Back-to-School 2021: Foundational Skills for Third and Fourth Grade

Your soon-to-be-Kindergartener was built for summer! There’s so much to do, see, and explore, both inside and outdoors. If you’re looking for some fresh, fun ideas to help keep your rising Kindergartner engaged and learning for the rest of the summer, have we got the activities for you! Read on for three days’ worth of developmental, educational, and social-emotional activities – plus some bonus activities, just for fun. And don’t miss our summer minicamp activity ideas for three- and four-year-olds

Kick off your first day of camp with some fine motor fun! Threading is an age-appropriate challenge for four-year-olds, resulting in a colorful creation they can wear or display. Set out some pipe cleaners and pony beads and thread a bracelet, create a beaded pattern for your preschooler to follow, or stick some spaghetti sticks into a ball of molding dough and thread penne noodles to make Stegosaurus. Find more threading ideas here.

Download this free, printable worksheet, grab some counters, and practice numbers and counting with your kiddo! Count the letters in their name (writing it out on a sheet of paper might help), their age, the number of siblings they have, and more!

You may have seen the pretty, painted rocks people are leaving around neighborhoods across the country as a symbol of kindness. You can do the same! Take a walk and find some medium-sized rocks with nice flat or rounded surfaces. Clean them off and pop them in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes – you can use the time to talk about things that make your kids happy as inspiration for what they might draw. Let the rocks cool just a bit, then use crayons to draw their ideas! When the rocks are dry, use a Sharpie to write caring messages like “Kindness”, “Love”, or “Joy”. Then place them in your neighbors’ gardens to brighten up their days! Find other kindness activities here.

End your first day of minicamp with another cool-down activity – making a snowstorm in a bottle! Gather a glass or see-through plastic jar, vegetable oil, white paint, glitter, and an Alka-Seltzer tab, and follow these instructions to make it snow inside!

Using the proper pencil grip is the key to legible writing. Help your kiddo practice this summer by providing a sheet of properly formed capital letters to trace using a variety of differently sized crayons, markers, and pencils. Around age five, kids should be able to manipulate a writing utensil with three fingers rather than move their wrists or arms. Learn more about proper pencil grasps here.

Brush up on those math skills with a scavenger hunt around the house! Print this list of things to look for and set off to find everyday math items, including number words, items of certain sizes and shapes, pairs of things, and more!

Playing school is a wonderful way to build your child’s creativity and imagination. It also allows your soon-to-be-scholar to mentally prepare for going to school and build the confidence they’ll need to thrive there. Set up some school-ish materials, like a chalkboard or easel, books, paper and crayons, and stickers, and follow your little one’s lead. Will they read to their stuffed animals? Teach you letters and numbers?  Draw a picture? 

Nothing is nicer after a day of summer minicamp than a delicious popsicle! Follow our favorite recipe for fruit and veggie pops, working together to squeeze the lime, drop the ingredients into the blender, stir the elements, and insert the popsicle handles. Talk about the foods as you work with them – what color are they? What is their texture like? What letter does that food start with? How might it taste?

Stretchy, sticky, and squishy, you probably know that slime is awesome. But did you know that slime also helps builds fine motor skills? Measuring, pouring, mixing, stirring, squeezing, smashing, rolling, and twisting are all great ways to strengthen hand muscles and build fine motor skills! Start your last day of minicamp off with some slime, using our favorite recipe.

Practice letter identification, letter sounds, and word building with this simple stamp-and-learn activity! Set out some molding dough (or make your own – another fun minicamp activity!), tools like plastic rolling pins, cutters, kid-safe scissors, and letter blocks or magnets. Then show your child how to flatten the dough and stamp a letter into it. Say the letter name as they stamp, make its sound, and say a word that starts with that letter. See if your child can find the letters in their name and stamp them all in a row. 

The forces of physics are all around us, and summer is a great time to see them in action. Floating in the pool, rolling a ball, and dropping an ice cream cone (oh NO!) are perfect examples of buoyancy, motion, and gravity. These simple activities will demonstrate some of the most fundamental properties of physics in a fun way – and you can follow up your lesson by making a simple machine (instructions included).

Print this free career worksheet, cut out the word cards and images, and match them up! Talk about each job, the responsibilities of each job, the qualities each requires, and which one interests your child the most (and the least).

We’ve talked about essential milestones for three-, four-, and five-year-olds, but the growth doesn’t stop there! Big kids are tackling some important tasks and becoming more independent with every passing day. From academic achievements to physical growth and development, the middle childhood years of six and seven can be exciting. Remembering that every child learns and grows at their own pace, read on to learn what your big kid might be doing over the next 12-24 months!

Social-Emotional Skills

Sixes and sevens are building their confidence and, in turn, becoming even more independent from their family members and caregivers. You can encourage their independence by assigning age-appropriate responsibilities and applauding their efforts to master things on their own, no matter the outcome. Over the next two years, your big kid is also likely:

• Becoming more compassionate, able not just to recognize emotions but to empathize, as well
• Making authentic connections, enabling them to make and keep good friends
• Cooperating with others while performing a task, playing a game, or working with a sports team
• Understanding fairness and rewards that are based on better or worse performance or effort

Language Skills

Speaking in complete sentences, your big kid can express themselves clearly, share thoughts and opinions verbally, and may even start to express themselves clearly in written form. They’ll also be working on:

• Building their vocabularies – to the tune of five to 10 new words a day
• Their sense of humor! Advanced language skills bring a better understanding of jokes and puns
• Proper punctuation in letters and other written communications (although not in texts!)
• Taking turns speaking – learning not to interrupt can’t come soon enough

Cognitive Skills

First graders are working on addition and subtraction, writing and spelling, shapes and measurement, etc. Practicing at home will help, especially with:

• Reading! Reading skills are blooming, so be sure to have plenty of books and magazines on hand
• Telling time days, learning the days of the week, and the months of the year
• Skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s and working with math manipulatives
• Counting coins and adding their sums

Physical Skills

Your six- or seven-year-old is getting a better feel for the things they enjoy and maybe pursuing hobbies and showing an interest in different sports. At this age, your child may be mastering:

• Passing and catching a ball by throwing or kicking
• Dancing to the rhythm and beat of their favorite music
• Riding a two-wheeled bike, which requires balance, coordination, and confidence
• Drawing, painting, and writing more clearly (a sign of solid fine motor skills)

Your support makes a world of difference in your child’s development, so keep reading, talking, playing educational games, counting change at the store, asking their opinion, and telling them how capable they are.