I have almost made it to the end of week two.
I am still loving my class. They are eager and sweet and excitable and hyper and calm and chatty and quiet . . . and that’s just in the first fifteen minutes of the day. 🙂
I think I’ll keep them.
For homework this week, my team and I kept it light. Last week was gobs and gobs and gobs of paperwork for the parents to fill out and then we (the teacher) have to separate it into seventeen different piles and alphabetize it all and cut off things and unstaple things and it is the worst homework ever in all the land for the teachers, but that’s just my take on the whole thing, and neither here nor there.
So for our first official homework assignment, we always start out with our All About Me books every year.
I got this idea from my good friend, Christina at Mrs. Winter’s Bliss, who gave me permission to put it on TpT as my very first product ever. At the time, Christina was not blogging or putting any of her amazing creations on TpT, but now she is. If you’re not following her, you should. People, she’s good. And she knows what she’s doing. 🙂
So . . . my first blog post about this All About Me book is {HERE}. I was all afraid and embarrassed and nervous and I had no clue what I was doing as far as the whole TpT thing went so it makes for a fun read if you’ve got time.
BUT!
I did (and STILL do) believe in this book and it’s one of my most favorite things to do and something I just can’t give up.
Once all of our books come back and I assemble them,
they’ll go into this basket.
They’re so special, they have their own basket.
And their own storage.
And their own Silhouette Cameo labels.
I KNOW!
My book.
And it’s so fun to read it to them.
They get to know me a little.
And they get to see my expectations for
their first homework assignment.
The parents help their child create the book at home and then I get a volunteer or two to glue the pages to construction paper. I laminate the pages and then get a volunteer or two to cut them out.
GET A VOLUNTEER. Even if it’s a sixth grader.
I do all the binding because I happen to be really good at the binding machine (seriously – ask anyone, it’s practically a gift) and it doesn’t take me any time at all.
Once they are all bound, I share a few books a day (which is HUGE and all I’ll hear is Are you sharing All About Me books today?!!! When? Can we do it now?!). And then once I’ve shared all the books, I put them into a center.
I mentioned this on my other post about these books, but it’s worth saying again.
PUT THEM INTO A CENTER FIRST.
Because if you just put all the books into a basket and put that basket in the class library, you will have a MOB OF CHILDREN climbing over one another to get to the basket. And you might hear cries of But I want to read my book, she has my book, it’s my book, give it to me! or I said I wanted to read Mrs. Oldham’s book, you said I could and now you’re hogging it! or You broke it! All the pages just came apart!
Or, possibly, maybe, I don’t know . . . maybe a bookshelf might tip over.
Just saying.
It’s not like it happened to me.
What?
Stop looking at me like that.
What a wonderful way to get your students writing early in the year. The fact that it is homework makes it so much more special. They can do it with the help of their parents and put a whole lot of thought and care into creating a very nice book of them! Your's is pretty awesome as well and a great model for them to follow. I'm not even going to ask about the bookshelf or the torn book. 🙂
"I am very old" BAHHAHAH #dying
Love this!!! What an awesome idea!
Yet another awesome idea! Thanks for sharing your book. Let's go Dodgers, let's go!!! 🙂
I was looking for a new way to do the All About business this year and tie it into our "Growing Me" aspect. Our last page will be for a baby pic and that ties it all together- perfect. And I love how you are very old… might have to borrow that 🙂 Thanks for post. Kathleen Kidpeople Classroom
Sold! I think this would be great in kindergarten as well! I'm going to try it out. We don't really start homework in kindergarten until the first week of September, so this would be a great supplemental activity to do with families this next week!! Thanks, Kristin! Love it! Linda's Learning Loot
I always read your blog and get so excited when you have a new one! Today I was so excited to see that not only do we both teach first grade, we share a birthday! 🙂 Thanks for keeping it real and spreading encouragement.
I did this activity at the beginning of the year, but we also loved what we did with it at the end of the year, specifically the last week of school. I passed out a book to each student and then played “Scoot” with them with two minutes per book. It was the sweetest culminating activity ever on so many levels. My “newer” students who came after the task was given kept smiling as they learned new things about their friends that they didn’t know and my “old-timers” we’re reading every word out loud and loving that they remembered this and that about each other and tapping each other on the shoulder to show this picture and share a “did you remember when” comment.
So, Kristen, thank you! I LOVED this activity in the beginning of the year and it beautifully wrapped up our year, as well! XOXO!