Prevent Summer Learning Loss ~ Tip #14 ~ Writing

Tweet One of my favorite poems is:

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

Some poems rhyme,

Some don't.

I have no idea who the poet was, but every time I read it, it makes me smile.

Writing a poem can help you improve your vocabulary and your writing skills. So try writing one. It can rhyme, but doesn't have to. It can be short or epic. It can be funny or profound. Try a haiku or a limerick or maybe a rap song is more your style. Put your heart into it and make it your own.

Prevent Summer Learning Loss ~ Tip #13 ~ Math

Tweet To keep up on your basic math skills over the summer, play a game where you have to keep score. Card games are especially good because on many, you lose points when you lose the game. This type of game will help improve your adding and subtracting and often times give you practice with negative numbers. Just make sure you keep score on your own. Don't use a calculator.

Prevent Summer Learning Loss ~ Tip #12 ~ History

Tweet Every town has a history. Do a little research this summer and find out about yours. Here are a few ideas to get you started. Use your local libraries, museums, cemeteries, and senior citizens.

1. Where did your town or city get its name?
2. Who was the founder and when?
3. Who were some of the original residents and what did they do?
4. Are there any famous people from your town or city?
5. How have most people made a living over the years?
6. Why do you think people settled in this area?
7. What was in this area before your town or city?

Prevent Summer Learning Loss ~ Tip #11 ~ College Course

Tweet If you'd like to try your hand at a college course, without the pressure, grades, or cost, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers access to classes online. The website at MIT OpenCourseWare has 1900 courses and, depending on the course, provides lecture notes, online textbooks, examples, projects, multimedia, assignments, tests, and solutions.

The courses are college-level, but if you feel you're ready, this is the place to find out. If you're still in high school, these courses will give you an idea of what to expect for the future. They will also help you understand how important your high school courses are in preparing you for college.

Prevent Summer Learning Loss ~ Tip #10 ~ Writing

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Image by Ed Yourdon via Flickr

This summer, spend a little time writing a short story. Be creative. Use your imagination. Don't worry about spelling or punctuation. Just write a story. Tell a tale.

Once you're done, read your story out loud to yourself. Does it sound right? Have you chosen the right words? Correct anything that you think needs to be changed. Re-word anything that seems awkward.

After the story sounds right, spend some time checking spelling and punctuation.

The last step is to have someone else read your story. Ask for their honest opinion. If they give you suggestions or corrections that will make your story better, make those changes.

At this point your story should be done, but it always helps to put it away for a week or so, then read it again. Sometimes, after a little time, you'll see other things that need to be changed.

So why do all this? The creative process of writing can carry over to other parts of life. Creativity is key in music, poetry, art, architecture, and mathematical and scientific discoveries. Writing also increases vocabulary and can improve your spelling, grammar, and punctuation skills.

If you think your story is good enough, you may be able to submit it to a magazine for publication or at least use it as an assignment for one of your classes next school year.

Prevent Summer Learning Loss ~ Tip #9 ~ Maps

Tweet If you're planning a vacation or even a day trip, try doing some calculations before you go. It will improve your map skills and keep your math skills in shape.

First, get a road map for the area in which you'll be traveling. Trace out your route. Then using the map, figure how many miles to your destination. Calculate the amount of time it will take to get there by driving the speed limits. Figure how much gasoline it will take and how much that gasoline will cost.

As you're actually taking your trip, keep track of your mileage, time, gallons of gasoline, and costs. Compare them to your estimates. How did you do? If your calculations were correct, the actual amounts should be very close to your estimates.

Do this several times over the course of the summer. You should get better at it, while improving your map and math skills. And remember to enjoy yourself on your trip.

Prevent Summer Learning Loss ~ Tip #8 ~ Math

Tweet Play with a calculator. What will it do? What are all those keys for?

Use your owner's manual and learn all you can about it. Some are simple and will only take a short amount of time. Others are very complex and will take much longer. Entire courses are offered for some of the scientific calculators. You may want to check to see if one is offered in your area.

Calculator skills are vital for many math classes. Even if you have teacher who won't let you use one in class, it can still help you check your work at home.

Prevent Summer Learning Loss ~ Tip #7 ~ Health

Tweet One of the ways to stay healthy and use a few of your math skills is to be aware of how much sugar you eat each day. Most sources say that you should limit your intake of sugar to 100 to 300 calories per day or no more than 8 teaspoons per day. The problem is that all nutrition labels indicate amounts of sugar in grams instead of calories or teaspoons. So in order to know the amount of sugar in foods, you have to do a few calculations.

Let's assume 12 ounces of a cola drink has 100 calories. When reading the nutrition label, you find that it has 24 grams of sugar. To calculate the teaspoons of sugar, divide the number of grams by 4. So, 24 divided by 4 equals 6. That means this cola would contain 6 teaspoons of sugar. That's almost the daily limit.

Now, each teaspoon of sugar contains 16 calories. So if you multiply 6 times 16, you find that 96 of the calories in this cola come from sugar. That means 96% of the calories are nothing but sugar. Another way to calculate calories is to know that each gram of sugar contains 4 calories. Again, if you take 24 times 4, you get 96 calories of the 100 coming from sugar.

Sugar comes in many forms. Look for words like sucrose, fructose, corn syrup, lactose, and honey. But remember, not all of these are bad for you. Milk (lactose), fruit (fructose), and vegetables (glucose) all contain sugars, but also contain bulk and fiber as well as vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.

Prevent Summer Learning Loss ~ Tip #6 ~ Botany

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Take a walk through the woods or a park. But this time, visit the library first. Choose one or two books about identification of plants. There will probably be several, so find one for your level. If you're a beginner, try to get a book that guides you through step-by-step. They are called "taxonomy guides" and are available for all types of plants.

My first college course was Botany. I took it the same summer I graduated from high school. I think the teacher wasn't quite as enthusiastic as he could have been, but we did get through all the material. The best part, however, was that he didn't want to be in the classroom on those beautiful summer days anymore than we did. So we would go for two hour walks through the amazing parks we have in our city. One is an arboretum that lends itself perfectly to this kind of hand-on learning. I may not remember the vascular structure of a plant, but to this day I can still identify an amazing number of trees, flowers, and even weeds.

Prevent Summer Learning Loss ~ Tip #5 ~ Foreign Language

Tweet If you've taken a foreign language and want to practice what you've learned, here's one way to hone your skills.

First, you'll need Google Chrome as your browser. (Other browsers also have this feature.) Then install the translation bar extension. There are several translation extensions available. The one I've been using seems to work well. It is called Translation Bar by Tase.

Next, find a passage online and translate it to the foreign language you've been learning. Do this by hand using pencil and paper. Once done, you can check your translation by clicking on the translation bar icon. It will translate your passage for you and allow you to check your work. It is not perfect, but will give you a reasonable translation.

Just remember, you'll only hone your skills if you do the actual translation first, then check your work. You won't learn anything if you just let the Google extension do it for you.

You can also find passages online that are originally written in a foreign language. Try translating these back to English. Google Chrome will automatically detect web pages written in other languages and has an automatic translate feature for this. Again, you can do the translation by hand, then check your work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqmUbNGkM9I&feature=player_embedded

Prevent Summer Learning Loss ~ Tip #4 ~ Public Television

Tweet Choose one educational program each week on public television. Watch it and write a report. You'll learn something from watching the program and practice your summarizing and writing skills with the report. Save these reports because you may be able to use them during the next school year.

Prevent Summer Learning Loss ~ Tip #3 ~ Keep a Journal

Tweet This summer, try keeping a journal. Write in it every day. Write about the things that happen during the day. Write about news events. Write about the weather. Write about the people you meet and the things you do. Write about the things for which you are grateful. What events make you happy and what events make you sad? Where did you go? If a story or poem comes to mind, write it down. Do you have a question about something? Make a note of it and then do some research to find the answer.

So why do this? The main reason is that every time you write, you improve your writing skills. Because writing is a major form of communication, it's one of those topics that's stressed in every subject you study. Most students are expected to write in language arts classes, social studies, science, foreign language, and possibly even math, art, and music.

When you get back to school in the fall and the teacher says, "Write a paper telling me what you did during the summer," you'll be prepared. In fact, your paper will almost write itself because you've already done all the hard work.

Prevent Summer Learning Loss ~ Tip #2 ~ Math Skills

Tweet One of the ways to keep your math skills up during the summer is to make a recipe. However, you need to change it up a bit.

Find a recipe that serves four. Then increase each ingredient in order to turn it into a recipe for six. This means you'll need to multiply each ingredient by one-and-a-half.

There are several ways to do this, depending on the original value you're increasing. For instance, if the original amount is 3 tablespoons, it's probably easier to just multiply 3 times 1.5. But if the recipe calls for 2 teaspoons, it might be easier to just use one (2 teaspoons) and a half (1 teaspoon) and then add them together to get 3 teaspoons. Find a method that works best for you and your recipe.

Now enjoy what you've made. Next time, make it a little harder by increasing the recipe so it serves 5 people.

Prevent Summer Learning Loss ~ Tip #1 ~ Thinking Skills

Tweet I suppose this is actually tip number three, because I've already written about learning a new word every day and spending time at the library. But since those weren't specifically labeled, I'll just call this Tip #1.

For today's tip, I suggest you watch a documentary. Some award-winning films can be found on the Academy Award web page. Recent topics include environmental issues, health, immigration, the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, religion, historical events, culture, and education.

Most of these films are thinking films, meaning they will make you think. Over the summer, that's a good thing. I know that most of us want to get away from thinking during the summer, but if you want to be ready for school in the fall, you have to keep up your critical thinking skills.

So watch a documentary. When finished consider the following:

• Identify your feelings and thoughts about the film
• Is the information credible?
• Evaluate the evidence and alleged facts
• Evaluate the arguments, interpretations, beliefs, theories, and perceptions
• Is the documentary a fair representation of the situation?
• What conclusions do they come to and do you agree?

These and other critical thinking skills can be found at NCREL.