All About Me

A name line, an age box, a self-portrait frame, a family box and three favorite-things windows: that is the whole of this kindergarten all-about-me page. The top band reads My name is beside a three-line handwriting guide. Below it a large dashed frame with photo corners is captioned This is me, and to its right sit a lane reading I am, a dashed square, years old, and a dashed box labeled My family. Across the bottom three tall windows are headed My favorite animal, My favorite food and My favorite color. The child writes a name and a numeral and draws everything else.

An all-about-me page is usually the first piece of work a kindergartner produces, and it is designed so that every child can finish it: two things to write, five things to draw, no reading beyond the headings. It asks the child to record facts about himself or herself, which is the earliest form of informative writing, and the drawings are the child's answers. For the teacher it is a record of the first week: how the name is written, whether the age numeral is formed correctly, how many people appear in the family box. The same page done again in spring shows the year's growth.

One portrait sheet, best printed on heavier paper if it is going on a wall or into a portfolio. The five faces of this family take one element each further: my favorite things adds pictures and words to choose from, all about my family adds ten-frames to the family box, label the face, I can, and my name each take one corner of this page and make it a lesson. No feelings, no animal fact file, no story starter: this page is about the child.