My Favorite Back to School Activity
Every year I start with this digital “All About Me Book” alternative. I love this one. It’s engaging and helps me really learn about my new students. Favorite colors and favorite foods are fun, but I want to know what makes my students happy, what makes them smile, what they feel their strengths are, and help them think about what they want to improve on.
My students are always instantly engaged with this activity. They love taking their photos and finding images to insert using the built-in Google Search. It’s always a great way to teach my students those basic Google Slides skills at the beginning of the year. And guess what? Those computer skills stick, FAST, because well, kids are amazing like that.
How to Use this Activity to Build Classroom Community
This activity encourages students to share and learn about their classmates. They're not just creating an All About Me Book for themselves.
What do you do after students customize their slide? After students have finished their slide, we take time for each student to present their slide to the class. The beginning of the year is such an important time to build our class community and learn each about other. Students love sharing about themselves and listening to their new friends, finding out what they have in common, hearing that other students have things they want to improve, too.
Because this activity is digital, students can complete it in class or virtually. You can easily assign the activity through Google Classroom and give each student a slide number to customize.
To present their slides virtually, just share the Slides presentation from your screen in a Zoom or Google Meet. Invite each student to present their slide.
If you’re in class, project the presentation on your interactive whiteboard, gathering the students together to listen to their classmates.
I love coming together as a class to also talk about the goals we have for the year. We jot them down on the included slide as students help co-create the list.
Each student will customize their slide with:
- Name
- Photo (using the built-in camera or picture saved on their computer)
- 3 words that describe them
- Strengths
- What they will work hard to improve
- What makes them smile
- Their happy place
TIP: You can customize the cover of the slideshow with a class photo of your own as well as personalize a slide for the teachers. When it’s finished, project the slideshow for your students to learn about each other and even share it at Back to School Night with parents. You can print the slides and make a hard-copy book for the classroom library or make a bulletin board display.
My students are loving this slideshow. I’ve been introducing them to google docs and google slides and they are so proud of all they are learning. They are so excited to have this playing at open house.
Elizabeth, Teacher
I am using this in our distance learning classroom as an interactive, collaborate way for us to get to know each other! It is very user-friendly.
Sabrina, 5th Grade Teacher
This All About Me resource was a great way for my students to get to know each other at the beginning of the year! It was very easy to use with little to no prep, and my students really enjoyed sharing information about themselves. I look forward to using this for years to come.
Melissa, 5th Grade Teacher
What a great product! It was perfect for my 3rd and 4th grade Computer students. I just added it to Google Classroom and the lesson was ready. The directions were very thorough and helpful. Thanks!
Sherida, 3/4 Grade Teacher
This was a GREAT way to start off the year and a good item to hang in my hallway for Open House! Love it!
Lauren, Teacher
This was PERFECT for my kiddos to get use to Google Classroom and using Google Slides. I really enjoyed it and the kids loved presenting their slide.
