This fun summer learning activity sheet is full of hands-on activities and experiments, interactive games, reading and writing activities, educational videos, and podcasts.
Keep your kids learning all summer long as they get outdoors and continue to practice their reading, writing, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
Teaching Tips
Positives
There are a number of ways to use the activity sheet as a game, including Bingo, pin the tail on the donkey, and Tiddlywinks.
Kids may especially like playing the habitat game to learn what types of animals live in different environments.
Additional Prerequisites
Your kids will need access to the internet and a device to complete some of the activities.
Some projects require materials or outdoor space to complete.
You will need to come up with a method for selecting the activities.
Differentiation
After the urban heat island or trees activity, encourage your kids to plant some herbs or vegetables in pots, plant a native sapling, plant bee-friendly flowers, or visit a park and collect litter while you’re there to interact with nature and take part in a climate solution.
The podcasts could be a great way for kids to pass the time while traveling for summer trips. Have them keep notes about things that interested them and then have them research them further once they’re home.
The ocean acidification and thermal expansion of water experiments could be used prior to a beach trip or visit to an aquarium.
For days when it’s too hot or rainy to be outdoors, the digital games present a way for them to keep learning while on their devices.
Scientist Notes
This is a summer learning challenge and it contains fun activities and tool kits that will let 6th-8th graders lead in climate adaptation and mitigation projects such as tree planting, forest and soil management, recycling, and marine resources protection. On that account, this resource is recommended.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-4 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.
ETS1: Engineering Design
MS-ETS1-2 Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
MS-LS2-4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
MS-LS4-5 Gather and synthesize information about the technologies that have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms.
PS1: Matter and its Interactions
MS-PS1-4 Develop a model that predicts and describes changes in particle motion, temperature, and state of a pure substance when thermal energy is added or removed.
PS3: Energy
MS-PS3-5 Construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Science & Technical Subjects (6-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.3 Follow precisely a multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.6 Analyze the author's purpose in providing an explanation, describing a procedure, or discussing an experiment in a text.
Speaking & Listening (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.6.2 Interpret information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how it contributes to a topic, text, or issue under study.
National Health Education Standards
Standard 1: Students will comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention to enhance health.
1.8.3 Analyze how the environment affects personal health.
