5 Fun Ways to Practice Math in the Summer

Whether you are a teacher teaching summer school, a tutor with one student or many, or a parent looking for extra practice, trying to get kids to practice math is HARD.

Add in that it is summertime and they want to be at the pool… that makes it even harder. Here are five fun ways to practice math in the summer that won’t make time last forever.

1. Summer Math Packet with a Prize

If you are a teacher looking for ways to get students motivated to practice math in the summer and prevent the summer slide, consider offering a prize for completed math work over the summer.

This should NEVER be something new, and simply should be a packet that reviews things that were learned the previous school year. For example, if you are a second grade teacher, consider looking for a first grade worksheet bundle or asking the first grade teachers to compile together some work.

Allow students to bring their completed worksheets or math packet to back to school night or during the first week of school to collect a prize. You can get fun prize ideas on my blog or check out this worksheet bundle for ideas for second graders going into third grade.

One thing to note is that you might check for completion but not accuracy. Also, attempts at work should be considered. Students shouldn’t be penalized for a page or two that were not understood. Make it SIMPLE and make it as FUN or festive as you can.

2. BOOM Card Decks

BOOM Learning is FUN, easy to assign, self-checking and self-paced. If you are a teacher or parent, assigning decks is easy. You can consider a vast variety of skills, or allow students to pick.

Simply give students an idea of what you want them to practice each day, make sure they have a device with internet and let them guide themselves through their math practice. You can grab an entire year of second grade BOOM review cards here.

Remember, students can do one deck multiple times and will get different cards every time, so certain decks can be used for multiple days.

Read more about how to implement BOOM in your classroom here.

3. Fluency Book

If you are looking for a simple and fast option, consider having students complete a fluency book instead of a work packet or spiral review worksheets.

Students in first grade should be fluent in adding and subtracting numbers to 10 or numbers to 20. Students in second grade are supposed to be fluent in adding numbers to 100 and familiar with adding numbers to 1000.

Again, spruce worksheets up by motivating students to earn a small prize when their job is completed.

4. Fluency with FUN Household Items

Have students work on fluency in an exciting way by using fun items around the house to solve problems. Students can find the problems on worksheets or using flash cards, but then can solve the problem in sidewalk chalk or with window markers.

Some great ideas for materials are:

• Sidewalk Chalk
• Play Doh
• Dice
• Window Paint
• Markers
• Whiteboard Markers
• Crayons
• Legos / Blocks
• Paint
• Magnets
• Stickers

5. Task Cards

Another fun way to practice either simple math facts or more complex spiral review topics is by using task cards. Task cards are fun because you can try a variety of different ways to spruce them up, while also practicing a vast variety of skills.

They are also nice because if you are working with a bigger set of students, they are easy to differentiate. Copy different styles of cards or copy different sets on different colors to make it easy for students to find the set that you assign to them.

You can grab 5 sets of math cards that spiral review second grade math skills in my TpT Store.

Final Thoughts:

While teaching in the summer can be difficult, it is also important to remember that students are KIDS. Kids need to have fun and it is important to prevent burnout.

Make sure work is meaningful, limited and not within students’ capabilities. Students entering second grade should not be assigned second grade work and expected to complete it independently.

While these five fun ways to practice math in summer might be right for my students, it might not be right for all students. Be sure to try a variety of strategies and pick the one that is best for you and your group.

What is your favorite way to keep math from getting dull in the summer? Drop it in the comments below!