What I Am Project

I'd like to share another cool lesson/activity that I like to do during the first week of school. I believe I got this idea from Pinterest a few years ago.  I call it the "What I Am" project.

First I play this YouTube video featuring Will.I.Am singing with the Sesame Street Muppets. (Believe me, the students love this song!  I had to play it quite often throughout the year!) Then I play it again and ask the students to think about adjectives that describe them.

To help them, I provide them with an adjective list such as this one from Enchanted Learning. I also let them collaborate with their classmates to assist them. I ask them to write down at least ten words that describe them.

Then you can have students share these words in a few different ways.

One way I have done this is to print out this Pennant created as a Google Drawing and have the students write their adjectives in different colors and in different angles using colored pencils.  Then I cut out the pennants and put them on a bulletin board along with a picture of each student.  I try to do this before back-to-school night so something is on the wall.

Another way to do this is to upload the Pennant through a Google Classroom assignment and have them type their words on the pennant. This involves students inserting text boxes and rotating them or tilting them in different ways.

Another way to have students share adjectives that describe them is through a word cloud. One word cloud that works on Chromebooks is ABCya! (ABCYa! also has a free iPad app.) When you go to this site, you can choose any grade, from 2 to 5, and scroll down and find the word cloud button that looks like this:

Click on the word cloud and type in your adjectives. Click the arrow button, and then you are able to edit your word cloud and randomize the words, change the colors, the layout, and the font. When you are satisfied with your word cloud, you can save it to your drive or print it out, or even better, a student's word cloud could be uploaded and shared on their blog so other students can see and comment!

This is so much fun!  Here is the word cloud I created: 

If you happen to do this lesson in your class this year, I would love to see your examples!  Also, if you come up with a better way to do this lesson, please share with your comments!