A Digital Summer Snapshot for Students
My students love sharing about themselves and about their summers when they come back to the classroom each year. 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.
Students will be using their computers to customize one slide of the Google Slides presentation to share about their summer. They’ll add their photo, name, images from the built-in Google Search and text. They’ll be able to decorate their slide with the 16 digital stickers also include in the activity, too.
Don’t get overwhelmed if your students don’t know how to use Google Slides when they come to your class. I show my students very quickly how to insert images and change the font, and they pick it up right away. Kids are amazingly good at picking up tech skills and they LOVE it.
How to Use this Activity to Build Classroom Community
This activity encourages students to share and learn about their classmates.
Quick Guide: How to Share Student Slides
- Project the slideshow and have students present their slide to the class
- Students each have a voice to share something they feel confident about, their summer
- Have students use the comment button to ask questions and get to know
- Print the slides to make a bulletin board, showcasing each student
- Project the slideshow at Back to School Night/Open House
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 and finding out what they have in common about their summers.
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.
If you don’t have time to present each slide, you can also have your students use the Comment button in Google Slides. They can comment on their classmates’ slides, asking questions or talking about what they have in common.
Love the layout of this and the options that it gives students to be creative and share!
