Book of the Week GIVEAWAY: ME I AM by Jack Prelutsky
We introduced ME I AM yesterday in Joyce’s post: Tips on How to Start and Organize Preschool Portfolios. Yes, we are GIVING AWAY two copies this week. Increase your chances and enter on both posts this week. Leave a comment here and then head back to yesterday’s post to enter again.
Why we love this book: (In case you missed it yesterday)
In celebration of all preschoolers and their unique selves, we like to begin the school year with an All About Me unit. It’s a wonderful way to highlight how we are all alike and all different and how each of us are perfectly made! Me I Am is written in poetry form with repetitive text and rhyming patterns. It shows how different children have unique thoughts, feelings and interests.
Preschool Self Portrait, age 4
Self Portrait, Miss Enigma, age 5
Today I’m taking those portraits one step further with a writing lesson for Kindergarten and First Grade. Many preschoolers are also ready to experiment with writing. You just have to know your children and follow their lead. This is a lesson that is easily adapted to both the homeschool and classroom setting.
Self Portrait Writing Lesson
Kindergarten and First Grade
Supplies:
- ME I AM! by Jack Prelutsky
- white paper
- markers
- small sentence strips cut from 8.5 x 11 paper
- scissors
- small dry erase board optional
Step 1: Read Aloud ME I AM! by Jack Prelutsky
- Invite the children to share the special things they enjoy doing.
- After sharing, explain to the children that they will draw a picture of themselves doing one of their favorite things.
- I knew for certain that Miss Enigma would draw a picture of herself playing with our dog Shadow! I was certain!
- Wrong again. She insisted that she wanted to draw a picture of herself saving a bird like the child in the book.
- Mommy: “But you love playing with Shadow. This is a picture about you and what you love not a picture about the book.”
- Miss Enigma: “I love birds and I want to save a bird. I’m going to draw me with a bird.”
- Mommy: “Great!”
- Why do I bother making assumptions?! When will I learn this lesson?!
Step 2: Cut Apart Sentence Lesson (steps 2 and 3 are interchangeable)
- objectives: letter formation, letter sounds, core words, name, left to right, word spacing, period
- I told Miss Engima we were going to write the sentence: I am ______.
- Miss Enigma wrote the word “I” on her sentence strip.
- On the dry erase board, we listened to the 2 letter sounds in “am“.
- The sound boxes help children put the letter sounds in the correct order.
- On the dry erase board, we had a quick lesson on letter formation.
- I could feel Miss Enigma getting overwhelmed so I wrote the word “am” for her on her strip.
- Miss Enigma wrote her name independently on her sentence strip.
- I cut the strip apart into 3 words.
- Miss Enigma glued the words onto the bottom of her paper in correct order, leaving a finger space between each word.
- This lesson took 5 -10 minutes.
First Grade Adaptation
- Children can write the sentence: I like to _____________.
- This would be an excellent journal entry mini-lesson.
- Journal Writing with First Graders: advanced sound boxes and sentence writing.
Step 3: Draw Self Portrait (steps 2 and 3 are interchangeable)
- I gave Miss Enigma a mirror.
- We discussed the shape of her face and the color of her hair, eyes and skin.
- Miss Enigma drew the outline with a black sharpie.
- I have previously modeled how to draw with a black sharpie.
- Last, she colored in her drawing with markers.
Step 4: Share and Celebrate!
- Display on a bulletin board as Joyce highlighted yesterday.
- Miss Enigma shared with MacGyver, our neighbor, Aunt Joyce, Alyssa, Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa . . .
- Yep, she was proud!
- I will add this drawing to her portfolio to mark the beginning of kindergarten.
Life with Jeannine
We’re GIVING AWAY one copy of ME I AM by Jack Perlutsky.
To enter this contest, just answer the following question in the comments section of this post.
Share something that interest you. What do you like to do? Finish the sentence: I like _________. (Or just say “Hey.” We’re flexible around here.)
The Rules:
One entry per person, please.
No entries after 8:00 pm Central Time, Sunday, September 16, 2012
The winner must be a resident of The United States.
The winner will be selected at random and announced Monday, September 17, 2012. Check back to claim your prize. It might be you!
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turtles.
I like a clean home, chocolate cake, and a good night’s sleep.
I like this lesson! I do self portraits every year with my Kindergarteners and they hang up in our classroom and brighten up our room all year long!!!
Oh how I like COFFEE
I like to watch ballet and other professional dance performances. It doesn’t happen very rarely, but it’s a special treat.
I like reading.
I like acting!
I like waddleeahchaa.com. ( Did I win?) Honestly, I like a cup of tea in the morning, alone, before the others get up.
Yep Tiffany, flatter us and you win! Just joking . . . random.org picks our winners. Come back to today to check if you’re the lucky winner!