Lesson Idea | All About Me Book for 1st and 2nd Grade

Provider: Big Heart World

Explore Identity With Students

Many teachers choose to start the school year with an “All About Me” lesson because it helps us to get to know the students and helps children get to know one another. But All About Me can be a great lesson for any time of year because it supports children’s identity development as they reflect on who they are.

What matters to each child? What makes him or her special? What are his or her super skills?

Developing a strong sense of self helps children become confident and become more open to other people. You can help your students explore their identity through play, caring, and conversation.

A handmade “Book about Me” sounds simple, but it can be a powerful tool to help children understand, reflect on, and talk with confidence about their identity (and much more!).

This activity can be done over several days (or weeks), bit by bit until the books are ready. Consider having a class “publishing party” to share the books once they’re ready. For younger children, this can be a small group activity. Older children can work in small groups or independently.

Quick Tips for Educators

- Keep students’ All About Me books in a special place in your classroom for children to look through and share all year.
- Consider doing this activity twice in the school year — once in the fall and again in the spring to see how they’ve grown and changed.
- All About Me books also make a great memento to send home to families at the end of the year.
- Making books by hand, rather than printing out a template, reinforces literacy skills, boosts self-confidence, and teaches students that they don’t have to rely on others to get what they need — we can make things ourselves!

All About Me Book (for 1st and 2nd Grade) Instructions

Give students ideas for what to include on each page:
1. This is what I looked like when I was a baby.
2.This is what I look like now.
3. Here is a self portrait that I drew.
4. This is my family.
5. This what my hands/feet/hair/back look(s) like.
6. My favorite thing to do at home is _______.
7. My favorite thing to do at school is ________.
8. This is my favorite color __________.
9. My favorite foods are ___________.
10. I like to wear ______.
11. I love _____.
12. I am really good at _________.
13. Here are three surprising things about me!

Ask students to write and draw on each page of the book, using one of the prompts or his/her own ideas.
1. Students can glue photos into their books.
2. Students can also cut images from magazines to include.

At the end, each student can create a cover with a title and his/her name.

Give students the option of sharing pages of their books with their classmates to help introduce themselves to their peers.

Vocabulary

Body - the physical shape of a person (be sure to name body parts!)
Your - belonging to you
Favorite - best-liked

Big Heart World has a coloring book version of this activity, which you can suggest to families as a take-home activity.