All About Me!

Use Book Creator to invite students to reflect on their mental, physical, and emotional well-being.
Ages 8-14 / 45
min Activity
Self-Awareness
Self-Care
Mindfulness
Reading
Writing

Objectives

  • ‍Reflect on the unique aspects of their identity, such as their personality, accomplishments, and dreams for the future
  • ‍Consider strategies to foster their well-being, such as practicing gratitude, setting goals, and exercising
  • ‍Work on a book with prompts to share about themselves and practice self-care
  • ‍Learn about how they can support their classmates’ well-being and treat them with care and understanding

Supporting Research

When students engage in reflective journaling, research shows an improvement in their behavior and coping skills, critical thinking, and understanding of their own experiences and emotions. During this activity, educators should encourage students to reflect on themselves, such as their identity, moments of joy and gratitude, ways they have grown, and hopes for the future. This experience helps reinforce students’ mindfulness, self-awareness, and self-care as they understand and express their emotions, behaviors, and needs.

To learn more about these skills, and how they promote students’ healthy growth and the development of empathy, please check out our Empathy Framework.

Materials

Activity Partners

Instructions

  1. Engage students in a conversation about identity. You might explain: "Our identity makes us “us”. Our identity is made up of our personality, hobbies, achievements, ethnic or cultural background, and so much more. What else do you think our identity includes? How would you describe your identity?”

    Provide space for students to write down, or talk about, the different aspects of their identity. 
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  2. Then, introduce the importance of self-care, or practicing kindness to ourselves. This means that we treat ourselves with care and understanding, and support our mental, physical, and emotional well-being with a positive and patient attitude! 

    Practicing kindness to ourselves includes:
    • Showing gratitude by noticing things that we are thankful for, and the people who support and inspire us
    • Expressing our feelings in productive ways and building healthy strategies for managing emotions like frustration, anger, and sadness
    • Taking breaks for physical exercise, movement, and relaxation
    • Setting goals for ourselves
    • Giving ourselves a judgment-free space to grow, take brave actions, and learn from our mistakes
    • Reaching out when we need help and support from others
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  3. Ask students the following questions:
    • What are some ways that you practice self-care?
    • What is something new that you want to try in the future?
    • What are some things that make you feel happy or proud? Who (or what) are you grateful for?
    • Can you share about a time recently when you felt sad or upset? How did you cope with these emotions? What are some ways that your classmates and I could help you when you feel these emotions?

    Invite students to create their own “wellness” book with Book Creator! Students will use a template to reflect on themselves and learn new ideas for practicing kindness towards themselves.

    To create these books, follow the Book Creator instructions below.
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  4. If students feel comfortable, consider leading a follow-up activity so they can share their books with each other (or with a partner class!).

    As students participate in the exchange, encourage them to think about the following questions: 
    • How do they approach their well-being in similar ways?
    • What are some different strategies that they can learn from each other?
    • What are some ways they can support each other’s well-being?

Book Creator Instructions

  1. Sign up for a free Book Creator account (if you don’t have one already).
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  2. Navigate to your Teacher Dashboard and add a new library for your class.
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  3. Go to the SEL templates web page and choose the template appropriate for your students’ age. Click on "Remix" to add it to your own library.
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  4. Invite students to join your library using the code provided.
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  5. Students can create a copy of the template in your library, and add their own ideas to their copy. Students can upload photos and videos, record audio, add text, draw, and more directly on the platform.

If students in both classes have individual devices (e.g., mobile phone, tablet, laptop, etc.)...

Use a platform such as Google Meet, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams which allows you to screen-share during a video call. 
One educator should set up the Kahoot! game and share the code with students in both classes by following this tutorial about using Kahoot! in a remote learning environment, and share their screen so everyone can follow along.

If students in either class don’t have individual devices...

Follow the same instructions above, with one educator starting the game and sharing their screen so both classes can follow along.  
Instead of students joining the game to answer the questions, they can hold up their fingers, call out their answer, or use a paper template to indicate their response.

If you prefer not using Kahoot!...

Use this document (Spanish version) to prompt students.