10 Summer Outdoor Activities That Build English Language Skills

Summer is one of the most powerful seasons for growing language skills, especially for children learning English. As a teacher, I’ve seen firsthand how stepping outside can lower pressure, increase engagement, and create meaningful opportunities for authentic language use. Nature gives us built-in vocabulary, real experiences to talk about, and endless chances to practice listening and speaking in a natural way.

For students learning English, language grows best through real-life experiences, not just worksheets. Summer offers families a chance to build those experiences together. The best part? You don’t need anything fancy—just time outside, curiosity, and conversation.

Here are 10 simple, practical ways parents and grandparents can build English while enjoying the outdoors:

1. Take “talk walks”
   Go for a walk and intentionally talk about what you see, hear, and feel. Use simple, descriptive language: “The grass feels soft,” “I see a tall tree,” “The bird is flying.” Encourage your child to repeat or add on.
2. Name and describe everything
   Nature is full of vocabulary. Point out objects and describe them using color, size, and shape: “small rock,” “bright yellow flower,” “long stick.” This builds both vocabulary and sentence structure.
3. Use the “I notice, I wonder” strategy
   Say, “I notice the clouds are gray. I wonder if it will rain.” Then invite your child to try. This builds both expressive language and critical thinking.
4. Create a scavenger hunt
   Make a simple list: leaf, bug, flower, something smooth, something rough. As your child finds each item, have them say the word and describe it. This adds repetition and meaningful use of new words.
5. Practice verbs in action
   Summer is perfect for movement. Use action words while playing: run, jump, dig, pour, splash. Model sentences like, “You are running fast!” Verbs are essential for building strong sentences.
6. Tell simple stories about your day
   After being outside, talk about what you did in order: “First we walked, then we saw a dog, and last we played.” This helps children practice sequencing and past tense language.
7. Sing songs and rhymes outdoors
   Songs build rhythm, pronunciation, and memory. Try repeating simple songs while swinging, walking, or playing. Repetition helps language stick.
8. Ask open-ended questions
   Instead of yes/no questions, ask: “What did you see?” “Why do you think that happened?” “How did it feel?” Give your child time to respond, even if it takes a little longer.
9. Encourage home language connections
   If your family speaks another language, use it! Talk about nature in both languages. This strengthens overall language development and helps children make connections between words and ideas.
10. Model, don’t correct
    If your child makes a mistake, respond by modeling the correct sentence instead of correcting directly. For example, if they say, “Dog run fast,” you can respond, “Yes, the dog is running fast!” This keeps communication positive and supportive.

The goal isn’t perfection—it’s interaction. Language grows through connection, shared experiences, and conversation. When children feel relaxed and engaged, they are more willing to take risks and try new words.

So this summer, step outside. Slow down. Talk more. Listen closely. Whether you’re at a park, in your backyard, or just walking around the block, you’re creating powerful opportunities for language growth—one conversation at a time.

Grandparenting Summer Play with Our Tween Twins

Summer is a wonderful time to spend extended quality time with our tween twin granddaughters. In previous years, our days were filled with planned outings, free-play games, and art projects. Now that the girls are shifting their focus toward friends, we are adapting by inviting their peers along for the ride. Thankfully, our car is large enough to play “chauffeur” for the whole crew!

Summer Activities and Outings

Below is a summary of our plans for a summer full of growth and adventure:

• Volleyball & College Life: The girls love volleyball, so we’ve enrolled them in a skill-building camp hosted at a local college. Beyond the sport, they’ll learn about campus life from student-athletes who lead the training. Tours of the bookstore, performing arts buildings, and athletic fields offer them an early, inspiring glimpse into their potential futures.
• Individual Mini-Vacations: For the first time, the twins have agreed to take separate trips with us. One will visit a bustling city, featuring a stop at a Jellycat Diner; she’s already doing extra chores to save up for a collectible. The other twin has opted for a beachfront city to enjoy the surf and local attractions.
• Family Thrills: We are heading to the local beach boardwalk so the twins can enjoy unlimited amusement rides with their older brother.
• Daily Playdates: We’ll keep the momentum going by taking the tweens and their friends to various parks, museums, and nature walks.
• Games & Art: Every summer, the girls learn new games and spend hours on art projects, such as handmade greeting cards and seasonal decorations.
• Academic Play: We provide opportunities for reading, journaling, and math. Grandpa even challenges them with upcoming grade-level concepts! They especially love “playing teacher” by using these skills with their younger relatives.
• Future Sitters: They adore babysitting their younger cousins under our guidance. On their next birthday, they plan to become officially certified through the American Red Cross.
• Digital Connection: When staying with us for several days, we ensure they have dedicated time to visit friends online and share their adventures with their parents.

Tips for Grandparenting Tweens

Caring for tweens requires a blend of high energy and thoughtful strategy. Here are a few tips we’ve picked up:

• Stay Flexible: Even with a plan, tweens may get tired, feel under the weather, or simply need a “day off.” We only prepurchase essentials like camps and trips to keep the rest of the summer stress-free.
• Balance is Key: Mix structured activities with plenty of downtime so the kids stay relaxed and excited rather than burnt out.
• Sneak in Learning: Integrate literacy and math into fun tasks. Our granddaughters love recalculating recipe ingredients for dinner or tracking mileage and reading directions for road trips. Games like Family Feud are great for reading and score-keeping!
• Share Your Roots: Tweens are often fascinated by family history. Look through old photo albums together or visit living history museums to compare modern life with the cooking utensils, appliances, and tools of the past.
• Explore Science Through the Decades: Science and tech museums offer hands-on STEM education through interactive exhibits and maker labs, showing just how far we’ve come.
• Know Your Limits: Grandparenting tweens is active work! If a roller coaster sounds too intense, bring a teen along to handle the “wild” rides while you cheer from the sidelines.
• Celebrate Individuality: When planning, consider each twin’s unique interests. Dividing your time can provide that much-needed undivided attention they still crave.

Value the Journey

A summer spent with tween twins is a rewarding journey of balancing their growing independence with meaningful family traditions. By embracing their social circles and honoring their individual interests, you create an environment where they feel both respected and supported. Integrating subtle learning opportunities and family history ensures the season is as enriching as it is entertaining. Ultimately, the flexibility to pivot between high-energy excursions and quiet downtime is the secret to a stress-free experience. These shared adventures build a lasting bridge of connection that will carry your relationship forward into their teenage years.

How Students Can Self-Assess Their Writing

In my previous blog post, I described how our primary grade students completed a 10-page report primarily in their own words on mud and soil. Our team then completed a Mud Report Student Evaluation for each student that highlighted their abilities to complete their mud report.

Five Mud Report Components

Listed below are the five questions that were used to evaluate each student with comments on each student’s report:

1. Did the student research and copy text on the internet and from books with ease?
2. Did the student write the report from multiple sources and combine information without help?
3. Did the student blend information from various sources and apply what was read to personal life experiences and other experiences?
4. Did the student work diligently with ease on the project?
5. Is the report’s content, spelling, punction, and printing easy to read?

Student Levels of Accomplishment

We them rated these skills at the following four levels of accomplishment on each report component with comments based on the common core standards for primary grade students:

Level 1 Learning Basics: Student researched and copied nonfiction text on a topic in books and on the internet with lots of help. Student wrote the report with difficulty and help. Content, spelling, punctuation, and printing were hard to read.

Level 2 Demonstrates Understanding: Student researched and copied nonfiction text on a topic in books and on the internet with some help. Student wrote the report and blended some information with some difficulty and help. Content, spelling, punctuation, and printing were sometimes hard to read.

Level 3 Modifying Basics: Student researched and copied nonfiction text on a topic in books and on the internet without help. Student wrote the report from multiple sources and blended and applied some information in the report. Student worked diligently with ease. Content, spelling, punctuation, and printing were easy to read.

Level 4 Emerging Expert: Student researched and copied nonfiction text on a topic in books and on the internet with ease. Student wrote the report from multiple sources and extensively blended and applied information in the report. Student worked diligently with ease. Content, spelling, punctuation, and printing were easy to read.

Students’ Responses to Their Evaluation Comments

As we completed a rating for each student, we qualified the rating with personalized comments that focused on specific skills achieved when completing various report assignments. Students were very excited when we described specific behaviors and skill building attributes to specific examples captured in their 10-page reports.

Most were shocked that we actually read their reports and took the time to show them how to punctuate their reports correctly. Many are still learning how to self-edit their work and are surprised that we observed this amount of detail in our review of their work. Other students could not believe that they were working beyond their grade level in writing. We explained that the more they were able to synthesize their work and apply their writing to daily experiences and observations, the higher level writing they were able to create independently.

Challenged students were very excited that they were able to complete this very demanding assignment regardless of how much help we provided them. They want to slow down, print more carefully, and learn to self-edit. I encouraged these students to read parts of a story or nonfiction information daily and practice rewriting small passages daily in a journal. Through practice, these students will become self-confident writers. The more students expose themselves to difficult articles and books, the more confident they will become when completing challenging assignments.

What We Learned

We have been using this assignment and customized rubric for three years with multiple classes. Each year we become more successful in increasing students’ skill levels at a faster pace than previous years. I think we just keep learning how to teach better and more confidently as we coach students to integrate nonfiction informational writing with daily life experiences and observations.

We Are Here to Help

If you and your students or children want to learn how to evaluate writing assignments, you may be interested in reading Student-Engaged Assessment: Strategies to Empower All Learners by Laura Greenstein and Mary Ann Burke. Our team is available to provide trainings to your schools and teachers. You can contact us on our blog site under the comments section on the lower part of the blog page. Also, if you are interested in a simplified approach to teaching students about mud at the first or second grade level, we have posted an online book link on Magnificent Magical Mud by Mary Ann Burke at the bottom of our blog site. This online book includes simple writing assignments for students and children. Much success in the great adventure of student led learning through self-assessment.

Kids Learn to Express Themselves Through Writing

During the last weeks of school, our primary grade students learned about various types of soil and mud when planting flowers, studying the uses of mud, and learning how to use computers for research in 10-page reports.

What the Students Researched

1. Learning how to write an introduction to the report
2. Writing about descriptions and uses for clay soil, loamy soil, and sandy soil
3. Planting a flower and writing about the type of soil used for planting
4. Listing the steps completed to make mud and plant a flower
5. Learning how to calculate how much water is needed for making mud in different quantities
6. Completing a soil and mud research checklist for added research in books and on the computer
7. Writing a book report on mud and soil uses
8. Writing a computer report on mud and soil uses
9. Completing a reflection questionnaire of what was learned
10. Creating a glossary of new vocabulary words used in the report

How Students Learned to Use Their Own Words

Throughout this project, students were encouraged to summarize what they read in their own words. Most students were successful in completing this task without teacher assistance:

1. When listing the steps to make mud and planting a flower
2. Completing a research checklist
3. Writing a report introduction
4. Writing a reflection of what they learned
5. Completing a glossary of new vocabulary words

When writing about various types of soil, most students preferred to copy the technical information. Many students did not copy every word in the informational text. Book reports were completed by students on a topic they wanted to learn more about. Various nonfiction reading level books were available for student use.

The computer report was the most challenging for students to complete. Most students had never summarized online technical resources and articles. Many started the assignment by copying text. As the students became more familiar with the online content, many were able to apply what they read to everyday life.

How to Support Challenged Students

When some students were very frustrated with an assignment, we used very basic reading samples and had students copy a couple of sentences. Next, we interviewed them and asked them how they might use this knowledge in their daily lives. We also created sentence frames. Sentence frames are very simple sentences that students can complete in their own words. For example, a sentence frame might state that clay soil is comprised of very fine mineral particles and is sticky. Then students can complete a sentence frame that says clay soil will ___________. We then ask students if they think clay soil will make a puddle or will soak into the ground. Students typically responded that clay soil makes a puddle because they experienced that result when making clay mud. Once students were able to talk about a challenging topic in their own words, they slowly became more confident in writing simple sentences about what they  learned. We also had capable students tutor and assist their more challenged peers. This one-on-one tutoring support was incredibly helpful as students could share more personalized help with their peers.

Student Led Evaluations

My next blog post will describe how we constructed a Mud Report Student Evaluation for each student that highlighted their competencies in five different areas. Nearly 53% of the students in our project received a Level 4 Emerging Expert Evaluation overall rating because they were able to complete work independently and wrote their report using their own words on several assigned pages.

Help for Struggling Students

As a K–3 special education teacher, I’ve learned that some of our students struggle loudly—and some struggle quietly. And sometimes, they struggle in that in-between space: big enough behaviors that everyone notices… but not yet formally supported by a Tier 2 or Tier 3 plan.

If you’re a parent or teacher seeing behaviors that clearly need more than just reminders and redirection—but there’s no formal intervention plan in place yet—this post is for you.

Some behaviors don’t quite fit into “typical classroom challenges,” but they also don’t yet have a formal Tier 2 or Tier 3 plan attached to them. As parents and teachers, that in-between space can feel frustrating and uncertain. We know a child needs more support—but we’re still waiting on meetings, data, or next steps. The good news? We don’t have to wait for paperwork to begin helping. There are practical, proactive strategies we can start right away to support students who need more structure, regulation, and skill-building.

First, Let’s Ground Ourselves in MTSS

In a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), Tier 1 is what all students receive: clear expectations, consistent routines, and positive reinforcement. Tier 2 provides targeted, small-group or structured supports. Tier 3 is individualized and intensive. But here’s the reality: sometimes there’s a lag between recognizing a need and having a formal Tier 2 or Tier 3 plan written and implemented. During that gap, kids still need support. And we can give it.

Step 1: Shift from “Why are they doing this?” to “What is this behavior communicating?”

Behavior is communication. A child who refuses work may be saying:

“This feels too hard.”

“I don’t know how to start.”

“I’m overwhelmed.”

A child who disrupts may be saying:

“I need attention.”

“I need movement.”

“I feel out of control.”

Instead of reacting to the surface behavior, we respond to the unmet need underneath it.

Step 2: Increase Structure Immediately.

Students who likely need Tier 2 or 3 supports almost always benefit from more structure—not more consequences.

Try:

• Visual schedules (even simple sticky note checklists)
• First/Then language (“First math, then drawing.”)
• Clear start and finish markers
• Breaking work into smaller chunks
• Timers for both work and breaks

Structure lowers anxiety. Lower anxiety lowers behavior.

Step 3: Pre-Teach Expectations.

Many of our students who struggle behaviorally don’t lack motivation—they lack clarity. Before a known trigger (recess, transitions, group work), preview expectations:

“When we line up, our hands stay by our sides.”

“During centers, we use quiet voices.”

“If you feel frustrated, you can raise your hand or use your break card.”

Role-play it. Practice it. Reinforce it immediately when you see it.

Step 4: Increase Positive Feedback (More Than Feels Natural).

If a student is likely headed toward Tier 2 or 3, they are often hearing more corrections than praise.

Flip the ratio.

Catch:

• The 30 seconds they stayed in their seat.
• The one safe choice they made.
• The moment they tried again.

Specific praise builds replacement behaviors:

“I noticed you started even though it felt hard.”

“You kept your hands safe.”

“You asked for help instead of shutting down.”

We grow what we notice.

Step 5: Offer Regulated Breaks Before Escalation

If you wait until the meltdown, you’re too late. Build proactive regulation:

• Scheduled movement breaks
• Sensory tools
• Calm-down corners
• Short “jobs” that reset the nervous system

At home, this might look like:

• Heavy work (carrying laundry, pushing a vacuum)
• Outside time
• A quiet reset space
• Regulation first. Instruction second.

Step 6: Start Simple Data Collection

Even without a formal plan, start noticing patterns:

• When does it happen?
• What happens right before?
• What happens right after?

You don’t need fancy charts. Sticky notes work. This information helps teams move toward Tier 2 or Tier 3 supports faster—and more effectively.

For Parents: You’re Not “Behind.”

If your child doesn’t yet have a formal behavior plan but clearly needs more support, you are not failing. Schools move through processes. Sometimes they move slowly. Ask:

“What Tier 2 supports can we try?”

“Can we start Check-In/Check-Out?”

“Can we monitor behavior for a few weeks?”

Advocacy doesn’t have to be confrontational. It can be collaborative. Some behaviors don’t quite fit into “typical classroom challenges,” but they also don’t yet have a formal Tier 2 or Tier 3 plan attached to them. As parents and teachers, that in-between space can feel frustrating and uncertain. We know a child needs more support—but we’re still waiting on meetings, data, or next steps. The good news? We don’t have to wait for paperwork to begin helping. There are practical, proactive strategies we can start right away to support students who need more structure, regulation, and skill-building.