Fun Educational Activities Keeps Kids Learning During Summer Break

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)- School is out and sometimes that means forgetting lessons learned during the school year.

With students being away from the books for the next several weeks, it’s easy for them to experience a summer slide.

That’s why it’s important to make sure students stay on top of their educational skills during the summer months, because if not, they can find themselves playing catch-up when the next school bell rings.

However, one program in Starkville is on a mission to keep that from happening.

“The students that have come through this program, the first semester where most students are trying to catch up, trying to get back into the groove, they’re trying to get reacclimated it, the students that come through this program, they’re fired up,” said Tonya Davis, Co-Director of Ms. Smith’s Educational Services. “They have a fire that’s almost indescribable because they feel like, wow, I know this material.”

Whoever said learning can’t be fun, did not get that memo to the group of students at Ms. Smith’s Educational Services in Starkville, and just because it’s summer time for these kiddos, doesn’t mean they’re not hitting the books and learning new material.

“Everything that we do is fun yet focused,” said Niya Smith, Director of Ms. Smith’s Educational Services.

Smith said keeping students involved in educational work over the summer break helps keep their minds fresh and gets them prepared for when the next school year rolls around.

“It’s just like any other job, if you’re off for too long, you go back and you’re a little rusty on some things,” Smith expressed.

“One of our main goals is to make sure the students stay on top of their skills during the summer and that is reading, writing, math, and also critical thinking,” said Davis.

The program helps students utilize their brain and keeps their critical thinking juices flowing, while still having fun at the same time.

Volunteers come in and teach students various subjects including STEM, chemistry, and how to develop healthy eating habits.

“We do allow them the opportunity to have this creativeness about their learning, and we try to foster that by being creative in the learning,” Davis explained. “We do different relay races with math, or relay races with spelling, we have a little mini spelling bees and things of that nature.”

Throughout the week, program leaders take students on educational field trips to give them an in-depth and hands-on learning experience.

“We go on several field trips, our field trips are all academically based,” said Smith. “The kids are learning nonstop even though they don’t know they’re learning. We go to the clock museum, we do art museums, we do John Grisham museums where they are constantly learning about presidents, and we do reading fairs and science fair, and we jump in there hands-on with them.”

There are more than 100 students enrolled in this years summer program, ranging from grades K through 11.

Ms. Smith’s Eductional Services is open all throughout the year.

If anyone is interested in joining the program just visit https://smithedusvs.weebly.com/ for more information.

Categories: Local News

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *