Plan Your Summer Learning Listening Session

Connect with school administrators, community members, technology specialists and librarians to discuss the objectives for this event as well as logistics (e.g., location, date, time, promotion). Reach out to community businesses to secure food/prize donations that will incentivize people to attend.

• Review the various print and online resources to decide which materials you would like to use during your listening session.

Grab-and-Go One Pagers

• Summer Stride Plan 
• 20-2-1 Summer Challenge
• Social Media Summer Calendar Sample
• Questions Parents Can Ask
• Summer by the Numbers
• Summer Learning Ideas at Home and in Your Community

Reading Resources for Parents

• Why Summer Matters
• Summer by The Numbers
• Reading Tips to Go: Support for parents who want help coming up with ideas to keep kids’ reading and writing skills improving over the summer. Subscribers to this free service get short text messages every week—all summer long—in English or Spanish.
• Parent Reading Tips (in English + 12 other languages):  Babies to Grade 3.
• Growing Readers Parent Newsletter: Dozens of short articles, in Spanish and English, that include literacy and STEM ideas. Perfect for backpack mail
• Choosing Read-Aloud Books: Babies to Grade 3
• Choosing and Using Kids' Books: Information about kinds of books to choose from. Links to many other related resources (RR and other literacy organizations)
• EveryoneOn Low-Cost Internet Solutions Toolkit

Interactive Resources for Families

• Readiness Check helps parents see how their child has learned foundational skills needed for success in the next grade. The child answers 3-5 short questions and as part of the results parents get connected to skill-specific videos, activities, and more to support learning at home.
• Readiness Roadmap your interactive guide to help along the way — from knowing how your child is progressing with grade level skills, to how you can support life skills, to starting the college financing process, and more
• Summer Stride gives parents tips and resources to support summer learning in fun and meaningful ways in order to set their child up for success in the following grade.  
• Summer Playbook empowers and equips PTAs and educators to make summers matter in their communities. 
• Start with a Book: Reading Rockets’ after school and summer reading + learning companion site. 24 themes (dinosaurs, detectives, flight, nature, superheroes, stars and planets …) each with recommended fiction and nonfiction books, hands-on activities, educational apps, kid-friendly websites, and more.
• Family Toolkit
• Summer Learning Ideas at Home
• Science Experiments at Home
• Space Rangers was created to guide kids in learning about stars and constellations, the solar system, the Moon, Apollo 11, Mars, and space exploration. Great for families and summer programs, Space Rangers includes five days of hands-on activities matched with book recommendations and summer writing ideas. Celebrate curiosity, our space pioneers, and the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon walk all summer long!
• River Rangers is a toolkit for learning all about water and the rivers and streams in your community. Kids explore 5 big topics: How rivers are formed; river habitats (who lives here?);  people on the river; the water in my cup; and protecting our water through shared books, hands-on activities, writing, educational apps, and local outings.
• Reading Adventure Packs: Theme-based activity toolkits that pair fiction and nonfiction books. Great for sending home with parents or to use to build out activities for literacy nights at school.

• Discuss the expected size of your meeting and decide how many copies of the resources to print.

Recruit Volunteers

Recruit your PTA Summer Learning Listening Session Team, making sure to include teachers and librarians. Assign volunteer roles and gather meeting materials. Tip: Consider partnering with a local high school or business to get non-PTA volunteers so your PTA members can participate fully in the event as attendees.

Suggested volunteer roles:

• Promoters: Have two volunteers get the word out and invite people to your Summer Learning Listening Session
• Host: Have one volunteer secure food/drinks and prizes for the event
• Crew: Have two volunteers set up and clean up the meeting
• Greeter: Have one volunteer greet and thank families as they enter and exit
• Paparazzi: Have one volunteer take pictures and post to social media (Don’t forget to use #PTAProud)

Promote Your Summer Learning Listening Session

Use these customizable templates to promote your Summer Learning Listening Session for parents, families and community members.

Templates

Formal Invitation Template
Ask a Friend Template
Social Media Posts

• Facebook (Pair this post with a photo)
  Summertime is all about camping, swimming and hanging out with friends. Let’s keep up the learning, as well. [Insert PTA] is hosting our final PTA meeting of the year, and we will be talking about ways to combat that pesky summer slide so that your kids come back to school ready to pick up exactly where they left off in June. Join us at [Insert Location] at [Insert Time] to get easy (and fun!) ways to keep your kids learning all year long.

• Instagram (Pair this post with a photo) 
  A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Help your child keep up their math and reading skills throughout the summer months. Join [Insert PTA Name] at [Insert Location] on [Insert Date and Time] to get easy (and fun!) activities to keep your family learning even when school is out.

• Twitter
  A pinch of prevention… Reading a book for even a few minutes each day can help your child combat the dreaded summer slide. Join [Insert PTA Name] at [Insert Location] on [Insert Date and Time] to learn more. #PTAProud

Be sure to  check out the #SummerLearningWeek Social Media Toolkit to promote summer learning during July 8-14th! 

Host Your Summer Learning Listening Session

Before the meeting:

• Make a welcome sign (Add “Welcome” in multiple languages on your sign, if applicable)
• Print all necessary resources and materials from the Summer Stride Toolkit
• Set up food/drinks and prizes

During the meeting:

• Welcome families upon arrival, encourage them to sign in and join your PTA
• Take plenty of pictures to share on social media during and after the event
• Explain the resources to the families and pass out copies for them to take home
• Instruct attendees to take the parent survey

After the meeting:

• Thank families for attending and volunteers for their amazing work
• Hand out prizes
• Clean-up

Wrap-Up

• Send a follow-up email (or other online communication) recapping the meeting and sharing the links to the resources you shared (or others that you missed!)
• Celebrate the end of a great school with your school community and National PTA by using #PTAProud on social media