may already know that DreamBox Learning is a wonderful source for engaging math activities for kindergarten, first grade and second grade students. You also know that the sun is out, the weather is great, and your kids shouldn’t spend their entire vacation in front of the computer. Don’t fret. There are so many summer math and science camp options that you’ll envy your kids’ learning possibilities this summer.

Out of this World Summer Math and Science Camps

Rocket at Space Camp

In 1977, while watching students study rockets at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Dr. Wernher von Braun commented “We have band camp, football, cheerleading; why don't we have a science camp?” As the math camps pioneer, the United States Space Camps in Huntsville, AL brings space exploration alive with summer camps, day camps and year-round family oriented activities. My son still talks about Space Camp, even though he's long outgrown his flight suit! If you’re looking for a space-related camp closer to home, here is a list of space camps throughout the country.

Down-to-Earth Summer Math and Science Camps

Giraffes at SeaWorld/Busch Gardens

If animals catch the eyes of your young ones, the SeaWorld and Busch Gardens Adventure Camps are sure to light the inspirational spark for biology. These resident camps, day camps, or group camps give children of all ages the opportunity to interact with land and sea animals from all over the world. These camps are offered at SeaWorld and Busch Gardens parks in Tampa Bay, Orlando, San Antonio, and San Diego, or here is a list of biological science summer camps throughout the country.

Budget-Friendly Educational Summer Camps

These science summer camps may be convenient, but they're no less exciting. For math and science activities closer to home, look to your nearest children’s museums or science centers for summer camps. One example that we DreamBox Learning appreciate is the Pacific Science Center’s camp and workshop program, which offers overnight and day camps. This summer, campers of all ages will learn about candy chemistry, GPS adventures, and discover supervised experiments with unstable elements. And the Seattle Aquarium, where one of our own staffers volunteers every week, offers Marine Summer Camps, where kids can get face-to-face with underwater life.

Choosing a Summer Camp

Whatever activity you choose for your little campers this year, make sure the summer camp is connected with the American Camp Association (ACA) to ensure your children are cared for by trained professionals. For a complete list of summer camps of all kinds this summer, visit www.mysummercamps.com. When your summer is filled with DreamBox Learning and these great summer math and science camps, your children will learn and grow while having a blast this summer vacation.