All About Me Activities With Leo Lionni Books

August 6, 2024

Brand new crayons, sharpened pencils and perfect name tags are all signs of back to school. Starting the school year off right is pivotal. There are reasons teachers begin with All About Me activities. Just like when building a pyramid, forming a new group must begin with individual students.

Start the Year with All About Me

Starting with your All About Me unit not only validates student self worth, but also helps students see and embrace diversity. This practice builds a foundation of respect for the year and encourages student connections. Some of your kids will be new to the school. Most of the students are new to each other. All of your students are new to you. .

Use Lionni Mouse Books

With packed schedule and changing objectives you have an objective for every book you read. In the first days, teachers reach for the greats. And, the mouse books by Leo Lionni are just that — the perfect books to use as anchor texts and kick off your school year.

His simple characters and pure themes are perfect for primary students. They struggle with the same issues of self and community known to your students. This makes them the perfect choice for your All About Me lessons. Kids can examine choices in a non-threatening way. They learn to classify, and not to judge. Lionni’s Mouse books are the perfect backdrop for teaching; All about me, feelings, and point-of-view.

All About Me with Frederick

Frederick is a story about a group of mice wintering in a stone wall. The other mice work to gather food while Frederick sits and ponders. When the food runs out, Frederick shares his hopeful words and thoughts that get them through.

Frederick is perfect for starting discussions on differently abled students. It illustrates that different is good! A few activity ideas:

Build a wall of class talents, and one of challenges. Have your kids choose one from each to discuss how everyone has each kind. Discuss.
Have students build their own wall of each. Tie goals to the wall of challenges.
Discuss what things will help the class get through the school year. What supplies do they need for success? How can we help each other?
Connect students with a talent of another’s challenge.
Work on retelling with beginning-middle-end of story.

Alexander's Feelings

In Matthew’s Dream, his parents have big goals for him, but he is not sure. He dreams about his future. One day his class visits a museum. When he wakes, he looks at his home differently and wants to become a painter! This book is perfect for introducing goals.

This is a great book to kick of discussions of feelings. Some activity ideas:

Introduce and name different feelings. Have the class sort them into positive and negative.
Have the class pick out all of the feelings in the story. Discuss how and why feelings change.
Discuss how different people can have different feelings about the same event. (“Girls, it’s time for recess. Boys, keep working”)
Discuss the forming of opinions and point of view. Have the class write up an anchor chart POV for the birds and one for the mice.
Tie in fair and unfair rules to opinions and feelings.

Nicolas' Point of View

Nicolas, Where Have You Been? is a story of a mouse who thinks birds are awful because they eat all the good berries. One day, he is dropped into a nest where he is treated with care and respect. He realizes his mistake and goes to tell his friends when trouble begins.

It is difficult for young students to put themselves in another person’s shoes :

Divide your class in half. Have them make mouse or bird headbands.
Make a “berry bush” by placing a hula hoop on the floor. Add some red plastic balls. (5-7)
Let the groups work in opposite corners of the room. Have them share their thoughts, feelings & plans.
In younger grades, teacher could write sentences on an anchor chart. 1st-2nd graders can make sentences with a partner to display.
Have each group make their own rules concerning the berries. Then have them share out to the other side.
Decide which rules both sides can agree to.
Click on the links below for more Lionni books on point of view.