Are your students coming back to school after a break - or as we say here in Australia 'after the holidays'?
They may like to write a recount of their break, or part of their break.
A recount is a piece of writing in past tense that tells of something that has happened. When I have encouraged students to write a recount I have found that some of them get in a mess trying to record every tiny detail of a 2 week break.
Model for them, by doing some collaborative writing as a class. Show them that they can select one single event from their break and write about that in detail, instead of trying to record a myriad of events from their entire holiday!
Perhaps start with a giant piece of chart paper and brainstorm all the things that students have done. Draw pictures, add detail and adjectives to describe some of them. Select one and show students how to further brainstorm more ideas on this chosen event - who, what, where, when, why etc.
Break the writing down into sessions, completing one part of the process each day.
This writing process chart may also help you!
I have made a fast-prep writing pack with scaffolds for planning, drafting and publishing a 'holiday recount'.
Let's take a little look at the pages includes - you can use all of them or some of them. Perhaps for your youngest learners, just use them for collaborative writing on the board. Let your students write independently with plain paper afterwards.
Remember using all the pages is optional - use your teacher judgement and knowledge of your own students to select the steps in the process best for you today. Sometimes writing can just start and finish with the first draft!
