As school comes to a close, parents, students and teachers alike are running into summer with arms wide open.  This is an exciting time!  Sports and clubs have ended and life can finally begin to slow down.  However, I know, as a parent, that the summer passes too quickly with camps, trips to the pool, weeks at the beach, visits to family members far and wide and BBQs, time with friends.  Routines fall by the wayside as we relax.

Kids need to relax and spend time with family and friends.  But, they also need to connect with reading and writing throughout the summer.  Our brains are muscles and can lose some of their gains over the long summer break if we don’t exercise them.

All rising 6^th and 7^th graders are required to choose one book off the summer reading list or can pick a comparable book if their parents approve it.
Here’s the link to the lists: http://www.fcps.edu/is/summer/reading/index.shtml

Read on to find some easy and fun ways that kids can engage with literacy over the summer:

• MyOn is having a summer reading contest from May 15-August 15.  All students have to do is access the site at http://www.myon.com/login/ and login to read and enter the contest!  Individual students and schools can win, just by reading!  Students should know their login and password.  The FCPS student login is as follows, username: FCPS student ID#, password:  FCPS student ID# +first initial +last initial (lower case, no spaces)  (ex:  Mary Smith = 12345ms)   More details to follow.

• Apps, Apps, Apps!  If you’ve got an iPad, iPhone, iPod touch or any device that connects to an app store, consider checking out these apps:

  Younger children:   Letter School, Sock Puppets, Noodle Words, FotoFarm, Magnetic ABC, MeeGenius, MyOn

  Older children:  Strip Design – comic creator, Superhero Comic Book Maker, Book Creator, Idiary, Kindle app, Audacity and MyOn (for listening to books)

  This is just the start of what the wide world of apps has to offer!  I’ve tested most of these apps with kids in school or my own kids at home and they LOVE them!  Use your time in the car, down time at home and while one child is waiting for the other to finish an activity to engage kids with literacy in fun ways! Let me know if you’ve found any other good ones when you see me in the halls or around town.

•  For primary children Pre-K through 2^nd grade, check out this fun website that the Librarian of Virginia curates:  http://daybydayva.org/about.  Click on a month at the TOP of the site and choose a day to see a poem, video, activity and free Tumble Book (electronic book) on that day’s theme.  I plan to visit this site often with my own kids at home too!

Have a great summer!

Mrs. Rossman, Freedom Hill ES Reading Specialist

Please keep in mind that not all apps are approved or supported by FCPS. Always keep an eye on your child when they are using mobile devices to make sure any apps that you are utilizing are not collecting private information about your child.