The Reading Rockets–NEA Guide to Learning at Home: Family Activities for Summer

Literacy Tips and Activities

• Story Mentors (opens in a new window): Online books to read together paired with videos and activities (Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy)
• Growing Readers (opens in a new window): One-page tip sheets to help parents support reading and writing at home (Reading Rockets)
• Reading Tips for Parents (opens in a new window): In English and 12 other languages, babies up to grade 3 (Reading Rockets)
• Literacy at Home (opens in a new window): Common sense tips from literacy expert Tim Shanahan (Reading Rockets)

Spanish-Language Resources for Parents

• Learning at home / Nuestros niños: Recursos recomendados (opens in a new window) (Colorín Colorado)
• Spanish-language booklists / Libros & Autores (opens in a new window) (Colorín Colorado)

Teaching Reading Skills at Home

• The ABCs of Teaching Reading at Home (opens in a new window): An overview of skills children should learn from PreK to grade 2 and how parents can help (Reading Rockets)
• Home Reading Helper (opens in a new window): How to help your child with the basic building blocks of reading, plus videos, printables, activities, and games for preK-grade 3, with additional resources for children who struggle (Read Charlotte)
• Starfall (opens in a new window): Learning-to-read, with an emphasis on phonemic awareness, phonics, sight words, and reading comprehension through online books, songs, rhymes, and games (grades preK-3) 

Summer Reading Challenges

• Summer Read-a-Palooza (opens in a new window) (Scholastic)
• Summer Reading Together (opens in a new window) (Learning Ally)

We Are Storytellers: Exploring Multicultural Folktales, Fairy Tales, and Myths

Reading and writing go hand in hand. Explore multicultural folktales, fairy tales, and myths through shared read alouds and independent reading. Then try some of the writing, oral storytelling, poetry, mapmaking, and other creative activities featured here: We Are Storytellers: Exploring Multicultural Folktales, Fairy Tales, and Myths (opens in a new window)

Let’s Write!

Summer is for exploring, reading, listening and … writing. Give children a chance to exercise different writing muscles — from poetry to persuasive writing. Browse these simple summer writing activities for kids (opens in a new window). Plus tips from children’s writer Mary Amato on keeping a diary or writer’s notebook.

Write. Right. Rite.

Welcome to the Write. Right. Rite. (opens in a new window) — a GRAB THE MIC: Tell Your Story video series! This series gives kids an entertaining and inventive way to engage with the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Jason Reynolds (opens in a new window). Jumpstart creativity with prompts like Find Treasure at the Pool, Take an Imaginary Road Trip, Invent Synonyms, and Create Your Own Roller Coaster. 

Writing Lessons from 826 National

Writing lessons (opens in a new window) to help inspire kids to practice different writing genres — from 826, a national network of writing and tutoring centers, founded by author Dave Eggers and educator Nínive Calegari. (grades 1-5+)

Virtual Summer Camps

• Camp PBS KIDS! (opens in a new window) Explore ideas, tips and activities around different themes with your favorite PBS KIDS characters
• Camp Tinkergarden (opens in a new window): 8 weeks of expert-designed activities for purposeful (and fun) outdoor play 
• Camp Wonderopolis (opens in a new window): STEM learning, literacy, and hands-on activities, with five different themed camps to choose from
• NatGeo@Home (opens in a new window): Each week, a new set of science experiments, videos, quizzes, and other activities
• Wide Open School Summer Camp (opens in a new window): Find offline and online summer activities that will keep kids active and curious, with new themes every  week

News Sites for Kids

• DOGO News (opens in a new window) (K-8)
• NBC Learn (opens in a new window) (K-12)
• News-o-Matic (opens in a new window) (K-12)
• Time for Kids (opens in a new window) (K-6)
• The Week Junior (opens in a new window) (grades 3-9)

Online Learning Across Subjects

• Digital Field Trips: Museum Adventures Abound for Kids (opens in a new window) (all ages)
• Khan Academy Kids (opens in a new window): Free app focusing on math, reading, and SEL (grades preK-2)
• T (opens in a new window)he Kids Should See This (opens in a new window): STEAM, history, and culture-focused videos for curious minds (all ages)
• Scholastic Learn at Home (opens in a new window): Day-by-day projects to keep kids reading, thinking, and growing (grades preK-5+)
• Wonderopolis (opens in a new window): 2,000+ Wonders of the Day, covering a vast range of topics (grades K-5+)
• YouTube Learn@Home (opens in a new window): Curated resources for supplementary reading, math, and science, plus indoor activities, virtual field trips, and more (grades PreK-5+)

• How to Host Your Family’s Own Personal Summer Camp (opens in a new window) (The New York Times)
• Missing the Olympics? Organize Your Own Games, at Home (opens in a new window) (The New York Times)
• Summer is not completely canceled. Here are 100 things we can do with or without kids (opens in a new window) (CNN)
• The ultimate parents’ guide to summer activity resources (opens in a new window) (The Washington Post)

Bird Buddies

How much we can all learn when we stop to look and listen! And what better way to spend a summer day or several than outside learning all about birds — from the connection between birds and dinosaurs, their fantastic feathers, beaks for all kinds of nest building and eating, and unique songs, and how we, as humans, can protect birds and their habitats? Explore, read, play, invent, build and learn — all about birds and birding — with this 5-day DIY summer science camp: Bird Buddies! (opens in a new window) (grades 1-5) 

River Rangers

Imagine building a model of a watershed to explore where water goes when it rains and snows, weaving a dipping net to become a water detective, learning and putting into use 10 simple ways to conserve water, writing a cinquain — a non-rhyming five-line poem — about your favorite river or wetlands, and visiting a local river or body or water to test out the small craft you built from wood and string. Explore, read, play, invent, build and learn — all about water and the rivers and streams in your community — with this 5-day DIY summer science camp: River Rangers! (opens in a new window) (grades 1-5) 

Space Rangers

Where do stars come from? Why does the moon change shape? What is the solar system and why is the sun at its center? How big are all the planets? What is gravity, and is there gravity on the moon and the planets? What’s it like for astronauts to live and work in space? Explore, read, play, invent, build and learn — all about stars, our solar system, and space exploration — with this 5-day DIY summer science camp: S (opens in a new window)pace Rangers! (opens in a new window) (grades 1-5)

Weather Wonders

How does a tornado form? What makes lightning? How do people predict the weather? What can kids do to prepare for extreme weather and fight climate change? Explore, read, play, invent, build and learn — all about weather and climate — with this 5-day DIY summer science camp: Weather Wonders! (opens in a new window) (grades 1-5)  

Start with a Book: Science, Nature and Math

Find recommended fiction and nonfiction books, hands-on activities, writing ideas, educational apps, and kid-friendly podcasts and websites:

• Bugs, Birds, and Animals (opens in a new window)
• Dinosaurs (opens in a new window)
• Flight (opens in a new window)
• Inventions and Inventors (opens in a new window)
• Math and Measuring (opens in a new window)
• Nature: Our Green World (opens in a new window)
• Oceans, Rivers and Ponds (opens in a new window)
• Stars, Planets, and the Night Sky (opens in a new window)
• Weather (opens in a new window)

National Museum of Natural History Summer Explorations

This free virtual summer program series (opens in a new window) allows kids to explore the world of natural history science in a fun and interactive way! Each week you’ll explore a different natural science-based theme through daily live webinars, videos, activities, and projects. Register now (opens in a new window). (Recommended for grades 3-7)

Science and Math Activities: Parent Tips

These 18 tip sheets for parents are available in English and Spanish. Each tip sheet includes simple activities you can do with your child to build literacy and beginning science and math skills, plus recommended picture books to extend the learning. 

Science Podcasts

• Brains On (opens in a new window) (APM)
• The Show About Science (opens in a new window)
• Tumble (opens in a new window) 
• Wow in the World (opens in a new window) (NPR)

More Online Science Resources

• Crash Course Kids (opens in a new window): YouTube science show about earth sciences, biology, geology, astronomy, and more (grades 1-5)  
• SciShow Kids (opens in a new window): YouTube show that explores all those curious topics that make kids ask “why?” (grades 1-5)

Start with a Book: Social Studies

Find recommended fiction and nonfiction books, hands-on activities, writing ideas, educational apps, and kid-friendly podcasts and websites: 

• Builders and Buildings (opens in a new window)
• Cooking and Food (opens in a new window)
• Civics and Our Government (opens in a new window)
• Detectives and Explorers (opens in a new window)
• Family and Community (opens in a new window)
• Geography, Travel and Cultures (opens in a new window)
• Heroes and Superheroes (opens in a new window)

More Online Social Studies Resources:

• iCivics (opens in a new window)
• National Geographic Kids (opens in a new window)

Tune In!

Imagine making music with your body, inventing simple instruments with recycled materials, playing conductor, building community through call-and-response singing and group dances, creating a music time capsule, drawing to music, designing an album cover, exploring voices and songs of social change, and writing original jingles, parodies, and raps. Explore, read, play, invent, build and learn — all about music — with this 5-day DIY summer science camp: Tune In! (opens in a new window) (grades 1-5) 

Start with a Book: Art and Music

Find recommended fiction and nonfiction books, hands-on activities, writing ideas, educational apps, and kid-friendly podcasts and websites:

• Art and Artists (opens in a new window)
• Music and Musicians (opens in a new window)

Draw Together with Wendy MacNaughton

Artist and illustrator Wendy MacNaughton led virtual drawing classes for kids. Each week, there’s a new topic related to the outdoors. Watch on episodes the Draw Together YouTube channel (opens in a new window).

More Online Arts Resources

• Camp Wonderopolis: Symphony of Wonders (opens in a new window)
• Dallas Symphony Orchestra for Kids (opens in a new window)
• Google Arts and Culture (opens in a new window)
• MetKids (opens in a new window)
• Tinker Lab (opens in a new window)