From Slide to Stride: How ELA Summer Camp Fuels Summer Learning
Summer is in full swing. At Early Learning Academies (ELA), that means summer camp is underway across our national network of childcare centers. School-age campers are having a blast playing games, socializing with friends, singing songs, and cooling off with water play, but these young learners are also taking actions that help prevent “Summer Slide.”
What Is Summer Slide?
Simply put, “Summer Slide” is the learning loss that students experience during a break from school. Students then must play “catch up” in the next school year. A 2020 study by NWEA found that children in 3rd through 5th grades lost about 20 percent of their school-year knowledge gains in reading alone during summer break, which can result in difficulty grasping new concepts once the school year begins again. It also means that teachers will have to spend valuable classroom reviewing foundational knowledge from the previous year. All of these effects can shake students’ confidence and decrease motivation to keep learning.
How Summer Camp Helps
Our summer campers are given the opportunity to have fun and participate in learning experiences that help them flex their brain muscles and retain more of what they learned over the previous school year.
- Encourage Children to Explore the World Through Reading
Our classrooms have dedicated spaces for learning, featuring an array of books that provide plenty of opportunities to read quietly and enjoy a story. Providing students with options for what they read encourages them to explore new topics and helps them establish the habit of reading for pleasure.
- New Learning Experiences
One of the best parts of summer camp is experiencing new things! Some of our centers take summer campers to educational places in their communities like museums, aquariums, or state parks to learn more about the world around them. They also get to meet special guests like animal experts who teach them about local wildlife (and they usually bring friends). These up close and engaging experiences offer powerful benefits for school-aged students by strengthening memory, increasing engagement, and nurturing critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. By actively engaging in the learning process, students gain a deeper understanding of concepts and retain information more effectively.
- Imaginations Are Explored
Children who exercise their imagination are expanding their vocabulary, experimenting with new concepts, and more. Plus, imaginative play often means students are calling on familiar skills they learned during the school year and pushing those skills to the next level.
Summer camp doesn’t just have to be a place where children wile away the days away from school—it can be a place where learning and fun meet!
Want to learn more about Summer Slide? Check out these resources:
Tips for preventing ‘Summer Slide’
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