The summer solstice marks the longest day of the year and the start of summer. It’s also a timely way to keep students curious and engaged as the school year winds down.
[Summer solstice STEM activities](id-sci)
Key Takeaways
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Start with the science of solstices. Use Earth’s rotation, revolution, and tilt to help students understand why seasons change.
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Make seasonal learning hands-on. Ice cream and fizzy lemonade activities connect summer fun to chemical changes and reactions.
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Extend the lesson with data and climate connections. Sunlight hours, seasons, and climate resources help students apply what they learn across grade levels.
Help students connect the summer solstice to Earth’s movement, seasons, sunlight, and weather patterns. These STEM activities make the science behind the longest day of the year easier to see, discuss, and apply.
Teach the science behind solstices and seasons
Teaching the summer solstice helps students understand why seasons change. Start with the basic ideas of Earth’s tilt, orbit, and sunlight hours. Ask students what they notice about the length of summer days and when the season happens across the globe.
Students can read, watch, or compare resources to answer questions about the causes of a solstice, how the Northern and Southern hemispheres differ, and why the Earth’s tilt matters more than its distance from the sun.
Seasonal STEM projects to celebrate summer
Summer is a great time to connect science concepts to activities students already recognize, like making ice cream or mixing a cold drink. These seasonal STEM projects help students explore chemical changes, freezing points, mixtures, and reactions through hands-on learning.
Use these activities before summer break, during summer school, or any time you want students to see how science shows up in everyday routines. Each project works well as a standalone activity or as part of a larger lesson on physical and chemical changes.
Make your own ice cream
What do you do when students are craving a summer treat, and you want to keep science learning going? Make ice cream in a bag!
This activity helps students explore freezing points, chemical change, and physical change. Students can see how salt lowers the freezing point of ice, which helps chill the mixture enough to turn it into ice cream.
Before students start, set up the materials so each group has one large bag, one small bag, ice, salt, and the ice cream ingredients. Keep towels nearby to make shaking the bags easier and less messy.
You can also pre-measure the half-and-half, sugar, vanilla, salt, and ice to save time. That helps students focus on the science rather than the prep work for the experiment.
Ice cream activity materials
Gather these supplies before students start making their own ice cream in a bag.
Gallon-size resealable freezer bag
Quart-size resealable freezer bag
6 tablespoons kosher salt
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Newsela Knack
Have students wear gloves or wrap the bag in a towel while they shake it. The ice and salt mixture gets cold fast.
Students can work in small groups to complete the activity. As they follow the steps, have them pause to observe what changes and what stays the same. Then, ask them to explain whether they noticed a physical change, a chemical change, or both.
Ice cream STEM lab workflow
Students move through this hands-on workflow to mix, chill, shake, observe, and explain how salt changes the freezing point of ice.
1
Mix
Build the base
Pour the half & half, sugar, and vanilla extract into the quart-size freezer bag.
2
Seal
Prevent leaks
Seal the small bag tightly. Press out extra air and check the closure before moving on.
3
Chill
Create the cold zone
Add crushed ice and kosher salt to the gallon-size freezer bag.
4
Nest
Combine the bags
Place the sealed small bag inside the large bag with the ice and salt.
5
Shake
Watch texture change
Seal the large bag, wrap it in a towel, and shake until the mixture thickens.
6
Observe
Collect evidence
Remove the small bag, wipe off the salt water, and describe the final texture.
Science check
How did adding salt to the ice change what happened to the ice cream mixture?
Evidence prompt
Use one observation from the activity to explain whether the change was physical, chemical, or both.
Try a fizzy lemonade recipe
Fizzy lemonade is another summer-ready activity that helps students see chemical reactions in action. When lemon juice and baking soda are mixed with water, they produce carbon dioxide gas. Students can see that reaction as bubbles form in the lemonade.
Use this activity to connect a familiar summer drink to science vocabulary like mixture, chemical reaction, carbon dioxide, and gas.
Set up the materials so students can mix the lemonade safely and observe the reaction right away. The baking soda is what creates the fizz, so keep it separate until students are ready to test and observe.
Fizzy lemonade activity materials
Gather these supplies before students create and observe their fizzy lemonade reaction.
Newsela Knack
Have students add the baking soda last so they can observe the fizz as soon as the reaction begins.
After students mix the drink, have them focus on what they can see and explain. The bubbles are evidence that a gas formed. That gives students a concrete way to connect a summer activity to chemical reactions.
Fizzy lemonade STEM lab workflow
Students move through this workflow to mix, react, observe, and explain how lemon juice and baking soda create fizz.
1
Prep
Start with the pitcher
Add ice to the large pitcher so the lemonade is ready to chill.
2
Mix
Make the lemonade base
Pour in lemon juice, water, and sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves.
3
React
Add the baking soda
Add baking soda last, then watch closely as bubbles start to form.
4
Observe
Look for evidence
Describe what changed after the baking soda mixed with the lemon juice.
5
Explain
Connect to science
Explain how the bubbles show that a gas formed during the reaction.
Science check
What evidence shows that a chemical reaction happened?
Evidence prompt
Use your observations to explain how the ingredients changed after you added baking soda.
Add more STEM lessons for the first day of summer
Use these Newsela STEM text sets to extend your summer solstice activities beyond a single lesson. Students can explore seasons, climate, sunlight hours, and the way major natural events can affect Earth’s systems.
These resources work well for small-group reading, data exploration, or end-of-year STEM stations.
[Summer solstice ELA activities](id-ela)
Key Takeaways
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Use summer fiction to teach story elements. Students can analyze setting, conflict, plot structure, and character response in a seasonal short story.
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Pair poetry with seasonal reflection. Summer poems help students practice theme, imagery, figurative language, and mood.
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Extend reading into writing. Students can write a short story or personal narrative about their own summer traditions.
Use summer solstice activities in ELA to help students explore seasonal themes, story elements, poetry, and personal writing. These texts give students a timely way to connect summer experiences with close reading, discussion, and creative response.
Teach about story elements using “Summer with Papaji”
Use “Summer with Papaji” to turn a summer-themed fiction text into a focused lesson on story structure. Students can read for meaning first, then use a plot diagram to track how the setting, conflict, climax, and resolution work together.
This lesson also gives students a natural connection from reading to writing. After analyzing the story, they can use the same organizer to plan a short story or personal narrative about a summer memory, tradition, or experience.
Mini lesson plan: Teach story elements with “Summer with Papaji”
Use this quick ELA lesson to help students connect summer experiences to story structure, text evidence, and narrative writing.
Before reading
Ask students to reflect on summer activities they look forward to, what makes summer feel special, and someone in their life they admire.
First read
Have students read “Summer with Papaji” and annotate key details about the characters, setting, and important events. Then, ask them to summarize the story using this frame: ___ wanted to ___, but ___, so ___.
Second read
Students reread the story to identify the setting, rising action, conflict, climax, falling action, and resolution. They can record their thinking on a plot diagram.
Discussion
- How does the setting affect the story?
- What is the conflict, and how do the characters respond to it?
- What do we learn about the characters from the conflict?
- How does the falling action lead to the resolution?
Extension
Have students write a short story or personal narrative about a summer tradition, memory, or activity that matters to them. They can plan their writing with the same plot diagram they used to analyze the story.
Explore summer poetry
Poetry gives students another way to study the season. Use summer poems to help students notice imagery, mood, theme, figurative language, and word choice.
Students can read one poem closely or compare two poems about summer. Ask them to look for details that show how the poet feels about the season, then have them explain how specific words or images shape that feeling.
[Summer solstice social studies activities](id-ss)
Key Takeaways
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Connect seasons to everyday life. Students can explore how summer changes routines, activities, food access, jobs, and community experiences.
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Use the solstice to build background knowledge. Students can learn why summer begins with the June solstice and how nature changes during the season.
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Extend learning with personal planning. Students can use what they read to plan a dream summer activity or vacation with clear details.
Help students explore the summer solstice as both a seasonal event and a cultural moment. These social studies activities invite students to think about how summer affects daily life, traditions, community needs, work, food, and the way people experience the season.
Use these social studies resources for the first day of summer
Start with a mix of resources that help students see summer from different angles. Some texts explain the solstice and seasons, while others show how summer affects communities, food access, culture, and work.
Use the table to choose resources by grade level, format, or Spanish availability
Turn the resources into a summer social studies lesson
After students choose texts, guide them through a simple lesson sequence that moves from discussion to close reading to text-based responses. The goal is to help students explain how summer changes both the natural world and people’s choices.
The lesson plan works best when students read two texts: One about seasons or the solstice and one about community, food, work, or culture.
Mini lesson plan: How summer shapes communities
Use this lesson structure to help students connect the first day of summer to seasonal changes, community life, and text-based discussion.
Discussion starter
- What are seasons?
- How does summer differ from other seasons?
- What do you look forward to in the summer?
Text selection
Have students choose two texts from the resource table. Pair one text about seasons or the solstice with one text about community, food, work, or culture.
Reading task
As students read, have them highlight details about why we have seasons in one color. In another color, have them highlight facts about summer that are new or surprising.
Text evidence
- How does Earth’s position around the sun affect the seasons?
- What changes occur in nature during summer?
- How do those changes affect what people do during summer?
Extension
Ask students to plan a dream summer activity or vacation. They should include where they would go, what they would do, who they would go with, and how summer shapes their plan.
Bring the season into your lessons with Newsela
The summer solstice is more than just the first day of summer. It’s a chance to help students explore science, literature, culture, communities, and seasonal change. With Newsela, you can turn seasonal moments into meaningful instruction with ready-to-use texts, videos, activities, and differentiated resources across subjects.
If you’re not a Newsela customer yet, sign up for an account and get a 45-day free trial of all our premium and differentiated content and activities to plan more engaging lessons for summer and beyond.
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