I've been meaning to share this activity since the beginning of school LAST year. Ugghh...I'm the slowest blogger ever. Lucky for me, the first day of school tends to roll around again, so I get another chance to post it!
My friend/fellow teacher/mentor/new neighbor, Ms. Jones, has her kids create this "word picture" of themselves on the first few days of school. Not only is it a great way for the kids to introduce themselves (and keep busy on those wild and crazy first days of school), but the pages also serve as bulletin board material...possibly for the rest of the year!
Time: 2-3 hours
Materials:
- Notebook paper (for brainstorming)
- White copy paper
- Thin markers
- Colored pencils
1. Have students brainstorm a list of as many words as they can think of that could tell something about themselves. The words can be nouns, adjectives, or verbs...as long as they tell about the students interests, values, dreams, family, hobbies, talents, etc. (School appropriate words, of course!)
2. Once the kids have a LONG list of words, they are ready to make their pages. Hand out white copy paper and make sure they have access to markers and colored pencils. The markers are bolder, but the colored pencils allow them to be more artistic.
3. Explain the objective - "Today, class, you will create a page that tells me all about YOU." - or something like that. The student's first name on the page should be prominent. The rest of the page should be filled with words from the brainstorming list. Students should use only WORDS and/or WORD ART. There should be as little white space showing as possible once they've finished. Remind them that these will be displayed for everyone to see, so they need to take their time and be creative with the placement of words on the page.
4. Voila! Now you have a stack of student work to display! You can put them all up at once or hang a few at a time throughout the year...depends how many students and how much space you have.
Here are a couple of examples close-up:
