Back to School Hopes and Dreams

📝 This post, Hopes and Dreams for the New School Year, was originally published in 2013 and has been updated with new information and resources.

One of my favorite things about the beginning of a new school year is asking students what they hope will happen. First graders have such wonderful, honest answers. They hope to learn to read, do “hard math like my big sister,” go on “a really cool field trip,” or even get homework! Their hopes are simple, genuine, and full of excitement for the year ahead.

Before we ever put pencil to paper, we read This School Year Will Be the Best! by Kay Winters. In the story, students share all the things they hope will happen during the upcoming school year. Some of their hopes are very much like my students’ own, while others are wonderfully over-the-top. The humorous illustrations always have my class laughing, and they help everyone start thinking about their own hopes for the year.

💚 Looking for more first-week read-alouds? You’ll find even more favorites in my collection of back-to-school books.

When we finish reading, we gather together and I ask, “What do you hope will happen this year?

After everyone shares their writing and illustrations, we tuck the pages away until the end of the school year. Months later, we pull them back out, marvel at how much everyone’s writing has grown, and discover which hopes came true. It has become one of my favorite beginning-and-end-of-the-year traditions because it reminds us just how much can happen in one school year.

If you’re looking for a meaningful first writing activity that also becomes a special keepsake at the end of the year, this resource is a wonderful place to start. To make it easy to use with any class, I’ve included three differentiated writing templates: one for students who are ready to draw and share their ideas with pictures, one with a sentence starter for developing writers, and one with writing lines for students who are ready to write independently.

💚 Grab my Hopes and Dreams for the Best School Year Ever from my TpT store here.

What do your students hope will happen this school year? Sharre their hopes (or your favorite responses!) in the comments below. 💚