Dixie students blend summer fun with learning

Summer is a time for outdoor fun and activities for New Lebanon kids. It is also a time when teachers and parents have noticed “summer slide” among students for retention of skills and knowledge from the previous school year. Dixie Schools encourages families to support summer fun, activity, and learning with summertime resources for students and families.

Dixie Elementary preschoolers and kindergarten students received summertime learning backpacks at the end of the 202223 school year. The backpacks were designed to help kids enjoy summertime activities while also maintaining and developing skills that prepare students for the next school year. The activities were also created with parental involvement as a priority to make learning fun for the whole family. Each backpack included a parent guide and strategies to help parents get their children excited about the activities.

Every Dixie Elementary preschool student received a water-resistant backpack with activities created to help reinforce their skills and to help prepare them for kindergarten. Along with a guide to help parents connect home and school, families received activities that included Ready-Set-Learn: Alphabet, Busy Bugs, Pirate Cove: Little Lost Dinosaur, and Animals and Their Babies.

Dixie Elementary kindergarten students received a similar backpack with outdoor activities created to help students prepare for first grade. Ready-Set-Learn: Printing Practice, Treetop Duckies, Lost Island: The Big Kidnap, and Swimming with Sea Otters were some of the many activities to engage students in fun learning activities this summer. The parent guide provided parents with tips for participating in the activities with their children.

Dixie Middle School and Dixie Elementary students also earned great prizes while participating in Dixie Summer Learning Slam this summer. Summer Slam provides math and reading content through an online program tailored to the learning levels of students to help them enhance their skills over the summer. Students are encouraged to spend their days on fun, outdoor activities and only work on Summer Slam activities in the evening. By spending just 60 minutes per week on learning activities instead of other screen time activities in the evening, many students make strong gains in their academic achievement. The gift cards and t-shirts that students earned with their progress added to their sense of accomplishment.

New Lebanon Schools looks forward to a fantastic 2023-24 school year and the summer learning activities will help Dixie students get off to a great start.