Back to School: My Summer Reflection and Goal Setting for 2023-2024 and beyond!

Here's a great first-week activity for your elementary students. They reflect on what they did over the summer, set some goals for the year, and have the option to illustrate their summer activities or draw a self portrait.

This could be an easy way for students to introduce themselves to one another, and hanging all of these around your classroom could make a beautiful display!

***This product looks best when printed in colour***

How to Use:

Once you students have played some ice breaker games, learned the class rules and routines, and met one another, you can start to ask them to think about what they did over the summer. Remind your students this does not just include trips and travelling! Helping their parents in the vegetable garden, finding shells at the beach, reading a new book from the library, or teaching a younger sibling to ride a bike are all amazing summer memories. The coolest thing they saw could have been a shooting star, a beautiful flower, or an amazing float in a summer parade. This activity should not be about comparing who went on the fanciest trip.

Then, spend some time talking about goal setting. You can mention SMART goals: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Maybe one or two goals should be about curriculum and one should be social. Help your students start to think of meaningful goals.

(Have your students write the school year ex: 2023-2024 at the top of each page.)

Grades to Use With:

This printable works well in grades 2-6 or in special education classrooms.

What's Included:

2 Page PDF: One page for goal setting and summer reflection and one for a picture/collage. Choose to print one or both.

If you enjoy this first week activity, check out some of my other year-long/routine options:

5 Minute Games Bundle

WORLDLE: Country of the Day

8 Low-Prep STEM Tasks for Elementary Classrooms

Morning Work Homeroom Warm-Ups