School’s out for summer! Doesn’t that just make you want to sing? As much as teachers love summer break what they don’t love is the summer slide. However, there are ways to avoid the summer slide. There are plenty of fun summer review activities to help students steer clear of the summer slide and make summer learning fun.

What is the Summer Slide?

The Summer Slide is a term used to describe the loss of skills that students have when they are out of school for the summer. As crazy as it may sound, it’s true. One of the largest studies on the topic was done in 1996 and you can read about it in this journal. When students return to school in the fall there will be skills they don’t remember, reading levels that have slid backward, and math facts that have disappeared from memory. Yikes!

Both teachers and parents can help kids avoid the summer slide in just a few minutes each day. Honestly, practicing a skill a little each day will help students get a jump start on the next year.

Summer Review Activities

Students can review grade-level skills and concepts, do brain-engaging activities, and use critical thinking skills. Basically, engaging the brain is the key!

Summertime is all about having fun, relaxing, and enjoying life. This is exactly why summer is the perfect time to squeeze in some learning time for skills your kids may struggle with. Honestly, whether you are trying to fill in some learning gaps or just review, the most important part is to just practice something.

Thankfully, below are some fun summer review activities for upper elementary that are ready to go!

Summer Skills Review Packet

Keeping those learning muscles strong all summer long doesn’t have to be boring. Not with this super fun summer review! This End of Year Skills Review packet has 17 fun and engaging activities to keep the brain sharp all summer!

What’s great about this resource is the variety of math, reading, and language art skills covered. For math, kids will play tic-tac-toe multiplication, crack secret codes using fractions, and complete fun multiplication and division color-by-codes. Overall, there are nine math activities that are perfect for conquering the summer slide!

Many students leave for the summer and don’t pick up a book until the next school year. However, with the Skills Review Packet kids can easily check off several reading and language arts skills before August rolls around. With this packet, kids will work on poetry, verb tenses, non-fiction text features, and so much more!

Thankfully, this summer review is completely no-prep and comes with answer keys! Honestly, it’s easy to use and the perfect confidence booster heading into summer.

Summer Math Review

While kids are soaking up the sunshine this summer, it’s also a good idea to keep their math skills sharp. After all, math builds on itself year after year. So, a little summer practice can go a long way!

Math encompasses so many different skills and concepts that a year-long skills review is a great option for a summer review. This allows students to have a review of a wide variety of skills without it taking a long amount of time.

Unlike reading skills, math skills vary more by grade level because students can build to higher levels. Luckily, there is a separate Summer Math Review for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. Each packet separates math skills by grade level:

These packets will keep the brain in tip-top shape without feeling like homework. Each summer math review has over 20 fun and engaging practice sheets. Additionally, each packet covers all the important math concepts kids learned in that grade level.

Many times, parents and teachers know which standard kids need help with the most. Thankfully, each page is labeled with the standard it covers. This makes it super easy for any grown-up helper to find exactly what you need!

Summer Reading Comprehension

Even though some kids may read books all summer, they may not actively practice reading skills. However, the Summer Reading Comprehension Review Set #1 and Set #2 each have 6 exciting reading passages with built-in practice for those tough reading concepts.

Specifically, kids will read about cool summer topics like pet squids, unicorns of the sea, the creation of the popsicle, and so much more! Each passage comes with tricky questions that challenge kids’ reading comprehension skills, just like those they tackle in school.

Honestly, the best part is the summer mystery pictures! Kids read, then answer comprehension questions to unlock a hidden summer mystery picture. It’s basically self-checking!

This resource is a fantastic way to keep the brain entertained while soaking up the summer sun.

Summer Punctuation Practice

The summer slide talks a lot about math and reading, but sometimes it is the simple concepts that need reviewing. Yes, punctuation drills can feel like a snoozefest but this is a skill kids always need to review no matter the grade level. Luckily, this Punctuation Practice is here to save the day (or should we say, summer break).

This awesome resource comes with 6 different color-by-code puzzles, each with a hidden picture waiting to be revealed. The catch? Kids must use punctuation skills to edit sentences with periods, commas, exclamation points, and more. Then, they color in the picture and watch the mystery unfold!

This Punctuation Practice is the perfect way to keep kids’ brains sharp over summer break and prepare them to be punctuation scholars in the fall!

Grab these FREE summer writing prompts!

Save these summer review resources!

Save these fun summer review activities to your favorite summer Pinterest board. You will be able to come back to them when you are ready to stop the summer slide with your students or kids (they are great for other times of the year too!).