How I Spent My Summer Vacation

  Everyone LOVES to share their stories of summer adventure, especially children! Take advantage of their excitement of all things summer to pick up a quick BOY (Beginning Of the Year) writing sample...

    During the first couple of days of school, pick up the book "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" by Mark Teague. This isn't a new book so you can probably find it at your school or local library (although I'd recommend getting one of your own to create a BOY tradition). Or, if you're bent on showing off your tech-savvy side, you can play the story online for your students to enjoy.

  After you've lassoed your students with tales of summer fun, rope them into writing tales of their own! If you teach younger students, work as a class to brainstorm a list of things that students did over the summer. Older students could brainstorm in small groups or individually. 

Use a cowboy theme to match the book...

or use a fun summer themed sheet.

Click on either image to download 

"How I Spent My Summer Vacation" writing sheets.

   Then give your students the reins and let them beginning writing about what they did during summer vacation. I try not to give too much guidance during this writing activity since I'm trying to determine the students' writing abilities. After their story is complete you can ask them to create illustrations to compliment their writing piece if you like.

   When the students finish, I give each one a file folder label to stick on the upper right corner of the page (when I'm prepping my lesson materials, I will print a full page of file folder labels with "BOY Writing Sample" and the date I'm planning to complete the activity). These writing pieces are saved until the end of the year so the kids can see how much they're writing skills have grown from the beginning of school.

Here are some other beginning of the year ideas for you to check out:
Classroom Management With Class Dojo
Ready, Set, Go!
Owl-Fully Cute Open House