All About Us

In first grade, we have six science and social studies theme units of study which are: weather, solids and liquids, community helpers, mapping, places in our world (a country study of Mexico), and a life cycles unit where we hatch chicks. We like to kick off the year with a mini-theme called All About Me where we read, write, discuss, and create projects around the topic of ourselves, friendships, and how we are alike, different, and special. We hope to be about finished with these projects by this Thursday so that we have a number of great things to show off at Open House Thursday evening! Below are two slide shows of some of these projects. The first shows kids working on a couple of different All About Me projects, and the second shows photos of our process making self portraits. The self portraits are one of my favorite projects we do in first grade and will hang on our classroom wall all year. We begin by reading a book called, The Colors of Us by Karen Katz and tie into different activities we have done such as math graphs of hair and eye color, and other projects where we have discussed what we look like and how we are similar and different from other people around us. The kids pick a paint color (from the set of Crayola's Multicultural Paints) that they think looks most like their skin tone, then use mirrors to decide on their face shape, hair color, and eye color, and create a collage self portrait over a number of days. These always turn out beautifully and make our classroom feel warmer and more "like us" when they are hung up on the wall! The second slideshow below shows the process and the finished portraits and everyone coming to Open House will be able to see them in person!

Create a slideshow

Here are our portraits all hung on the wall on one side of our classroom!

Here we are making our portraits!

Free slideshow design made with Smilebox