By Nicole Freudenberg
Literacy Instructor, COMPASS at P.S. 24Q

Students can lose up to two months in reading achievement and 2.6 months of math skills over a single summer. Over time, this translates to two years of learning loss by middle school. This decline in academic skills, which is especially pronounced for children from low-income families, is known as the summer slide. The Child Center of NY’s summer programs for elementary and middle schoolers, made possible with funding from the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development and the generosity of private funders, are here to help.

At P.S. 24, where I serve as a literacy instructor, we are combatting the summer slide with fun literacy games for students in grades K-5. Participants in grades K-1 are focusing on sight words through games and Disney read-aloud books. That’s because if children recognize sight words—the 220 words that account for 60 percent of all the words in print—by the end of first grade, they are well on their way to fluency and being on grade level for literacy. The ability to read at or above grade level by third grade is a significant predictor of school success and high school graduation.

This month’s photo of the month shows one of the fun literacy games our children love: the sight word tower. This game provides children an opportunity to build their teamwork skills by working together to build a cup tower and supporting each other if someone is struggling to read a word. The game is played in teams, and the aim is to build your team’s tower first. To build your tower, each team member must read the word on the cup first. The first team to build their tower wins. (Teams must watch out, though; if your tower falls, your team needs to start all over again!) As you can see by the smiling faces, “making learning fun” isn’t just a slogan at P.S. 24!

Grades 2-5 are taking small word board games, such as Boggle and Tapple, and turning them into full classroom games. Children work in teams to win each round, which helps build teamwork and vocabulary. Students will also be playing games such as Taxi: Each team has a driver, and the driver’s team has to explain a place using details in order to get the driver to guess where they are going. This game helps students learn to use describing words and smaller details to build vocabulary as well as critical thinking. These are skills that can be used when having to retell a story or using evidence when writing paper.

By making continuous learning fun and part of summer routines, we help children retain knowledge, and even achieve learning gains, so they are poised to succeed in the upcoming school year—all while building summer memories to last a lifetime.