Cultivating a positive classroom community is such an important part of teaching, and I’ve learned that little things go a long way. One of the ways to help build our students up is to help them see themselves (and their classmates) in a positive light. One of the ways I did that this year was by doing an activity all about “The Best Part of Me.”
I love the idea of the book and that the author went into 3rd-5th grade classrooms and the pictures were great inspirations for my students to start thinking about the best part of them and to understand what their final product was going to look like. I guess I just thought there would be a lot more poems to pick from, but the book didn’t have as many as I thought it would! The couple that I chose to read worked out well and my students enjoyed them.
I love how the black and white photos turned out and it looks so great having the best part of all my students on a beautiful bulletin board display for everyone to see! I’m hoping to make a class book with all the poems so that I can use them next year when I am teaching the lesson!
These are awesome!
Mary
Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives
I <3 this idea. The pictures are fantastic and it must be so nice for the kids to think about themselves in a positive way. Definitely want to use this idea.
Becky
I love this idea – adorable activity and the kids must have love it! I am going to pin it now so I remember!
Alison
Teaching Maths with Meaning
What a great project! I am pinning this for next year. I think it would make a great display for when parents come in for conferences. I'm a fellow 4th grade teacher and your newest follower. Have a great weekend!
Jennifer
Mrs. Laffin's Laughings
I love love love "The Best Part of Me". I used to do a project just like yours, but haven't done it in a few years… your students' projects look beautiful!!!
Becky 🙂
What a sweet and memorable lesson! I'm sure parents will treasure those projects! Thanks for sharing!
Erin
Short and Sassy Teacher
What a great writing activity! Adding this to my list of "back to school" activities.
Fabulous Fifth Grade Fun
How sweet! These will be treasures for parents for years to come!
~Courtney
Polka Dot Lesson Plans
I'm pinning…this is precious! 🙂
~Brandee
Creating Lifelong Learners
What a sweet idea!! I wonder if I could alter it to work with my kinder kids…
Casey
Lifelong Learners in Prep
I think that you could probably do any easy sentence like ,”the best parts of me …..because ……
and you could write it for them.
Oh my goodness, there are WONDERFUL! Looking at the pictures and reading the sweet words each student wrote makes me so happy. Teaching upper el., our kids can be so tough on themselves and this is the age in which they start becoming more self aware. I am SO doing this next year and can only hope my turn out half as good!!
Young Teacher Love Blog
This is one of my favorite lessons to do. I have had my kids write about their favorite part and I have also had them write a cinquain poem about it. Both ways always turn out great and it always makes for an amazing display. You pictures are truly remarkable. Love it!!
Amanda
The Teaching Thief
This is precious! Thanks for sharing such a great idea!
Krista
Stellar-Students
Molly they are wonderful!!!! I'm going to borrow your samples now! LeAnn
4thgrade4ever.blogspot.com
this is just what I Need to do thanks so much!!!
Miss Claus
I love these and so want to do this at the start of the year with my new fourth graders. Is there a particular format for the writing, or were students able to come up with their own? It looked like some rhymed and some didn't…does it matter? Any info. or formatting suggestions would be fabulous. mmurray@conejousd.org
Thank you! ~Malena
I love this book and decided to give the project a try during the 1st 2 weeks of school. What a great way to get to know my students and have them be so successful from the start. This was an awesome start of our writing year! Thank you so much for posting.
Did you use any sentence frames? Or suggestions for the students?
love this activity. I used it right away in my class 🙂
I need this for my Sixth graders! Thanks!
I’m a Girl Scout leader…the girls are going to be working on a journey titled “A World of Girls.” One of the requirements is for each girl to share her story…your “Best Part of Me” activity is the perfect way to that! Love the book you used as well; it’s a great introduction to the project. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
Awesome the idea is great i never thought about though I am kindergarten teacher I am going to introduce next year in my curriculum.
I LOVE this project. I am a ESL teacher for high school students and I’m using this awesome idea to teach Present Simple in writing. Thank you for this amazing idea!
Absolutely this is the best idea to start writing about “the best part of me”. This would help to discover more things about your strongest part and find the best of you. Nice post! Thanks for sharing.