One of the best parts about Wixie may be that students can use it over the summer if they have access to a computer or tablet. Most districts don't switch to new school year log ins until later in the summer and most existing student log ins remain in place until that time.
While students who are going to log in to write, draw, and create over the summer may not need help with ideas, you can encourage others by assigning templates like scrapbooks and goals to spark ideas.
Here are a few Wixie project ideas to help your students remember this year (if you are still in school!), look forward to next year, think about summer, and keep writing even if/when school is out.
Class Memory Book
I still remember when my son received his memory book from his Kindergarten teacher chronicling the activities they did as a class as well as his individual work. Instead of doing all that work yourself, have students help you out and construct one as a class.
Wixie favorite memory template
Search for "favorite" or browse the May and June folders in the Month-by-Month folder in the Curriculum Library and assign the My Favorite Memory template. Ask each student to create a page about their favorite event and combine pages to create a class book you can share online or in PDF form
Many of the Common Core Writing standards in primary and elementary grades focus on students recalling information and narrating events from experience as well as putting them in the order they occurred. Use the microphone tool to have students practice Speaking and Listening standards where they must "report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience..."
Goal setting
Wixie includes a range of templates you can use to help students set goals for the summer.
If you are concerned about the summer slide, setting reading goals can help students commit to the number of hours or books they will read this summer. You could also have them choose specific titles to make their goal more personal and likely! This is a great page to print and attach to a list of personalized summer reading ideas.
You could also encourage them to set goals to try something new or practice something that isn't their forte. For example, students might commit to reading a new genre of book, practicing a sport they aren't good at, drawing something they see in nature, playing nicely with a sibling, or even helping out with tasks at home.
Advice to next year's students
Students want to do important work and work that matters beyond their immediate classroom, so ask your learners to create a page of advice for next year's incoming students.
For a great literature tie-in, use the pattern found in the Important Book, by Margaret Wise Brown. For example:
The important thing about 2nd grade is that you... You also get to... And you get to... But the important thing about 2nd grade is that you...(repeat line 1)
Print and bind student work to read to your class next year and add to your classroom library. You can also combine student pages and embed the Wixie project into your classroom web page to welcome new students in the fall. (Go to the File menu and choose Share to find code the embed code for the project.)
If you are working with emergent readers and writers, this is a great start to helping them meet Kindergarten Common Core Writing Standard 2: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.
Book Reviews
Wixie also contains several templates for book reviews. To connect students with stories they will love, ask your learners to review their favorite book for other students. If your students have committed to reading this summer, you could also ask them to show off with a book review.
Post these to your classroom web page to provide new ideas for reading that students can refer to over the summer.
Post cards or stories from summer vacation
It is common to talk about what we did or where we went when we get back to school. But if your students have access to Wixie, they can make these postcards and send them to you over the summer. Have them import a picture they took on vacation and write about their trip. If you have budding writers, have them write and illustrate an actual event or story from their imagination.
If you log in to your teacher account, you can even explore student projects over the summer and leave comments, continuing your connection to your students into next year.
Have a great summer!
