Summer is coming to an end, and kids and parents are preparing themselves to go back to school. To make real-world summer learning easy and impactful we’ve partnered with our community of Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts to put together quick tips and lesson activities parents can easily do with their kids.
Whether your kids are spending time in the sun or surrounded by their primos, primas, and abuelas, they all can benefit from these fun lessons.
Math can be fun
Ages: 5 – 7
Math table game: Create 100 math exercises (tables 1 to 10) like 1×7, 3×8, 5+25 etc. and write the solution on the back of the paper. Put them all on a table (10 rows, 10 columns) with the exercise visible. Now, each child can select an exercise and try to solve it. If they answer correctly he or she can point at an exercise to be solved by another player. If they answer incorrectly he or she chooses another exercise to try. By playing this game kids are able to practice math in a fun way!
Ignite your kids’ creativity
Ages: 6 – 13
Creativity in a bag: Put five random items in a bag – anything laying around the house. Ask your child to create as many things as they can imagine using those items. You could also ask them to write a story that includes each item in some way. Sit back and watch their creativity at work! (Multiple children = multiple bags. They can collaborate or exchange after a certain amount of time.)
Teach your kids how to follow directions
Ages: 3 – 12
To Market, to Market: Choose a recipe to make. Ask your child to make the list of ingredients needed and head to the store. Encourage the child to find the items on the list, weigh them if necessary, and even allow the child to use cash to pay. Head home and cook away!
Take your kids concentration to the next level
Ages: 7 – 13
Estimating: Start a timer and start walking, running, or jumping. Estimate when you have moved for 10 seconds, 20 seconds, and so forth, and stop the timer to see how accurate you have been. Or, mark a start point and start walking, running, or jumping and try to go 10 meters, 20 meters, etc. Mark the end point and measure how accurate you were.
Teach them about comprehensive reading
Ages: 10 – 14
Comprehensive reading with creative portfolio: Every day, read one small article in a respected newspaper, whether online or paper, out loud to your kids. Search for the meaning of one difficult word and put it into a digital format – one slide in PowerPoint per day is perfect. You can also make a creative word-cloud, a drawing, or a short story on paper. After a holiday period of about two months, children have an amazing digital or paper-based portfolio of about 30 difficult words.
Learning about problem solving
Ages: 11 – 15.
Improve your world: Ask your kids about the problems facing our planet, your town, your street or somewhere else you know well. Choose one problem and ask them to describe it for others who may not know about it. Then, ask them to suggest one or two ways in which this problem could be solved or lessened. Their response can be in words, sketches, photographs, or any other creative form.