Nothing quite compares to that feeling of accomplishment at the end of every school year.

You tirelessly deliver skill-building content to students every day — and as the year wraps up, you get to see all your hard work paid off. Students’ growth and progress are rewarding, both for them and for you as their teacher.

So, why do students seem underprepared when they return the following school year?

This common challenge has been dubbed the “summer slide.” Despite students' achievements during the school year, many teachers find that students return in the fall underprepared, having forgotten some of what they learned. 

One study on summer learning loss found that over the summer, students lost an average of nearly 40% on their school year gains — especially in math.

This challenge has become even more pronounced in recent years, as students who have used online and hybrid learning may require extra math practice to solidify their skills.

The good news is that learning doesn’t have to stop when the school year does! Prodigy is here to help all year around. 

Prodigy Math Game provides students with a fun, gamified environment to practice and maintain their math skills all summer long. By keeping students engaged and motivated, Prodigy helps encourage summer learning and improve students’ math skills.

“During the summer, I want my students to keep practicing math skills. It takes a fun, gamified environment to help them want to do so. Prodigy provides that! By keeping students motivated, Prodigy encourages summer math practice and prevents the dreaded summer slide.”Melissa H., teacher

Here’s how you can use Prodigy to encourage summer learning in four easy steps:

Setting up summer math practice with Prodigy begins with making sure parents are informed and ready to support their child’s learning at home. Parent involvement can make a huge difference in keeping students engaged, and Prodigy makes it easy to keep parents in the loop about what their child should be working on. 

By sending home Prodigy parent letters before summer, you’re giving parents all the information they need to encourage daily practice and track their child’s progress through fun, personalized reports.

Prodigy provides two quick options to make this process simple. You can either:

1. Download a set of customized parent letters with student login information for easy printing or emailing. 
2. Send parent emails inviting them to sign up for a free Prodigy parent account right from your teacher dashboard.

To print off parent letters you should:

1. Log in to your Prodigy teacher account.
2. Select a classroom and go to your Students tab
3. Select Get Parent Letters to download PDF letters in English or Spanish

Or to send invites via email, you should

1. Log in to your Prodigy teacher account.
2. Select a classroom and go to your Students tab
3. Select Invite Parents and enter parent email addresses for each student without a parent already attached.

When parents join Prodigy, they’ll get access to a monthly report card of their child’s progress. Plus they’ll see more ways to motivate and reward at-home math practice. They will know exactly where their child is at and be more likely to encourage regular math practice throughout the summer. 

Getting parents set up with Prodigy is a great way to make sure classroom learning is connected with at-home play all summer long.

If you’re new to Prodigy, creating a free teacher account takes just a few minutes. Simply sign up, set up your classroom and get ready to inspire summer learning for your students. 

Parent involvement makes all the difference in sustaining student progress, and Prodigy is designed to connect learning in the classroom to at-home play seamlessly! 

Before summer begins, take a moment to review your students' progress to see where they stand in terms of grade-level math skills. 

Prodigy’s Progress Report offers a detailed breakdown of student performance by grade level and strand content, showing you exactly where each student excels and where they may need a little extra support. The Progress Report gives a full breakdown on how students are performing in each math domain. 

To find this report, select your classroom, go to your Reports tab and choose the Progress report. 

With this insight, you can decide which skills your students will need to practice more over the summer. You can then make it clear for parents which skills that need to be practiced often throughout the summer. 

With you and your students’ parents working as a team, your students will be set up for success as they transition to the next grade level.

The Assignments tool lets you create a summer schedule for your students, choosing which math skills they’ll be practicing when they log into Prodigy at home, or even when traveling on summer vacations!

Within your classroom, go to the Assignments tool. At the top of your screen, click the Create Assignment button. Here you’ll find a list of age-appropriate skills that you might want your students to work on. 

Choose a skill goal. We’ll tell you how long it should take for students to hit these goals with varied amounts of time playing Prodigy per day. Then you can choose an appropriate date range for students to complete the skill based on how much you expect them to play Prodigy.

You can set up multiple assignments for the various skills that you want your students to practice throughout the summer. You can make lots of Assignments in advance, even planning out the entire summer if you’d like. Or you can add new assignments as the months go on. 

You can feel confident knowing students will work on important math skills throughout the summer instead of forgetting what they learned in your classroom. And when fall arrives, they’ll be ready for the new school year! 

Once your Assignments are ready, make sure students look forward to playing all summer by hyping up the Prodigy's in-game festival, Summerfest!

Summerfest will include tons of fun summer-festival themed features to keep kids engaged for hours, plus exclusive new items they'll only be able to collect during Summerfest! As soon as it launches, students get automatic access when they log in to play.

Tell your class to stay tuned for summer decor, new summer items and much more! Summerfest brings a whole new level of fun to the game that students won’t want to miss.

Make This Summer Great With Prodigy

Summer can be a time of growth and exploration. With Prodigy Math, it’s also a chance for students to retain and build upon the math skills they've gained throughout the year. 

By providing students with a fun, game-based learning platform they can access anytime, you’re setting them up for a smoother transition into the new school year. 

Prodigy helps combat the effects of summer learning loss by keeping students actively engaged in math practice that feels like play, ensuring they’re ready to hit the ground running in the fall.

With Prodigy’s free teacher tools, you can equip parents with easy-to-use resources that support ongoing learning at home, plus track student progress so everyone is in the loop. 

Create your Prodigy account today to begin fostering a summer of continuous learning and growth for your students. Whether you're an experienced Prodigy user or new to the platform, the tools are designed to help you make a lasting impact on your students' educational journey.