How to Prevent the Summer Slide in 4th and 5th Grade (What the Research Actually Says)

Every fall, it happens. You hand back what should be a familiar review activity. You watch your students stare at it. You hear: ‘Wait, did we do this last year?’ And somewhere in your brain, you think about all the progress you watched them make in April.

That’s the summer slide. And it’s not just a feeling, the data is pretty consistent.

A stack of books beside a mug labeled Coffee. Teach. Repeat. Text explains how students lose skills to the summer slide 4th grade and advises reading before sending summer packets to help prevent summer slide upper elementary.

Studies of students in 3rd through 5th grade show that kids lose an average of 20% of their reading gains and up to 27% of their math gains over the summer (NWEA). In math specifically, the research is striking — between 70% and 78% of elementary students experience some degree of math skill loss during summer break (Learner.com). And those losses compound. By the time a student who’s been sliding each summer reaches 5th grade, they can be 2.5 to 3 years behind their peers.

The good news: the slide is not inevitable, and it doesn’t take a full summer curriculum to prevent it.

What you'll find on this page:

Why 4th and 5th Grade Is a Particularly Critical Window

The summer slide affects students across all grades, but the upper elementary years carry specific weight. Research consistently points to the gap between 1st and 5th grade as the period when cumulative summer learning loss creates the longest-lasting academic consequences. If we consider this data, more than two-thirds of the 9th-grade reading achievement gap can be traced to summer learning loss during elementary school.

Put another way: what happens to a 4th grader’s skills this summer doesn’t just affect next September. It affects where they land in middle school.

This is not meant to be alarming — it’s meant to be useful. Because if the elementary years are when the slide matters most, they’re also when prevention is most effective.

Two girls sit at a desk, smiling and writing in a notebook. Text above them reads, 4th & 5th Grade Is Where It Starts... (And Most Teachers Don’t Realize It). Prevent summer slide upper elementary with engaging activities! Classroom shelves and a sign are in the background.

What Actually Prevents Summer Slide in Upper Elementary (And What Doesn’t)

Here’s the honest version of summer slide prevention:

What works

Short, consistent practice — 15 to 20 minutes a day, five days a week, beats two hours on a Sunday by a significant margin. Consistency is the whole game.
Reading six books — research shows that students who read as few as six books over the summer maintain their reading skills. The books don’t need to be hard. They just need to be read. Kids who love reading self-select; kids who don’t need books they can actually finish.
A mix of reading AND math — students (and their families) tend to focus on reading over summer. But math loss is often steeper because families don’t think of math as something to practice at home. A good summer packet addresses both.
Materials kids can use independently — if the activity requires a parent to be actively involved, it won’t happen consistently. Summer practice needs to be something kids can pick up, work through, and put down without needing facilitation.

A young girl sits at a desk, smiling as she writes in a notebook. Text reads, Most summer packets don’t work for summer slide 4th grade… but this does. The difference is simpler than you think. Shelves with books and plants are in the background.

What doesn’t work as well as we’d like

Reading logs alone — logging minutes doesn’t build skills. It just logs minutes. Reading logs are fine as a motivational tool, but they’re not a reading program.
Sending home the same packet for every student — the student reading two years below grade level and the student reading above grade level don’t need the same summer materials. One will struggle and disengage. The other will be bored. Neither outcome is useful.
Anything that feels like punishment — if a kid associates summer work with dread, they won’t do it. And more importantly, they’ll come back to school in September having internalized the idea that learning is something that happens to them against their will. That’s a harder problem to solve than summer slide.

A young boy sits at a desk, bored and resting his head on his hand, with unfinished schoolwork in front of him. Text reads: Why your summer packet gets ignored... (Even by your best students). Learn how to prevent summer slide upper elementary!.

The Differentiation Problem

This is the thing that I think gets underdiscussed in conversations about summer learning: the summer slide doesn’t affect every student in your class the same way. Students who are already behind tend to experience more significant loss. Students with more resources at home — books, enrichment programs, engaged adults — tend to experience less.

A teacher helps two students with schoolwork at a desk. Text reads: One packet = One big problem. Prevent summer slide in upper elementary—your students don’t need the same thing. Icons show different levels, needs, and support. Caption: Personalized learning starts here.

This means a one-size-fits-all summer packet is, by design, not going to serve the students who need it most.

What I recommend — and what I’ve built into my own summer materials — is a packet structured so teachers can assemble it differently for different students. The student who needs fluency practice gets the reading passages and graphic organizers. The student who’s been struggling with math facts gets the flashcards and the math games. The on-grade-level student gets the full packet and a book list.

It’s not complicated. But it means actually thinking about each student for about thirty seconds before you hit print, rather than running 25 copies of the same stack.

What to Include in a Good 4th–5th Grade Summer Packet

Based on both the research and practical experience sending these home and watching what actually comes back in September, a solid upper elementary summer packet should include:

A teacher sits at a desk reviewing papers with colorful binders labeled “Summer Learning,” “Made Simple,” and “Meaningful Practice.” Text reads, “How do you prevent summer slide upper elementary? (Most teachers guess…).”.

High-interest reading passages with comprehension questions — nonfiction tends to work better than fiction for reluctant readers because there’s no plot to lose track of
A book list tailored to the grade — with a variety of genres and reading levels, not just ‘reading level appropriate’ titles
Writing practice that feels purposeful — journal prompts, not grammar worksheets
Math fact practice in a format that’s not flashcards alone — games work, coloring activities work, anything that doesn’t feel like testing works
Skill-building math pages that cover the concepts they’ll need for the next grade level, not just the ones they just finished
A parent letter — families want to help. They just don’t always know what to do or how much is enough. A simple letter removes the guesswork.
A digital resources list — for families who have access, pointing them to Khan Academy or similar tools extends what the packet can do

The Bigger Picture

The summer slide is a real and documented phenomenon. But it’s also one of those areas where a small amount of intentional effort — by teachers in the last week of school and by families over the summer — can make a measurable difference.

You can’t control what happens in your students’ homes once they walk out the door in June. But you can send them out with something good. And something differentiated. And a parent letter that actually explains how to use it.

If you’re looking for a ready-to-use option for 4th and 5th grade, the Print-and-Go Summer Skill Pack covers reading, writing, word work, and math — with a differentiated structure so you can assemble it differently for different students. It includes the parent letter, a digital resources list, and a clickable table of contents so you’re not hunting through 145 pages to find what you need.