Summer worksheets & activities
Free, printable summer activities for kindergarten through 5th grade and special education: the beach, the pool, ice cream, fireflies and summer reading. Made for summer school, extended school year and home, with no holidays, so they fit all summer long. Each one opens in a worksheet maker with the Summer theme already chosen — keep our words or type your own, then print.
Color by word & color by number
A summer picture with a word or a math fact in every space. Students read each one and color it by the key, which is quick to check at a glance. Each sheet comes with an answer key.
Game boards
A summer game board with word cards to cut apart, from the sandcastle at START to the palm tree at FINISH. Roll a die, move, then read, spell or use the word you land on. A good fit for summer school centers, small groups and a rainy afternoon at home.
Hands-on & multisensory
Activities students touch, build and move, which help a lot of early readers and many students with disabilities. Ideas for using them are further down the page.
Reading passages & writing prompts
Original summer reading passages for kindergarten through 5th grade, a story and a nonfiction passage for each grade — the sun, seashells, ice pops, fireflies, the tides and watermelons — with comprehension questions and an answer key. Plus story starters, journal prompts and imagination prompts.
Make it hands-on
Sand table letter hunt
Bury the letter tiles in a bin of sand, rice or dried beans with a few seashells. Students dig out a tile, say its sound, and build a word from the summer list on the table. Watch closely with small items.
Summer school and ESY
Use the same kinds of activities students knew during the school year, just with summer words and pictures. The familiar steps help many students, including students with autism, settle into a new summer room or schedule.
Build it before you write it
On a Read it, Make it, Write it sheet, students make each word with letter tiles, playdough, pipe cleaners or building bricks before writing it. Building the word first gives them more ways to remember it.
Make coloring easier
Print color by word sheets at 11 x 17, use dot markers instead of crayons, or have students trace the word before coloring. A student can also point to the crayon while a partner reads the word.
Summer word lists by grade
K–1 · 2nd–3rd grade
Ready-made lists. Click a worksheet to open it with these words, then add, remove or change any of them.
Summer words for K–1
sun, hot, sand, swim, pool, camp, fan, shell, wave, beach
Summer words for 2nd–3rd grade
vacation, sunscreen, sandcastle, seashell, popsicle, firefly, lemonade, swimsuit, sunshine, picnic, ocean, sandals
More summer ideas
- Visual schedule maker — Show the plan for a summer school day, a pool day or a trip.
- Social story maker — Write a short story about summer camp, a new summer classroom or a trip to the beach.
- Learning at home — Our blog post on using the worksheets at home.
Frequently asked questions
Are these summer worksheets free?
Can I use these for summer school, ESY or at home?
Are these about the 4th of July?
Do these work for special education?
Can students do them on a tablet?
If you have questions or concerns, or if you would like to share pictures and ideas about how to use our worksheets,
please contact us at literacyworksheets@gmail.com
Please share this site with others to help us reach as many children as possible!
