Kindergarten Summer School: 25 Fun Learning Activities

Kindergarten Summer School can be loads of fun! Whether you are tutoring, teaching summer school or day camps, or helping young students, here are some fun activities to do with kids.

Academic Skills in Kindergarten

A summer school program is typically offered through a school district to offer support with academic skills. Certified staff members help ready kids for the next school year, reviewing reading skills, math skills, social skills, reading skills, and literacy skills.

Continuous improvement to avoid the summer slide is important for a child’s academic success.

As a kindergarten teacher, I would determine eligible students for Summer learning programs based on their skills in the core subjects. Below is a list of important skills often found in a regular school year kindergarten program.

Sight Words (high frequency words)
Kindergarten Math Skills (number recognition, number writing, counting, adding, subtracting)
Letter Sounds (Identifying alphabet letters, producing their sounds, and beginning/middle/end sounds of words)
Concepts of Print (Building words, reading, and writing left to right, top to bottom, spacing, etc)
Writing (letter formation, spacing, writing a complete sentence)
Reading fluency (In elementary schools, fluency is referencing the kids speed, expression, and accuracy when reading)
Social emotional learning
Physical education

Kindergarten Summer School Activities

You’re probably wondering what resources you should use to teach the summer classes? I can help you save money and time with this complete Kindergarten Summer School Bundle. It is full of printable resources for your entire summer thematic unit.

The Complete Kindergarten Summer School Bundle Includes:

Summer Sight Word Search Worksheets (5 worksheets)
Summer Count, Write, and Color Worksheets: Counting objects to 10
Summer Addition to 10 Task Cards and Recording Sheet
Summer Addition to 20 Task Cards and Recording Sheet
Ocean Subtraction within 10 Task Cards and Recording Sheet
Summer Subtraction within 20 Task Cards and Recording Sheet
3 Summer Poems (Summer, Summer – Take Me Out to the Ocean – Summertime)
Summer Beginning Sounds Task Cards
Ocean Making Words (10 cut and paste worksheets and 10 vocabulary cards)
June Kindergarten Math Talks
July Kindergarten Math Talks

Get your bundle HERE or on TPT

Kindergarten Literacy Skills

Sight Words

Help the kids avoid the summer slide by building sight word recognition, and have them ready to start next year as a strong reader. Within each grade level, the number of sight words they are expected to know increases. Please refer to your local school district programs for additional information on their English language development standards.

Here is a list of ways you can practice sight words with your kids over summer break:

Popsicle stick sight word games
Shaving Cream sight words
Sight Word hunts in old magazines
Play a game of war using sight word cards
Make sight words out of playdoh
Build sight words out of legos
Kindergarten sight word printable worksheets

Beginning Sounds

Along with keeping the kiddos engaged with reading poems, math, sight word activities, and crafts, you can also use these beginning sounds Summer themed task cards to reinforce letter-sound correspondence. It’s very important the kids don’t lose this fundamental skill over the summer. They are perfect for a fun, small group, literacy center.

These task cards are included in the Summer Bundle

Concepts of Print

As younger children get into the swing of Summer, we need to remember to reinforce the basics of kindergarten, such as concepts of print.

A simple and fun way to practice concepts of print are with Making Words activities. This Ocean themed Making Words resource has everything you need to build early writing skills and vocabulary. It, too, is included in the Kindergarten Summer School Bundle.

Reading Fluency

Sometimes it’s difficult to get the kids to enjoy reading. They often get frustrated, overwhelmed, and don’t enjoy reading. This is heartbreaking as a parent and as a teacher. To help keep reading fun, I always use poetry.

Poems are a wonderful tool to build reading fluency, vocabulary, and language skills. You’ll get three fun poems included in your kindergarten summer school bundle.

Math Skills for Kindergarten Summer School

Teaching kindergarten math is so much fun! You get to watch the early childhood aged kids go from barely understanding number sequence from 1-10, to becoming fluent in basic addition and subtraction within 20.

If the kids are having a difficult time learning new skills in math, I suggest additional supports to be offered throughout the summer session.

A strong math foundation happens in preschool. If your students did not attend a summer preschool program, and struggled in kindergarten, it’s important to offer as much support as possible before moving up to first grade.

A recent study shows “…the preschool years can make a major contribution to closing the gap in opportunity to learn mathematical ideas” (Clements, Fuson, and Sarama)

Math Activities for Kindergarten Summer School

Summer Counting to 10 Worksheets
Ocean Themed Counting Worksheets
Go on a nature walk looking for objects that resemble 3D shapes, count rocks, measure each other using sticks, etc
Have daily math talks
Addition to 10 Task Cards
Addition to 20 Task Cards
Subtraction within 10 Task Cards
Subtraction within 20 Task Cards
June, July, and August Summer themed Math Talks

Grab your Summer Kindergarten Math Talks Here

There are tons of ways you can incorporate math into your fun kindergarten Summer school activities, such as printable worksheets, outdoor learning, math talks, and so much more. With so many summer themed printable activities, you can keep learning fun all Summer long.

Crafts for a Kindergarten Summer Program

Oh my goodness, you are so fortunate to be working with young children over the Summer break. There is something about the summertime that is motivating and allows for fun activities for kids. Although specified for kindergarten, these crafts would be great for all elementary students.

If you love to promote hands-on learning and sensory play, then here is a list of easy crafts to do with kids over the summer months.

Paper plate sunflowers
Summertime slime
Seashell painting
Make a bird feeder
Build a raft out of sticks in the yard (great for small groups to practice teamwork)
Paint flower pots
Make tie-dye shirts
Firework Salt Painting
Sidewalk puffy paint
Rock Painting Kits

Outdoor Activities for Summer Camp

Yes, there are plenty of reasons to offer additional supports for primary students during summer school, but the kids also need fun, outdoor, activities. Here’s a list of activities we’ve done in the previous years. They are great for incorporating physical activity for any summer youth enrichment programs.

Water Tables
Plant a garden
Water balloons
Set up a backyard obstacle course
Shaving Cream Slide
Climb trees
Have a picnic
Balloon Tennis
Kickball
Sponge Ball Water Toss
Blow Up Water Slide
Slip and Slide
Make a pin-wheel display
Outdoor Dominoes
Water Balloon Baseball
Outdoor Jenga

Kindergarten summer school is a time to reflect on the child’s needs to help him/her be successful at the start of first grade. Through a combination of hands-on and small group activities that has a strong emphasis on keeping learning fun.

The Kindergarten Summer School Bundle will give you the tools you need to keep the kids engaged and building the early math and literacy skills.

Use code LEARNING to get 10% off your Summer School Bundle

Before you go, here are some blog posts mentioned above:

10 Fun Activities to Practice High Frequency Words

15 Summer Books for Kids

How to Use Chapstick for Positive Behavior

June Would You Rather Questions for Kids