In Kindergarten A this year we have been focusing on things that make each of us unique! We recognize how we are similar and different from our peers and we have been finding a variety of things that we love about ourselves both on the inside and on the outside.

Studying “I Am Unique” in the curriculum, we decided to take this further by reading the story, “I Like Myself” by Karen Beaumont.

This book is one of my absolute favourites! It is a fun rhyming book with hilarious illustrations that pair with the words in unique ways! The words in this book are so powerful for both children and adults, I highly recommend you give it a read!

A few of my favourite pages from the book are:

And my absolute favourite quote from the book is:

I love reading this story to my students and talking about how special each of them are and discovering what makes them unique individuals inside and out.

From reading this story, we chose to create self-portraits with added words that express something that we love about ourselves on the outside and something from the inside. We did a guided drawing for this, encouraging children to add all the details that they see in themselves such as birth marks, hairstyles, long or short eyelashes, etc.

Once we were finished our drawings, we completed the colouring during a Must-Do Play Centre.

At this station children used mirrors to colour their portraits accurately to what they see on the outside when they look in the mirror.

The children loved doing this activity, especially when they saw how much the outcomes resembled them accurately in many ways!

After completing the pictures, students were encouraged to write their sentences with details. Children focused on using, what I like to call, “juicy” words, to express themselves. Rather than saying I like my brown hair, students add more details to their words such as I like my milk chocolate brown hair.

A few examples of what the children have started writing so far are:

“I like my hair because it is curly like dried leaves”

“I like my hair because it is night black”

“I like my eyes because they let me see”

“I like my ocean blue eyes”

“I like my lips because they let me talk”

“I like my hair because it is caramel brown”

“I like that I am kind to other people”

“I like that I don’t hurt other peoples feelings”

What beautiful words these children come up with!

Our bulletin board looks fantastic! Stay tuned for the rest of our portraits to be added!

~ Miss Kim

A and Kindergarten B self-portrait work!

~ Miss Kim