Start of Year Activities - Writing and Class Culture Tasks
This no-prep Back to School ELA resource is ideal for high school students. With 17 creative and skill-based activities across writing, grammar, and classroom connection, this editable and printable digital resource helps you set the tone for the year.
With a mix of personal reflection, narrative writing, goal setting, and collaborative activities, you can help students connect with themselves and each other.
This resource includes:
⭐ 17 standalone start-of-year activities
⭐ A mix of independent and collaborative tasks
⭐ Student-friendly instructions
⭐ Visual templates and prompts to support engagement
⭐ Activities:
- Create a personal mini-zine
- List your Top 5s
- Reflect on a proverb or quote
- Build a character profile based on yourself
- Write two truths and a tall tale
- Interview a classmate and write their profile
- Compare yourself with a partner in a Venn diagram
- Tell a story in just six words
- Shape a real or imagined holiday into a plot
- Write a hook that makes readers want more
- Map your “writing territory”
- Reflect on grammar strengths and goals
- Share what helps you learn best
- Participate in a class culture contract
- Connect with others through a "Find Someone Who... With a Twist" challenge
- Create a literary-themed name card
- Write a poem starting with “This year, we will…”
You and your students will enjoy:
❤️ A mix of reflective, creative, and social tasks
❤️ Easy entry points for writing and discussion
❤️ Low-stress lessons that are flexible and ready to go at any time
Formats:
🖥️ Microsoft PowerPoint, resized to an A4 page. This means your resource:
- Is completely editable.
- Will easily upload to your Google Drive if you prefer the Googley suite.
- Is printable 📃
🖥️ A PDF version of each document.
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Also helpful are these related products:
✅ Writing - Basic Sentence Structure Must-Knows (before you do anything else!)
✅ Who am I? Student profile
✅ Teacher Guide to Teaching a Text
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Sharing/Copying this Resource
Feel free to purchase just one for your department - no need for a copy for each teacher. However:
- Please do NOT share with the school down the road.
- Please do NOT take it with you to a new school.
- Feel free to suggest the website to others - that'd be great!
That's pretty fair I think! Let's help each other out. :)