A PreK All About Me theme is a great theme to do in the beginning of the school year. It gives you the opportunity to get to know your students and for them to get to know about each other.
All About Me Craft
For this year’s PreK All About Me theme I knew I wanted to make these paper dolls with my students. I had plenty of these paper dolls from the local Dollar Tree since I have a smaller class this year. My students used crayons for this activity because marker may have smeared as they wrote and I also had purchased a set of the shades of people crayons for students to use in addition to their basic rainbow colors.
I made sure to get students to look at themselves in a mirror before starting this project. I also ask leading questions like, “What parts are on your face?’ and “What colors are you wearing today?” to get them thinking before getting carried away with the process part of coloring and turning their entire doll a single color.
We will save these to put in their portfolios at the end of the year. Families will be able to compare it to the self portrait they will create near graduation time.
Items that may be helpful for this activity:
Easel Activities for About Me and Letter T
Near the entrance of my classroom is my easel. This year our aftercare teachers were kind enough to help replace the background on my felt board with this new black backing. It really makes the Mr. Potato Head pop out when you enter the room. I made the Potato Head myself a few years ago. This year I helped our new teacher made one for her classroom.
On the other side of the easel are letter T words. Each week we have a letter that we focus on as well as doing activities that review other letters. Most of my students mainly played with the magnets without building the words. This is what I expect at the beginning of the year, but it is good to put out various levels of activities to assess where students are at the beginning of the year. Sometimes there are students already ready for this right away in PreK.
I am always looking for the perfect alphabet magnets. Here are a few to check out:
Fine Motor Practice
Last week several students wanted to have a chance to use scissors, so I made sure we had some cutting activities this week. One center had strips of items that began with T or pictures of body parts to snip apart. I added a laminated scissors card to this center to remind students to get their scissors from their supply bin to complete this center. We also completed a Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes activity for a cutting assessment and coloring activity.
I introduced Poke Pins this week as well. I had a couple students who were very interested in this activity. They were not quite clear that they only had to poke the paper, not attempt to poke all the way through both layers of cork and attempt to poke the table. Our assistant was helpful and brought a carpet square to put under the cork to make sure we did not end up with holes in the table.
Potato Heads are generally a hit at the beginning of PreK. I add a bit of challenge to it with the spinner. If students do not use the spinner I do not worry about it at this point in the year. Putting together and taking apart the Potato Head is good fine motor practice by itself.
Sensory Bin Fun
The other PreK teacher and I swapped sensory bins this week. I got the jelly bean colored beans with the funnels and scoops. Students did fairly well keeping the beans in the bin, with just a little practice using the mini broom and dust pan to clean up messes. With all of our extra hand washing I did need to remind students to dry hands very well before heading here or they would end up with jelly bean colored hands.
Letter T Dot Markers
Dot markers are still a hit so I pulled out this new set of letter T dot marker pages. Students did well with a little instruction on picking a color to dot all the Ts and then another color to dot all the letters that were not T. A few students did several of these so creating these was definitely worth my time.
Writing Center Dry Erase Activities
The writing center was all dry erase this week. Students could practice the letter T in both capital and lowercase, write T words, or write their own name (and friend names.) Dry erase is forgiving for PreK students because the marker slides easily and can be erased if mistakes are made.
The name cards have student photos, along with names at the top and empty squares to write the letters in the bottom. Students will use these cards all year at the writing center, especially when they begin to be interested in making cards and pictures for each other.
Circle Time Visuals
My Circle Time area had a few visuals for the week to help us focus.
Our Bible lesson was Jesus Blesses Children from Cross Connections for Early Learners.
I place picture cards from my Alphabet Bundle in a small pocket chart to review words that start with T.
We also do several poems and songs during the week, but choose one to place in the pocket chart for the week. This week was Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. We sang it as well as found the letter T in the poem during the week. Another favorite song is “I Had a Little Turtle” with ASL signs for turtle, bathtub, drink, water, ate, soap, sick, and bubbles. I learned this one many years ago when my daughter was a toddler and we took a Signing with Toddlers class.
You can find some of the books used for our PreK All About Me theme (and letter T) week below:
Lesson Plan and Other Freebies
You can find an All About Me lesson plan here. This plan is based upon last year’s About Me week and is editable.
Find other freebies on my Freebies for PreK Teachers page.
