All About Me! Beginning of the Year Activity

This is a great activity for public, private, or homeschoolers.  I used this as part of a student portfolio in public school.  Now I use this as a beginning of the year activity as a homeschooler.  Each year I find or make a slightly different version of this.  You can download and print this activity by clicking below. 
All About Me

Each year that I taught fourth grade, I made each student a book or portfolio.  I didn't tell them that I was making a book but kept it a secret for the last days of school.  I used the All About Me activity as the first two pages of the book.  I had the students fill this out as they came in on the first day of school.  Then about three weeks before school let out in the spring, I asked them to fill it out again.  I did not mention that we had already done this activity earlier in the year, because I didn't want students trying to remember what they had previously written on the paper.  Then I included both copies in their individual student books.  They were then able to compare their likes/dislikes from the beginning of the year to the end.  I also included many work samples, two autograph pages, two scrapbooking pages, and a class picture in each book.  I took pictures of the students frequently and hung the photos on a rotating photo bulletin board.  At the end of the year, I would collect all the photos I had taken throughout the year, and let each student choose 8-10 pictures to add to their scrapbook pages.  It was a great end-of-the year activity, and the students had a nice portfolio and memory book to keep.

Do you have any beginning of the year activities to share?

This post was featured in the Homeschool Showcase #78 at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.