At the beginning of the school year, it’s crucial to establish a welcoming environment where students feel comfortable sharing about themselves. Research shows that positive self-awareness promotes better choices and pro-social behaviors. So, it’s equally important for adults to validate each child’s uniqueness. The ‘All About Me writing project’ is a perfect way to kick off the school year and foster self-awareness in young learners. Using our customizable lesson plan, students can create digital books highlighting their unique personalities and practice personal writing.

Fostering positive self-identity and self-awareness

Children’s positive self-identity is nurtured through recognition and praise of their unique traits. Caregivers should create opportunities for children to showcase their strengths. Fostering self-awareness about their role in the world can contribute to developing pro-social behaviors. This lesson plan suggests various activities to help instill positive self-identity and self-awareness in young children, along with ideas for developing writing skills connected to the Language Arts curriculum.

Activities

Digital Storytelling with WriteReader

• • Personal Pages: Have students create pages in WriteReader, each dedicated to a different aspect of their lives. Pages could include “My Family,” “My Favorite Activities,” “My Hobbies,” “My Dreams,” etc. Encourage students to add pictures and write a few sentences about each topic.
  • Interactive Elements: Integrate audio recordings through the app where students can narrate their stories or share anecdotes. This adds a personal touch and allows them to practice speaking skills.

• • Collaborative Stories: Pair students up to create a “Buddy Book,” where they interview each other and write a page about their partner. This activity promotes listening and empathy.

Creative Art Projects

• • Self-Portraits: Have students draw or paint self-portraits. They can upload these to their WriteReader books as illustrations for their stories or take pictures of their drawings in the app.
  • Vision Boards: Students create digital or physical vision boards that showcase their goals and aspirations for the year. These boards can be incorporated into their WriteReader books as pages about their future dreams.

Interactive Class Activities

• • Show and Tell: Organize a show-and-tell session where students bring an item representing something important about themselves. They can write about the item in their WriteReader book and explain its significance to the class.
  • Merged Classbook: Have each student create a book about themselves, which can then be merged into a single book and displayed as a class book. At the year’s end, students can turn it into a yearbook with everyone’s accomplishments added!

• • Classroom Map: Create a large classroom map where students mark a spot representing their favorite place (e.g., their hometown, a park, or a travel destination). They can write a short description of why it’s special to them and include it in their book.

Technology Integration

• • QR Codes: Generate QR codes that link to students’ WriteReader books. Display these codes around the classroom or school so that peers and parents can scan and read each other’s stories.
  • Flipgrid Videos: Using Flipgrid, have students create short “All About Me” videos. They can introduce themselves and share fun facts. Embed the Flipgrid links in their WriteReader books for an interactive experience.

Sharing the learning

After the students have written their books, you can print or share them digitally. This can be done through a digital presentation or a gallery walk where students can read and comment on each other’s books. Children can engage in shared reading with other students and adults.

If you decide to print the WriteReader books, you can place them in book bins for read-to-self times or as an option for home reading. A third option is to create a binder with QR codes. Students can use iPads to scan these codes to read each other’s books over and over.

Extension activities

Encourage students to share their WriteReader books with their families and invite family members to leave comments or contribute to the stories. You can also make the “All About Me” books a living project where students can add new pages throughout the year as they grow and experience new things.

Customization and growth

Similar to our other lesson plans, this one is customizable. First, download the plan to your computer and input relevant information within the fillable fields, such as regional standards, modifications, and assessments. Speaking, reading, and writing offer abundant opportunities to aid a child in developing positive self-identity and self-awareness. We hope your young learners will enjoy learning and creating their “All About Me” books while advancing their social-emotional skills!