ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Summer Reading Activities for Kids

Updated on August 30, 2012
Kids' Reading Activities
Kids' Reading Activities | Source

During breaks from school, children have the potential to lose some of the skills they have gained during the school year. Summer is especially detrimental, as kids tend to spend more time outside and less time reading and participating in educational activities.

It's easy to keep kids interested in reading and keep their skills up through activities that are both fun and creative. These three activities are guaranteed to have both you and the children laughing!

Write a story on colored paper
Write a story on colored paper | Source

Creative Writing: Shuffle Stories

Writing silly stories is a fun activity that promotes reading and creative writing. It also leads to more than a few hilarious outcomes!

To begin, decide on two characters for your story. For each character, decide a name and a few details about them (where they live, what they like to do, etc.). The sillier the better! Here is an example:

Bertram Clinkenhooper: Lives just outside of Popcorn City. Wears bow ties with his pajamas. Loves to eat peanut butter and pickle sandwiches.

Eliza Wigglebottoms: Also lives near Popcorn City. Enjoys playing bingo with her friends from clog dancing class. Likes swimming while listening to polka music.

Now get a stack of index cards or other pieces of paper or card stock. On each card, write one silly sentence involving these two characters. Your intent isn't to write a story at this point - just come up with some funny sentences. Here are some examples:

One afternoon, Eliza saw a frog sitting by the pool, singing along with her polka songs.

Bertam loved being backstage at the opera house

Bertram and Eliza saw each other at the fourth annual Banana Peel Parade.

The sillier, the better!

Now shuffle the cards. Draw a card from the stack. This is the first sentence of your story. Say the sentence out loud, then make up more of the story. After every few sentences, draw out another card. This has to be the next sentence of the story. Try to keep the story going until all of the cards are used.

Draw a Scene
Draw a Scene | Source

Reading Comprehension Activity: Draw the Next Scene

This activity utilizes both reading comprehension and prediction skills.

Begin reading a new book together. At some point in the story, stop reading and close the book. Then, take a piece of paper and draw a picture of what you think will happen next in the story. No peeking!

After you are done, share your pictures and tell what you think will happen next. Then begin reading the book again and compare your scenarios with what actually happens in the story.

For added fun, use different mediums to "draw" your scene. Try sidewalk chalk or paint, or you can even set up your scene using action figures and props! Whatever is most fun to your reader.

Quick Definitions of Parts of Speech

Part of Speech
Definition
Examples
Noun
Person, Place or Thing
book, caterpillar, teacher, city
Verb
Action
run, dance, twirl, think
Adjective
Describing Word
purple, sparkly, round
Adverb
Describes an Action
slowly, quietly
Proper Noun
Specific Person, Place, or Thing
Canada, Mrs. Smith, The Cat in The Hat
Plural Noun
Multiple People, Places, or Things
books, caterpillars, teachers, cities

Mad Libs!

This activity utilizes grammar skills and parts of speech, as well as reading fluency.

Mad Libs is a fun game in which you fill in the blanks in a story before you know what the story is about. It can make for some really funny tales when the story is finished! This activity requires a little work ahead of time, but it will lead to hours of laughter and reading!

You will want to prepare the story ahead of time, without the child present, so they don't know what the story is about. You can either write your own story, or take a few paragraphs from a favorite storybook. You will need at least 2-3 paragraphs for the story.

Once you've written or copied the story, take out some of the nouns, verbs, and adjectives (see definition chart). For example, in the following sentence:

"The flustered rabbit hopped out of her hole and got into the car, worried that she might be late to the tea party."

You could remove some of the words to make it like this:

The ___ rabbit ___ out of her ____ and got into the ___, worried that she might be late to the ___."

Note what kind of word you need for each one, and make a list in order. For this sentence, your sentence would look like this:

"The (adjective) rabbit (verb) out of her (noun) and got into the (noun), worried that she might be late to the (noun)."

Without telling the child anything about the story, ask them to fill in the blanks.

Start by reminding them what each of those parts of speech are, and then ask for each one in order, writing down what the child says. Encourage them to come up with outrageous words! For example, the adjective "red" isn't as fun as the adjectives "slimy," "wilted", or "glittery" are.

Once the blanks are filled in, read your story with the words from the list filled into each blank. You will be in stitches by the time the story ends!

Examples:

"The upside down rabbit wiggled out of her bowl and got into the golf club, worried that she might be late to the eyeglasses."

"The prickly rabbit danced out of her race car and got into the ketchup bottle, worried that she might be late to the purple monster."

"The wrinkled rabbit galloped out of her octagon and got into the disco ball, worried that she might be late to the speakerphone."

More Reading Activities for Summer and Beyond!

Reading activities can be easily invented out of just about anything that your child likes to do.

Is he a little builder? Try using Legos to inspire creativity!

Does he like sports? Write a story about a game, then act it out on the field or court!

Is he interested in museums or other activities? After a visit to his favorite place, write a story of what would happen if the things he saw came to life!

The possibilities are endless!

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)