11 Fun Summer Learning Activities for Elementary and Middle School Students

Learning doesn't have to stop just because it's summer break! We've compiled a collection of fun summer learning activities for elementary and middle school students that can be done at home. These activities span writing, reading, math, and more subjects.

Summer Education Ideas for Kids

1. Ready, Set, Invent!

New products are often inspired by problems in need of solutions. This summer project for middle school students challenges them to come up with an invention that solves a summer-related problem. The invention could be completely new or improve an existing product. They might start by brainstorming a list of summer annoyances. Mosquito bites are pretty annoying. Maybe bug-repellant clothing will do the trick. Summer can be fun-filled, but there are always some boring days, too. A new game could liven things up. Once students have their idea for an invention, ask them to create a prototype for it, along with a short description of how the invention works and the materials needed to build it.

2. Fun Summer Sketching

What kind of fun will kids get up to this summer? Ask them to draw themselves doing a favorite warm-weather activity. Available for download, our Summer Drawing Activity worksheet is a fun learning activity for elementary students in younger grades. Take this activity a step further for older students. Have them take on the traditional "What I Did on Summer Vacation" writing prompt but tell the story using illustrations only.

3. Fun with Sidewalk Chalk

Tell students they can make their own sidewalk chalk with just three ingredients. Provide them with the recipe below. For background on the science of chalk, share this article with parents, caregivers, and older students.

Encourage students to use the chalk to play games like hopscotch or tic-tac-toe with a friend. They might also use the sidewalk as their canvas for cheerful pictures and messages to bring joy to neighbors and people walking by. Note that making the chalk requires waiting 24 hours for the mixture to dry, so plan accordingly.

What You'll Need:

1 cup cornstarch

1 cup water

Food coloring

Egg carton

Wax paper

Small plastic cups

Bowl

What to Do:

1. Mix the cornstarch and water in a bowl.

2. Separate the mixture into small plastic cups.

3. Add a drop of a different food coloring to each cup, then stir. Try mixing the different food colorings to create surprising hues!

4. Pour each chalk mixture into one section of the egg carton.

5. Cover the chalk mixtures with wax paper.

6. Let the chalk dry for 24 hours.

4. Summer Reads

Here are some choice reads that celebrate summer, taking kids on beach trips and bike rides and to the baseball field. Add them to your students' summer reading list. We even included a hands-on activity book that will provide hours of science fun using a few common household items and a whole lot of creativity.

• Curious George Goes to the Beach by H.A. Rey (Pre-K–Kindergarten)
• Swashby and the Sea by Beth Ferry and illustrated by Juana Martinez Neal (Pre-K–3)
• Hot Day on Abbott Avenue by Karen English and illustrated by Javaka Steptoe (Pre-K–3)
• Flotsam by David Wiesner (Pre-K–3)
• Two Whats?! and a Wow! Think & Tinker Playbook by Mindy Thomas and Guy Raz (Grades 3–7)
• The Last Last-Day-of-Summer by Lamar Giles and illustrated by Dapo Adeola (Grades 3–7)
• Camp by Kayla Miller (Grades 3–7)
• Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park (Grades 3–7)
• Baseball in April and Other Stories by Gary Soto (Grades 3–7)
• Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen (Grades 5–7)

5. Five Senses Scavenger Hunt

Encourage younger students to take a walk outside with a parent or caregiver and together make a list of things that they hear, see, smell, taste, and touch. They can keep track of their findings on this Sense Chart. Depending on where students walk, they may not come across anything that they can taste, but they can think about what animals and insects might eat and imagine what those things taste like. Also discuss with students that certain plants and animals shouldn’t be touched.

Older students can use the same Sense Chart to record their findings, but provide them with a more challenging search list, like the one below. For some background on the science of the human senses, provide parents, caregivers, and older students with this article on how our sensing organs and our brain work to help us perceive the world around us.

6. Crossword Challenge

Challenge students to complete our Summer Fun Crossword Puzzle. To extend the activity, have them place the words in different categories, such as "Places to Go," "Things to Eat," "Weather Words," and "Things You Might See at the Beach." Then they can brainstorm a list of other summer words to add to each category.

7. A Bright Idea

The sun is by far the brightest object in Earth's sky. On the magnitude scale that astronomers use to measure brightness, the brighter an object appears, the lower its magnitude. Some of the brightest objects in the sky have a negative apparent magnitude. Ask students to research the brightness of different objects in the sky and list them in order from dimmest to brightest these objects in Earth's sky: Sun, moon, stars, and Venus. Then have them research the apparent magnitudes, or measures of brightness, of each object. How much brighter is the sun than the other objects? Encourage students to research other questions this activity might bring up, such as why sunny days hurt our eyes or how much closer we are to the sun than other stars in the sky. Check out more hands-on activities about the sun.

8. Wordplay

What kind of tree fits in your hand? Challenge students to unscramble the summer-related words to get the punch line. Download our Summer Fun Word Scramble here. To extend the activity, have students write a silly story using every word in the jumble. Students can also continue the wordplay by creating their own word jumble with a different theme for a friend to solve. They might choose a theme around summer destinations like the beach or an amusement park, or look ahead to the fall with a back-to-school theme.

9. Summer Sports

Many sports across the world take place during the summer, when it's warm outside. Challenge students to identify a sport typically played during the summer that they have never heard about before. One place to start might be the list of the sports that have been played over the history of the Summer Olympic Games. Here are some ideas for questions that they can research and write about:

• When was the sport first introduced?
• Where in the world is the sport most commonly played?
• Who holds the world records for best performance in the sport, and what are those records?
• What interesting and unusual videos can you find about the sport? What makes the videos interesting or unusual?

10. Summer Vacation Postcard

Here’s an activity that allows students to practice their writing skills over the summer. Provide students with a postcard that’s blank on both sides. Be sure it includes a stamp and is addressed to your school (get permission from your principal first), to your home address, or to a post office box. Ask students to describe what they’re enjoying most about summer vacation, and then draw a picture that captures the fun on the other side. Those students who want to get a little more creative with the assignment could describe a dream summer vacation or a fictionalized family vacation gone wrong.

11. Plan a Dream Vacation

Ask students: If you could go anywhere in the world, which destination would you choose? Then have them use the internet, guide books, travel brochures, and maps to plan out a week-long itinerary. They can follow these steps:

• Choose a destination.
• Calculate round trip costs for airfare or car rental on sites such as expedia.com.
• Research the attractions you will want to explore, along with admission costs and travel to and from. Be sure to check the days and hours of operation.
• Create an itinerary for each day of the seven-day trip. Include time for travel to attractions and meal breaks.
• Add up the costs.

More Summer Learning Activities

Have any other fun summer learning activities for elementary and middle school students? Share your favorites with us on via email at shaped@hmhco.com or reach out on Twitter (@HMHCo) or Facebook.

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Learn more about our easy-to-implement summer school programs. Visit the HMH summer school site.

This blog, originally published in 2020, has been updated for 2023.