5 Summer Strategies for Families to Rock & Read
May 27, 2018
Contributed by Shannon McClintock Miller
As we are getting ready for the summer months ahead, we have the opportunity to arm our students with wonderful resources and tools that will prevent the summer slide and keep them reading, learning, and creating. Here are five meaningful and engaging ways to use your favorite Cantata Learning stories and songs… and a little PebbleGo, too!
• Learn and practice coding together
Students love to code, and this is one skill that we want to make sure our students keep learning about and practicing all year long. With Cantata Learning’s Code It! series, this is something they can learn with their families as they sing along to these four amazing songs. You can sing them at home, outside, on the way to summer camp or a ballgame, and even on vacation.
• Investigate the weather
During the school year, classrooms and libraries track the weather and discuss it every day. Weather is important to talk about at home as well. We want our children to be knowledgeable about the different types of weather, storms, and temperatures, and to become aware of weather around the world.
Two important weather topics for our younger students are clouds and precipitation. Cantata Learning has a beautiful series called Water All Around Us that includes titles What Kind of Clouds and Types of Precipitation. Not only can families sing and read about the various clouds and precipitation, but they could keep a weather journal, observe the weather and discuss it each day, or even compare similarities and differences with family and friends living in different parts of the country or world.
With its extensive topics about all kinds of weather, the PebbleGo Science database will help kids do their research and discover even more about weather. Parents can even print off the Activity Sheets that come along with each PebbleGo article to create a journal as they learn about lots of different weather topics throughout the summer.
• Make a story after visiting a zoo or farm
Children love animals. There are wonderful opportunities for learning when visiting zoos and farms. The Classic Fables in Rhyme and Rhythm stories and songs brings different animals to life through graphic style action-packed illustrations telling the stories’ important morals.
The Lion and the Mouse and The Fox and the Grapes are two that children will love singing this summer while finding a lion or fox at the zoo. They can even learn more about them while researching lion, fox and other animals in PebbleGo Animals or Animales.
After the visit, have them create their own story with paper and art supplies or in the digital storytelling tool, Buncee. They can use the animal stickers and zoo, farm or wildlife backgrounds to create a wonderful digital story to enjoy, read and share. They can even record themselves singing and reading one of the Cantata Learning stories right inside of their Buncee.
• Celebrate special events
It is fun to focus on special events with children. There are two big events each summer, not to mention lots of town and state celebrations. The Holidays in Rhythm and Rhyme series includes stories and songs about the two summer holidays, Memorial Day and Fourth of July. They can sing along to the songs on these special days and share them with family and friends. The songs and stories can become part of these annual events.
Fourth of July and Memorial Day can also be found on PebbleGo.
• Access Capstone Interactive for FREE All Summer Long
Our friends at Capstone have a very special summer reading opportunity for all students and families. They have made thousands of their eBooks free in Capstone Interactive, including all Cantata Learning titles. Students will be able to read and sing along at home and on-the-go.
You can sign up for this wonderful summer reading opportunity here.
Enjoy the summer, friends. I can’t wait to hear stories about your students singing along as they learn, create, and read all summer long!
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