All About Me Writing

Happy Monday, friends! It's Lisa from over at Second Grade Stories with a writing idea for getting to know your students these first few weeks of school. Although we might do a little bit of writing the first few days of school, I like to save any writing I'm going use as a sample for after my kiddos have gotten adjusted a bit.  The first real writing piece we do is an "All About Me" expository text.  I have found that my kiddos come into second grade with a pretty good grasp of the basic format of writing an informational piece (thanks, grade one teachers!) - topic sentence, 3 details and a closing sentence. My main goal for this little project is to just review what they have learned in first grade, see a little of their writing and most importantly - get to know my kiddos!

I did this activity last year and I really learned quite a bit about my new friends. (You can read my original post over on my blog {HERE.} We started with a read-aloud (of course!) that set the stage for "we are all special." Last year I read, I Like Myself. This year I might try one of my new beginning of the year books! (You can click {HERE} to see some new titles I found.) Then we brainstormed a little about ourselves and recorded our ideas on a simple brainstorm sheet.

      

Next, we chose 3 ideas and used them to create an "All About _______" flip book. Here are some samples from last year's kiddos.

I put all the sheets into a little freebie you can download by clicking on the image below.

Last year we stopped there, but this year I might do things a little differently. Still using a simple brainstorming sheet, I might take things one step further and use an informational writing graphic organizer to plan our writing. Then I can decide, depending on my group of kiddos (kids don't start until this Wednesday for us!), if I want to try having them take their writing from the organizer to a more formal writing piece.

These sheets are from my August/September "Writing Workout" resource. There are brainstorming sheets, graphic organizers and themed writing paper for an "all about me" themed writing piece. This way, I can really tie into the format of an expository piece, while choosing a topic that everyone can be invested in. What second grader doesn't want to write about him or herself?! (You can download these pages by clicking on the image above.)

Building community is so important at the beginning of the year, and getting to know each other better helps develop those bonds. By waiting until my students have settled in before tackling our first writing piece, I feel I get a better sense of what everyone can really do. How about you? Do you wait to start your writing samples, or do you use something from the first day? What topics do you write about?