From "Summer Slide" to "Summer Stride"

Summer Stride is defined as taking steps toward a specific goal to prepare children for the upcoming school year. It promotes parental support at home and summer is the perfect time for your child to continue learning in a fun and exciting way.

Support your child now, before the new school year begins. Last month, we shared how students’ reading skills may decline if they are and not engaged in reading activities throughout the summer. We encourage you to check out the tips below to support your child’s continuous learning and to help prepare them for the next grade level.

Your support at home is important. Our “Community Reads!” website provides great insight to understanding how you can help make the new school year an outstanding experience. The suggestions below support these efforts and help prepare your child for a fabulous start:

• Investigate – What does my child know now? –Visit bealearninghero.org and complete the readiness check to find out what your child knows before entering the next grade level. Suggested resources from this website will support your child’s learning needs at home for the summer.

• Strengthen Life Skills – Engage your child in real-world skills. Whether it’s on the playground or at home, show your child how to problem solve, learn from mistakes, and communicate well with others.

• Daily Show Me – Tell Me Time – Take time to explore your child’s interests as they read and play at home. Make time for meaningful conversations and engaging activities using resources from our "Community Reads!" site. Ask your child to teach you what he/she has learned each day. This helps them review important skills and build confidence!

• Discover the fun in your community! – There are places and spaces to learn all around you! Explore local library programs, recreational centers, parks, and museums to discover new interests. Talk about what you learned and enjoyed during your visit.

Destiny is your school’s library catalog system. You can use Destiny to search for books, both print and digital, available in your school’s library collection.  You may also search the collections of other schools in the district and request an interlibrary loan.  Visit your school library media specialist for more information about interlibrary loan or assistance with using Destiny.  Get started with Destiny today and find a new book to check out from your school library tomorrow!

How to access Destiny from home…

myON is an online resource providing over 6,000 books for students. A variety of reading levels, genres, and topics are available allowing students to choose books “just right” for them. The program supports students in their reading with optional features such as audio recordings of each book and highlighting the text so students can track their reading along with the recording. With such an extensive library, students will expand their knowledge and vocabulary as they read books that interest THEM!

June 21st is officially the first day of Summer and to celebrate myON has created 8 themes to add fun and reading to your summer! These 8 themes will be featured during the months of June and July. School might be ending, but reading and learning should still be an important part of every student's day. Reading every day, even if it's for just a few minutes, improves student's ability to read and learn all year long and helps prevent summer learning loss. Listed below the recommended myON book titles, families can find fun activities that launch students to fun, enriching summertime experiences.

 

How to access myOn from home - watch video - view/print user's guide

Summer Theme:

July Week 1: Independence Day

July Week 2: Camping

July Week 3: Superhero

July Week 4: Relax

Ask your child to describe the difference between an informational text and a literary text.

• Informational text - nonfiction (Examples: true stories, articles, biographies, first-hand journals, "how to" books)
• Literary text - fiction (Examples: make-believe, fantasy, poems, plays, bursery rhymes)