17 Summer school teaching ideas students will love

Studies have shown that summer school programs can “reverse summer learning loss, achieve learning gains, and give low-performing students the chance to master material that they did not learn during the school year”. (Jennifer Sloan McCombs et al., 2011)

Students attend summer learning programs for many reasons. When I was a young student, it was often misunderstood or downright feared, and I saw this reflected in my students when I taught in a similar area many years later. This can make summer school lessons especially challenging. 

However, many students discover that they do better with the shorter ‘term’, smaller classes, and more individualised teaching. Either way, there’s something for everyone in the ideas listed below.

Getting outside

1) The 5 senses scavenger hunt

Personally, I found the loss of summer to be one of the most common anxieties expressed by students about summer school. It’s a reasonable fear; after all, summer is usually a time for play and enjoying the warmer weather. However, there are plenty of ways for students to hone social and critical thinking skills while doing exactly that.

While a scavenger hunt can be done indoors, it’s a great way to get students outside and enjoy the summer season. There are two ways to do the hunt, but an outline like this will work for both:

• Sound: Listen for a _____
• Smell: Sniff out _____
• Taste: Find something that _____
• Sight: Look for something _____
• Touch: Find something _____

For more visual learners or younger students, try this visual sense chart.

1. Give students something to search for, ex. Find something stinky/orange/wet/bumpy. Students could brainstorm a list before the hunt, or you can choose a list appropriate for their vocabulary.
2. Send out students to find an example, or number of examples, of each sense that they can find. 

2) Gardens from vegetable scraps

Vegetables like basil, scallions, cilantro, mint, pineapple, celery, and lettuce can be regrown from scraps. It’s easy to start them too: just put them in water or a small amount of soil, and you can repot them when they get big enough.

Aside from a fun, hands-on activity, this can be a great way to teach students about plant propagation.

• Herbs: Cut a stem and place it in a cup or bowl of water. Don’t submerge the entire stem. Place the cup in a bright area that’s out of direct sunlight. Roots should form in a few days!
• Sweet potato: Sweet potatoes are easy! Just plant the entire potato, or cut one in half and suspend it in a bowl of shallow water with toothpicks. Once the spouts grow a few inches, twist them off and place them in a small container of water. They can be planted in soil once the roots grow at least an inch long.
• Onions: Cut a one-inch piece off the root end of an onion and put it in a bowl of shallow water or on top of soil. You can even put an entire onion in water!
• Romaine lettuce: Leave a few inches of the lettuce head base and place it in water (don’t submerge it). Remove outer leaves as the new ones come in.
• Green onions and scallions: After cutting off the rest of the scallion, keep the end of the onion with the roots attached. Place it, root down, in potting soil and place it somewhere where it can get sunlight. The onions will grow back in less than two weeks!
• If your students are up to the challenge, try regrowing mushrooms.
• Students in warmer climates can try regrowing a pineapple. If your class is in a cooler part of the world, you could regrow in the summer and bring the plant inside for the cooler seasons.

If students need a primer on gardening, try a short video such as:

• Greenie Grows a Garden (Spanish/English, primary school level) 
• Explore how plants grow and reproduce with:
  • Primary school: The Characteristics of Plants and Plant Structures and Functions
  • Secondary school: The Plants and the Bees: Plant Reproduction

3) The sandbox volcano

Supplies: a sandbox or box of sand, water, baking soda, a water bottle, and food colouring.

This is a fun, outdoor spin on the classic baking soda and vinegar science experiment for younger students. Best of all, there’s no mess or cleaning up involved!

1. Fill up your water bottle to a third full and add food colouring.
2. Add around 5 teaspoons of baking soda and cap the bottle.
3. Build a mountain out of sand around the bottle.
4. Once the mountain is complete, uncap the water bottle and add around a cup of vinegar.
5. Watch it erupt!

Tips and Tricks: You can add a few drops of dish soap for an even foamier eruption.

Science experiments for all ages: slimes and putty

These easy experiments can be a great way for younger students to explore chemistry or a fun brain break for older students. We also all know that students love slime, even in higher-year groups.

4) Easy silly putty 

Supplies: Liquid starch, food colouring, all-purpose glue, mixing bowl and spoon

1. Mix 1 part liquid starch to 2 parts glue.
2. Pour the ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix them together.
3. Add food coloring. If students are making multiple colours, use one bowl at a time or different bowls for different colours.
4. Knead the mix with your hands until most of the liquid is absorbed and the consistency seems like silly putty. You can drain excess liquid or add extra glue if there are consistency issues.

5) Edible slime

Supplies: Water, tapioca flour, saucepan, spoon, heat-safe bowl, food colouring, and a heat source like a hot plate.

This experiment involves boiling liquid, so make sure to monitor students! Slime-making is a great way for students to explore chemistry.

1. Combine 2 cups of water and 3 teaspoons of tapioca flour in a saucepan and stir until it dissolves. Add 5 drops of food coloring.
2. Bring the contents to a boil and cook for 5 to 10 minutes,
3. Once the ingredients thicken up, scrape the bottom and sides of the saucepan with the spoon.
4. Pour the slime into a heat-safe bowl and let it cool. 

Tips and Tricks: Cooking it for a shorter time will produce more liquidy slime, whereas a longer cooking time will produce gooier slime. The slime will thicken if you leave it out overnight.

6. Slime

Supplies: A mixing bowl, plastic container, measuring spoons, measuring cup, spatula, PVA white glue, water, soda baking soda, and contact lens cleaning solution (with boric acid and sodium borate).

Some slime recipes use Borox soap, which is toxic if ingested. Soda bicarbonate and contact lens solution with boric acid is used as a safer alternative.

1. Mix 118ml of water, 118ml of glue, and a few drops of food colouring together in a mixing bowl.
2. Add ½ tsp of baking soda and mix.
3. Add 2 tbsp of contact lens solution (the mixture will thicken and pull away from the edge of the bowl).
4. Knead the slime for 5-10 minutes. The more kneading, the thicker and less sticky the slime.
5. Store the slime in an airtight container. 

For more slime experiments, check out this recipe for Liquid Glass Slime and some experimentation with Slime Testing.

Fostering community

Volunteer work can give students a sense of purpose and achievement, all while fostering a sense of community. When I was in school, it took me many years to realise that volunteering looks different to everyone though. While many students may enjoy more direct engagement, such as in-person volunteer work and community events, other students (like I was) may be more comfortable in less social settings.

7) Writing letters

Letter writing campaigns and pen-pals were the kind of volunteer work I was more comfortable with as a student. Students can still make a meaningful impact without even leaving their classroom this way, and it’s also great for students who may have additional challenges with transportation and mobility. 

Have students send cards, letters, and/or postcards to assisted living and nursing homes in your area, or team up with an organisation like:

• Pen Pals for the Elderly: Combats elderly social isolation and loneliness.
• Letters Against Depression: Breaks the mental health stigma with social connection, kindness, and compassion one letter at a time. 

Letter-writing volunteering can help secondary school students meet their service-learning hours and stand out in college and job applications. More importantly, they’ll allow students to connect with their communities, develop new skills and interests, and find peers and mentors.

8) Community Engagement & volunteering 

• Collect non-perishable food from neighbours, family, and/or a school drive and donate them to a local food pantry. 
• Volunteer at a local animal shelter.
• Help out a local community garden.
• Organise students to pick up litter at a local park or beach.
• Have students take a day trip to a local nursing home and spend time with the elderly.  

Cooking up history

I love teaching history, and my favorite way is to engage students with what they’re learning by relating it to their own lives. Recognising ourselves in the past through things like fashion, food, cultural representation, and storytelling makes history less abstract. More importantly, it helps students realise they’re not alone in their experiences.

Cooking is an excellent way to convince your children that, yes, they will actually use this knowledge in the real world. It makes the intangible tangible. It tells us who we are, it communicates our stories and allows us to hear others. We can travel through time by eating the foods our human ancestors did.

Robicelli

Cooking is a great way to help students contextualise history and learn valuable life skills. Aside from the history, recipes are also a great way for students to use mathematical thinking in everyday life.

9) Roman history with Dulcia Domstica, or a homestyle dessert.

Suitable for all ages.

This simple recipe was a popular snack and dessert in ancient Rome. This recipe is often credited to an ancient cookbook, De Re Conquinaria (“About Cooking”) by Apicius.

• 200g fresh or dried dates
• 50g coarsely ground nuts like almonds, cashews, or pistachios or pine nuts
• A pinch of salt
• Honey, or red wine with honey (to stew)

Note: Wine alternatives include alcohol-free wine, ½ red wine vinegar and ½ water, or pomegranate juice.

1. Remove pits from the dates.
2. Fill the dates with the crushed nuts and sprinkle some salt on top.
3. Stew the dates in the honey mixture on low heat for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the skins begin to peel off the dates.
4. Optional: The recipe usually calls for ground pepper as well. If you want some spicy with your sweet with a modern palette, try cayenne or red pepper flakes!

Need some basic cooking primers for students first? Explore BBC’s Food Preparation and Nutrition series.

If you don’t have access to cooking supplies or would prefer to forgo that part, this activity can be modified for recipe development. Students can choose a time period and research recipes to share with the class, or they can examine what foods and trends were common in their chosen time period to develop a tasty recipe of their own. Remind them to include a list of ingredients and cooking steps. For a more maths focused twist, have students include measurements too.

Virtual field trips for rainy days and online learning

Travel can be limited to students for many reasons. I was lucky to be a student and teacher in Philadelphia, as it has tons of preserved history, museums, and cultural landmarks. Even then, I still wished I could visit places more specific to my interests or take longer school trips.

Even if you can’t take them there physically, students can experience field trips to anywhere in the world online. Museums, historical sites, and national parks all offer virtual tours and resources. The world is their oyster this summer–or it is online at least.

 10) Museums around the world

• France: The Louvre 
• Italy: The Uffizi Gallery
• Greece: The Benaki Museum
• USA: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts’
• The UK: The National Gallery
• Germany: The Pergamon 
• Brazil: MASP (Museu de Arte de São Paulo)
• Mexico: National Museum of Anthropology  
• South Korea: MMCA (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art)

You can expand or prep your virtual trips with ClickView’s art history series such as Know Your Art History and Art Movements in Context.

You can also explore Streamable Learning’s library of over 1,000 virtual field trips.

11) Science and natural history tours:

• The Natural History Museum 
• NASA Langley and Glenn Research Centers
• David Attenborough’s guide through Hintze Hall

12) US National Parks virtual programs:

• A virtual tour of the Grand Canyon
• Our Shared Heritage virtual trips

13) Great places

Explore ClickView’s Let’s Discover series to prepare for a virtual trip around the world. Visit places like:

• The Great Wall of China
• The Vatican
• International cities through Google’s 360 cities

14) Outer space

Are your students looking for even bigger adventures? Something out of this earth? Try outer space!

• Explore outer space with NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars or a 4k tour of the Moon.
• Prepare students with resources like the The Two Sisters – Earth and Mars and the solar system.

Teaching ideas for neurodivergent students

Summer school can be hard for everyone, but it can be especially challenging for neurodivergent students facing disruption in their routines and interests. 

Routines, rituals, and special interests can help neurodivergent students manage stress, emotionally regulate, and engage with the world around them. Help accommodate your students, whether it’s an entire class or just a few, with these ideas.

15) Sensory bins

Sensory bins are a great way to help younger students who struggle with overstimulation. In addition, they hone skills like independence, emotional self-regulation, and fine motor skills.

Sensory bins require some basic supplies such as bins, containers, and ziploc bags. Deciding what to put them in varies on the student, but having some supplies on hand for students to choose from can engage students in the process. Bins can be filled with cotton balls, cold pasta, rice, and ice or frozen toys. 

16) Sharing time for special interests 

Students with ASD and ADHD often have passionate interests and hobbies. Each week, set aside a sharing time for students to present an interest to the class. This is a great way for students to create connections with others and express themselves, and it doubles as a great lesson on active listening too.

17) Visible aids: class schedules and time management 

Post the daily classroom schedule in a visible area of the classroom or create a guide for students. Activities that occur at the same time every day, such as lunch and recess, can be the foundation for a schedule. Incorporate new activities into the base schedule on a rotating basis, which gives students a visual guide and structure to what they’ll be exploring each month, week, or day.

Students with ADHD may benefit from incorporating breaks into the daily schedule. Scheduled breaks and brain breaks can prevent students from burnout, reduce mental fatigue, and combat time blindness. 

The schedule can be interactive too–the class can check off each activity after it happens, or students can use a worksheet or digital schedule to check off each completed activity or task.

Sources and additional resources

1. Jennifer Sloan McCombs, Augustine, C.H., Schwartz, H.L., Bodilly, S.J., McInnis, B., Lichter, D.S. and Amanda Brown Cross (2011). Making Summer Count: How Summer Programs Can Boost Children’s Learning. Monograph. The RAND Corporation.
2. PBS LearningMedia. (n.d.). Virtual Field Trips for Elementary | Classroom Resources Folder from PBS LearningMedia. [online] Available at: https://whyy.pbslearningmedia.org/shared/12718/4846901/ [Accessed 8 May 2024].
3. Candina Jordan (2022). What Is a Sensory Bin for Children? [online] WebMD. Available at: https://www.webmd.com/parenting/what-is-sensory-bin-children.
4. Raising Children Network. (2023). Anxiety: autistic children and teenagers. [online] Available at: https://raisingchildren.net.au/autism/health-wellbeing/mental-health/anxiety-asd.
5. revolution.mrdonn.org. (n.d.). The American Revolution for Kids – Revolutionary Recipes – American Revolution for Kids. [online] Available at: https://revolution.mrdonn.org/recipes.html.
6. Jessie (2015). Just for Kids: Some pioneer recipes. [online] Backwoods Home Magazine. Available at: https://www.backwoodshome.com/some-pioneer-recipes/
7. PBS KIDS for Parents. (n.d.). Simple Science Activities. [online] Available at: https://www.pbs.org/parents/simple-science-activities.
8. Science Buddies (2019). How to Make Slime. [online] Science Buddies. Available at: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/stem-activities/how-to-make-slime.
9. Little Bins for Little Hands. (2017). Baking Soda and Vinegar Volcano For Summer Fun. [online] Available at: https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/best-sandbox-volcano-eruption/.
10. Understanding the Strengths and Difficulties of Neurodivergent Children: A guide for teachers Edinburgh Psychoeducation Intervention for Children and Young People Understanding the Strengths and Difficulties of Neurodivergent Children: A guide for teachers. (n.d.). Available at: https://www.ed.ac.uk/sites/default/files/atoms/files/understanding_the_strenghts_and_difficulties_of_neurodivergent_children_-_a_guide_for_teachers.pdf.