Mrs. Beers' Language Arts Class: How My Family Spent Our Summer Vacation

The pictures have finally been downloaded from vacation...I still have to get copies to fill the frames in my house, and to send to friends and grandparents, but downloading is a start. With the pictures downloaded, I have been able to create this slideshow on Smilebox. I have posted a few of these on my blog from last year, but this is another way I utilize this awesome resource.

This is the slideshow I plan to share with my new 6th grade students the first day of school. I want them to learn a bit about me as their devoted new teacher, and I am hoping this might spark some thoughts as to what they want to share with me that they did over their summer break. This will be their very first entry in their writer's notebook of the year. If students are able to bring in pictures to add to their writing, I will welcome them. Any tools or resources that students willingly add to their writing is exciting.

Customize your own free slideshow

While some students will see this slideshow and immediately have a mind full of ideas, I know that is not true for all. My plan is to introduce this ABC Brainstorming Organizer to show students one tool that is useful when they are trying to recall as much as possible about a topic. My hope is that by generating as many thoughts about summer, my students will develop a piece, perhaps a narrative, to share their own experiences.