In Australia and New Zealand, the school year ends in December and the long summer holidays run into late January or early February. Children write about their plans before the break and recount their holidays when they come back. Every prompt has a choice a child who stayed home can take.
Seven pages. Page 1 is a draw and write page on large lines with a traced starter, "In summer I love", and page 2 a list of three holiday plans to draw and write. Page 3 is a recount in three parts, beginning, middle and end, for the first week back. Page 4 is a how-to in four boxes: build a sandcastle or make a fruit ice block. Page 5 is an opinion organizer: the beach, the pool or the park on a hot day. Page 6 has two postcards to colour, write and cut out, and page 7 is an acrostic poem for SUMMER.
Use pages 1, 2 and 6 in the last week of the year, and pages 3 to 5 when school goes back: the recount is the classic first writing task of the year. Model each organizer with a holiday of your own first. Postcards can go home to a family member or to next year's teacher.
Write a postcard together to a grandparent or a friend, and post it. Talk through the recount before writing: where did we go, what happened, and how did it end?
Summer holiday writing for Australia and New Zealand, for the end of the school year and the first weeks back. Children plan their holidays, recount what they did, explain how to build a sandcastle, give an opinion, write a postcard and write a SUMMER poem.
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