Yahoo! Congratulations to all – students, teachers, administrators, parents, librarians, program providers, early educators – for navigating through the school year. While this list barely scratches the surface of those contributing to keeping our children healthy and learning, CLiF recognizes that the shift to summer comes with new challenges and opportunities for the same network of caring adults. CLiF looks forward to bringing our Summer Readers programs to out-of-school-time providers in VT and NH; this new report explores the unique, differentiated role out-of-school time (OST) programs play in youth development compared with home and school, how parents assess those programs, and the impact of COVID-19 for summer 2021. This report describes why summer programs are more important than ever in 2021 and another on why kids need real face time. CLiF hopes the summer allows kids and adults some well-earned relaxing, important play time, and space for creatively reinforcing for that reading and learning are fun.

SUMMER IDEAS

• Design a summer literacy challenge; check out Save the Children’s 100 Days of Reading and Scholastic for more ideas
• Summer bingo cards, book recommendations, and tips for engaging with kids of all ages
• Encourage reluctant and struggling readers by introducing them to these different formats, such as magazines, graphic novels, and audio books. Ask your local library for help!
• Animal ideas to tie to Summer Reading theme – Tails and Tales
• Marek Bennett’s COMICS WORKSHOP 2021 Summer Reading Program: all programs virtual this summer
• PBS Kids Summer of Possibilities, which provides children with opportunities to play and learn through hands-on activities, games, and tips that support literacy, math, science, and life skills. Visit the new Vermont PBS Kids and Education and NH PBS pages to find more online and printable resources for summer learning. 
• Recorded summer read-alouds and read-alouds read by the author

FOR EVERYONE

• Register for CLiF presenter Karen Gross‘s webinar on June 19, noon (EST): How to Reopen Schools Optimally in the Fall: Planning, Preparing, and Predicting. Reopening schools/organizations/non-profits/governments/businesses come fall will not be easy. Some take-away strategies for successful reopenings are addressed.
• The Yale Child Study Center & Scholastic Collaborative for Child and Family Resilience have resources for helping kids understand their feelings about COVID
• New program option coming to Vermont: Two Right Feet Arts creates highly interactive learning programs for children to explore reading, literacy and language through music, motion, and books
• Being There for Nonbinary Youth discusses the story of a transgender student and what educators can do to support their gender nonconforming students. Learning for Justice put together a toolkit that synthesizes the key points of the article and offers a collection of online resources educators can use to support transgender students. 
• Book list by age to help form connections
• Engage San Francisco Literacy as a model for year-round tutoring and support
• Using memorabilia to get story ideas
• Why reading comprehension is declining

FOR TEACHERS

• Thinking ahead? – 8 checks to see if learners come first
• App to build equitable parental access to tools to engage in children’s learning
• The Power of Student Voice and Choice in Literacy Instruction
• It’s time for Vermont Agency of Education’s  annual Summer Reading Club! Each week, read one of the short (10 minutes or less!) blog posts filled with new ideas, perspectives, and practices from brilliant educators that will prepare you for next school year. This year, each blog post is paired with a discussion prompt or question.
• Tricia Ebarvia: How Inclusive Is Your Literacy Classroom Really? – This resource includes eight questions educators can ask themselves in order to evaluate the authenticity of their efforts toward inclusivity
• Screening for Biased Content in Instructional Materials – This tool from the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction helps educators evaluate texts and other resources for biased content

FOR LIBRARIANS

• Framing the future with strategic planning
• WIRED’s Recommended reading list for kids and teens
• 23 creative ideas for displays and programs at your library

FOR PARENTS

• Books to read together with your tween and how to keep them reading this summer
• Reducing screen time with “sacred time” test
• Help kids with their summer reading requirements
• Books on mindfulness for the whole family
• Stash books around your house to encourage reading

FOR EARLY EDUCATORS

• Using apps to improve conversation and learning from language in children under 4
• New study on how infants process multi-word sequences
• Preschool author studies to build understanding of self and others