Question
What are Molly Lynch's top tips for preventing the summer slide?
Answer
Molly Lynch has several strategies to prevent the summer slide:
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Summer B.A.T. Books: B.A.T. stands for Brain’s Always Thinking. These books are filled with challenging activities that cover important skills in Math and Language Arts. Molly suggests sending home the Summer B.A.T. Books with students. These 40-page books are filled with review activities covering Math and Language Arts standards covered throughout the year. The activities are independent, so a child can open their book and complete any activity for the day. As they complete the page, they color in the number on the grid on the front page to show their progress.
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Summer Reading: Molly emphasizes the importance of reading during the summer to prevent learning loss. She suggests creating a summer reading challenge, providing book lists and recommendations, encouraging participation in library programs and book fairs, promoting interactive storytelling and read-alouds, setting up a reading space at home, and incorporating reading into summer activities.
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Incentives: To motivate students to complete their Summer B.A.T. Books, Molly suggests offering rewards. For example, at the start of school in the Fall, her former students can return their completed B.A.T. Book in exchange for a trip to her prize box.
Remember, the goal is to keep learning fun and engaging during the summer, so it doesn't feel like a chore for the kids. What other information are you interested in?