Waverly Holds Parent Workshop to Prevent "Summer Slide"

The end of the school year is right around the corner, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a stop to the education and growth of Eastchester students. 

On Tuesday, June 17, Waverly staff held an after-school workshop for parents looking for ways to support the learning that has occurred over the last 10 months, offering tips, tricks and strategies to ensure that students’ summer breaks are filled not only with fun and rest, but also unique opportunities to reinforce the important skills that youngsters are acquiring in the classroom.

The event is aimed at helping parents keep children’s minds active through play, a crucial aspect of the development of their young minds and one that prevents the “Summer Slide,” a regression of academic skills that can sometimes be seen in children after long breaks in the school schedule.

“It is a way to help parents keep their children engaged over the summer and continue to keep the academic progress going, because parents are such a vital part of their children’s education as a whole, and it’s really important for them to understand that learning occurs through hands-on activities, through play,” said Waverly kindergarten teacher Nicole Ullrich. “Children don’t need to be doing worksheets constantly; through everyday tasks and play, we can see organic advances that help them continue to grow.”

The event, which was open to parents of students currently in grades K-1, provided a brief overview of the skills students should have acquired by the end of the current school year, as well as a summer calendar filled with suggested daily activities—including story-writing, map-drawing and graph-making, among others—that can help students to strengthen those skills even outside of the classroom setting.

Parents also had an opportunity to hear from Waverly educators on how to focus on specific content areas—from ELA and Physical Education to STEM and Art—through simple, creative and fun summer activities.

Waverly Principal Caitlin Mondelli explained that Tuesday's workshop not only provided parents with a rough blueprint for keeping youngsters’ minds sharp over the summer months, it also demonstrated how Waverly’s dedication to the growth of its students extends beyond the classroom walls.

"It's so important to have workshops like this, because the more we reach out to families and the larger community, the more we strengthen those partnerships," said Mondelli. "We are grateful to be able to provide this type of workshop and we're very lucky to have a community of parents who work with our teachers to support their kids at home."

Ullrich added the afternoon was a success, and one that she hopes will become a staple of Waverly’s send-off into summer moving forward.

“It was a really positive event, a nice way to end the year, and something I think we should bring back,” said Ullrich. “It’s just a way to connect parents with the curriculum that we work on throughout the year.”