Summer Activities for Intermediate & Middle-School Students

Encourage your gifted writers and graphic artists to consider writing a book or comic book this summer.  It can be a children’s book, one for kids their age, a comic book with characters they create, or whatever they imagine.  Then have your kids research ways to publish the book either for personal use or to share with others.

Family History Projects

Summer is a good time for kids to connect with relatives to learn more about family history.  They can interview family members via Zoom, record the interviews, and then share with other family members.  They can collect photographs to create a family calendar, which would be an awesome Christmas gift.  They can write a book about family history so that it can be passed down to future generations.  They can even host a virtual family reunion and schedule time to share family history.  The possibilities for this are many.

Did you know that a student who reads 20 minutes a day will be exposed to 1.8 million words per year and is more likely to score in the 90th percentile on standardized tests?  Compare that to a student who reads 5 minutes a day, getting exposure to 282,000 words per year and a  likely score in the 50th percentile on standardized tests or to a student who reads 1 minute a day, getting exposure to 8,000 words per year and a likely score in the 10th percentile on standardized tests. (Source:  Scholastic)  What a difference!!