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The Important Thing about Me

The Important Thing about Me

Getting to know classmates is an important activity. Students will compile a classroom book filled with fun and illustrative facts about themselves.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Paper

Steps

  • Step 1

    Help each child write a short paragraph beginning with “The important thing about me is.” Type these paragraphs and set them aside.

  • Step 2

    Cut construction paper into the shape of “gingerbread” people, shorts and shoes. Each student will need one gingerbread person, two shorts and four shoes. Save the scraps for later.

  • Step 3

    Cut white paper in the shape of t-shirts. Make enough for each student to have two.

  • Step 4

    Provide each student with Crayola® Washable Watercolors, water, Crayola Watercolor Brushes with Plastic Handles, and two pre-cut “t-shirts.”

  • Step 5

    Instruct the students to create a watercolor version of their favorite shirt. Ask them to try to make the front and back version as close to the original shirt as possible. Allow the watercolor to dry.

  • Step 6

    Give each student a pre-cut “gingerbread” person and a glue stick.

  • Step 7

    Ask the student to pick pre-cut shorts and shoes in a color they would like to match with the shirt they painted.

  • Step 8

    Students glue the shorts, shoes and shirt to their gingerbread cut-outs.

  • Step 9

    Give the students crayons and ask them to create socks and a face on their gingerbread people.

  • Step 10

    Ask students to use the leftover scraps of construction paper for hair and glue them to the heads of their gingerbread people. Encourage the students to rip the scraps into smaller pieces if necessary.

  • Step 11

    Give the student white paper and crayons to create a “floor.” Encourage them to either use found objects of different textures to create a rubbing, or draw grass or carpet themselves.

  • Step 12

    Combine student writings with their gingerbread creations. Glue the gingerbread people to the “floors” created by your students being sure to offset each as you go along to create a “row” of them when you open the book. When finished read the book aloud as a class!

Standards

LA: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened.

LA: With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.

LA: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade level topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

VA: Students will investigate, plan and work through materials and ideas to make works of art and design.

Adaptations

This would be an excellent back-to-school night project. The students could be audio recorded reading their paragraphs!

Use this as extension of reading The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown.

This book could reinforce classroom rules. The title could be “The important things about our classroom.”