Woo-hoo!!It’s a Summer Bridge Activites Giveaway!
Happy, happy Friday!
Have you ever tried the Summer Bridge Activities series for keeping your children focused on learning and their brains working during the summer months?
Before this summer, I had not. But I’m glad that the kind people at Carson-Dellosa Publishing asked if I’d be interested in trying one. I looked at the calendar today, and, being that it’s a Friday and we’re trying new things on Fridays this summer, I thought we’d take a look at it today.
- Summer Bridge Activity Book: I was given one for Maddy, and it is a level P-K. It is for students who will enter Kindergarten in the fall. As I’ve said before, Maddy loves this kind of learning activity, so when I told Maddy and Owen that today we’d be having some workbook fun today, they were more than excited.
We got comfy, with our drinks, a bunch of pens and markers, and Maddy and Owen’s workbooks. (Owen used one that we had, and Maddy used the new Summer Bridge one). We did a simple pre-reading activity that I always tell my students to do when they get a new book of any kind–we flipped through the pages, glanced at the pictures, and just tried to understand the layout of the book. I asked, What do you notice about the layout of your book, Maddy?
She said, It looks like there are places for me to write and color, and there are some beautiful pictures here. There are letter cards in the back–maybe like flashcards if we cut them–and lots of dinosaurs in the front! Mommy, I am going to learn about dinos in this one!
Maddy works on writing on a dinosaur page.
Maddy then wrote her name on first page of the book, and she got started. I pulled out a sheet of shiny star stickers, and for each page Maddy and Owen completed, they got one on their page. No matter the age, students love stickers!!She immediately was drawn to the ‘Triceratops’ on Day 1, and I told her the instructions said to trace the dotted lines. She did the first three rows, and turned the page. She zipped through Days 2-7, doing a little bit on each page. I wanted her to be engaged and interested, so if she didn’t feel like finishing a complete activity, I wasn’t worried.
Working on the number to box match. . .
She skipped ahead to page 40, where letter writing is introduced, and she began writing. She loved the number matches on pages 41 and 42, and when I told her that we were going to take a break and head up for a rest, she grabbed the book and ran upstairs. Woo-hoo! She liked it!!
Summer Bridge Series is pretty awesome because:
- the colors, pictures, and layout of the book are bright, easy, and engaging;
- it includes a Summer Reading List of books that students can read and then rate by coloring in stars;
- it has 3 Motivational Calendars that span 15 days so that kiddos can set goals and then watch as they approach meeting them;
- it includes reading, writing, math, and language skills exercises;
- it details ways that parents can “help [their] child learn” in different disciplines;
- there are sections for “Better Bodies” and “Better Behaviour” at the end;
- it includes letter and number flashcards and lots of areas for practicing letter and number writing;
- there’s an award certificate for little learners at the back of the book–how cool?
A Giveaway! And it’s easy to win!
Do you want to try 3 Free Summer Bridge Activities Workbooks of your choice?
Here’s how: leave a comment below and tell me one way you try to sneak in a tiny bit of learning in the summertime. What you’re already doing in combination with these workbooks from Summer Bridge just may be what it takes to get your learner ready for the fall!
(The contest ends Tuesday, June 30 at midnight, Eastern time. )
Disclaimer: The kind folks at Carson-Dellosa provided us with our workbook for free, but my opinion is my own and influenced only by the three cool kids I hang out with every day.
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My kid loves workbooks too! I'm glad to see Maddy is so excited. It's cute. We sneak in a bit of learning by letting her play games on pbskids.org.She's fond of the Super Why games.
My daughter loves sitting with me and going through a workbook! They love holding that pencil so independently, so cute! We also have a 'journal' that she draws in and I label her drawing. And she's always counting EVERYTHING!
my kids love workbooks. we sneak in extra learning through art since they love that too. how shapes can be used to create figures, fractions of shapes, math, story telling etc. Problem solving through crafting with recycling stuff.
We join the summer reading program with our library, and we always have a TON of library books checked out and available to the boys. The boys get them out and look through them, and ask us to read to them (which we usually do). When they bring us bugs we talk about them.
My son loves workbooks. I sneak in learning by using fun themes or doing things like counting with m&m's. My children also love to "do projects" and never say no when it is "project time".
It's part of our summer beginning ritual to go pick up new workbooks–but for some reason we haven't done so yet…the books are great!
I try to just sneak in some little learning moments in whatever we are doing. A trip to the mailbox can include a bunch of skills: counting the letters we get, counting the mailboxes in our set of mail boxes, talking about the way mail is delivered, watching for differnt animals and birds as we walk (its a bit of a walk), looking at the colors of cars we pass, comparing the homes we pass, looking for rocks on the way back, maybe reading a book when we get home about someone getting a letter.
Summer travels are a great way to sneak in learning. Besides the obvious learning that happens from visiting new places, we keep a family travel journal. Our kids (ages 1 and 4) tell us their favorite parts of each day (and when the 4 year old wants to, he helps us write their comments down), they use the digital camera to take pictures from their viewpoint when we're at a spot they like (we later add the printed photos to our journal) and the 4 year old adds drawings. We're not only sneaking in learning, but we're creating a family treasure that I'm sure we'll enjoy reading for years to come!
Strange but true: I help Noah practice his reading by asking him to identify titles of shows that he knows on the Direct TV online guide & he works on his numbers by "typing in" the phone numbers every time I need to make a call. If it's electronic, he's into it. If it has letters and numbers and is electronic, it works for me. 😉
I sneaked in some learning this week two ways.. One was I asked the school age kids to each write a story to read to the preschoolers.. After that I then was brainstorming how to include the preschoolers. I had the older kids help and they each had a preschooler assigned to them. They picked an animal and made a book all about that animal, with stories, drawings and they cut out pictures from magazines.. They loved it and it was great fun.
We sneak in learning by taking part in the local library summer reading program. The boys love to pick out library books and I love it because we get a fresh batch of books every visit. We are so lucky to have a free library system!
I "sneak" in learning by actually reading to my children… I know, strange concept, huh?! 😉 Seriously though, we try to take regular trips to the library and check out something besides DVDs. Also, they're enjoying watching tomato plants grow. I *know* that can't be hurting their science skills! 🙂
Thanks for this giveaway!
roseinthemorning [at] gmail [dot] com
ooohhh….These look like so much fun. During the summer we read outside after we learn from working in the garden.
I don't have kids yet (but I'd still love to win the prize), but I do teach preschool & I always send home a list of educational games that parents can play with their kids over the summer…anything from counting backwards from 10 before diving into dinner or counting the steps to get to the mailbox or making patterns out of seashells on the beach!
We do lots of things — the summer reading program at the library is a big motivator to our kids b/c once they complete 15 books, they get a coupon for all kinds of free stuff. JavaBoy is learning to read books to himself, so he's reading and he's writing the titles of the books onto the list himself.
We'll visit the museums in DC throughout the summer – tons of learning opportunities there.
And we go through workbooks and games like Silly Sentences whenever it's too rainy or too hot. We'd love to add the Summer Bridge book to the collection! Great giveaway!
Javamom
We love workbooks too! Our school sent home some reading and math work that we can do over the summer, so we're doing that, plus I have weekly theme weeks going on for my kids this summer.
I read to my kids several times a day. I include rhyming books for my little one and make up rhymes with her. I've been encouraging my five year old to read anything she can get her eyes on. Street signs have been her favorite reading material lately. We're also developing math and literacy skills by doing lots of fun cooking this summer.
By the way, I love the way you introduced the book to your daughter. I learn so much from you!
I am working with my two oldest kiddos on completing a book and AR testing each week. They are also doing some AR math as well. My two younger children are going to the library with me weekly, and picking out Five in a Row books to read together.
I try to incorporate learning into all that we do, whether it's looking at the stars, spelling out words, listening to music, or talking about science. My daughter Maddie (also entering K!) LOVES workbooks and would love these!
Oh I am always trying to sneak in some learning, taking advantage of my spanish, I ask her… so how do you say that is spanish? 🙂 if she doesn't know, I tell her and she repeats it 🙂
i'm having my kids play educational computer games and having reading time. they get rewards for doing these things 🙂
THese are the types of books I would get as a kid and finish in a day. I have always loved learning.
I can not tell you what I do to sneak in learning because my son is still a baby, but my 10 year old sister is coming to stay with us this summer for a month and she asked if I would teach her so she didn't forget everything she learned. SO, I thought these books might be good for that;-)
My library has an awesome summer reading program for kids. It's funny how a little incentive really makes my daughter want to read more.
My kids love workbooks. It seems like my going-into-3rd-grader would have had enough of workbooks in school this year, but no…
We sneak in learning by reading, reading, reading. And we have been going on some fun "field trips," too!
We visit lots of children museums, go to the library at least twice a week, and my kids love workbooks. Ooooh..I hope we win this!!!
To help my four year-old son learn more about days and weeks we bought a calendar on barebooks.com. We've filled it up with stickers for the holidays and pictures of the the activities we will be doing. Each morning he gets to cross off another day and count the days to until the next "party" or when his cousins will be in town.
We're sneaking in learning with art projects, gardening activities and cooking projects, but my girl loves workbooks, too!
Whew! I'm exhausted from reading all of these great ideas and cannot wait to try some out! Thanks for everyone who commented–there are TONS of cool ideas here!
I'll contact the winner tomorrow after the contest closes.
Cheers and happy sneaky learning!