Self-Awareness

Unit Name	Empathy
Lesson Name	Self-Awareness
Grade Band	Early Childhood (K-2)

Required Material/s	Why Am I Me? by Paige Britt Mirrors Card stock Drawing materials – crayons, markers, colored pencils, paint stix, oil pastels Stickers or other decorative materials
Standards / Competencies	SEL Core Competencies: Self-Awareness: identifying emotions, experiencing self-efficacy, linking feelings, values and thoughts, demonstrating honesty and integrity Self-Management: managing one’s emotions, exhibiting self-discipline Social Awareness: taking others’ perspectives, recognizing strengths in others, demonstrating empathy and compassion, identifying diverse social norms, showing concern for the feelings of others Relationship Skills: communicating effectively, developing positive relationships, showing leadership in groups, resolving conflicts constructively, seeking or offering support when needed ELA Standards: Listening and Speaking Social Studies Theme: Individual Development and Identity
Recommended Time	60 minutes

Required Material/s

Why Am I Me? by Paige Britt
Mirrors
Card stock
Drawing materials – crayons, markers, colored pencils, paint stix, oil pastels
Stickers or other decorative materials

Standards / Competencies

SEL Core Competencies:

Self-Awareness: identifying emotions, experiencing self-efficacy, linking feelings, values and thoughts, demonstrating honesty and integrity
Self-Management: managing one’s emotions, exhibiting self-discipline
Social Awareness: taking others’ perspectives, recognizing strengths in others, demonstrating empathy and compassion, identifying diverse social norms, showing concern for the feelings of others
Relationship Skills: communicating effectively, developing positive relationships, showing leadership in groups, resolving conflicts constructively, seeking or offering support when needed

ELA Standards: Listening and Speaking

Social Studies Theme: Individual Development and Identity

Recommended Time

60 minutes

Essential Question	What makes me unique?
Learning Objective/s	Students will begin to explore the concept of self-awareness by identifying their own preferences, reflecting on their own experiences, and describing what they like about themselves.

Activating Prior Knowledge	Introduce the word self-awareness “Self-awareness is being able to identify how you feel, what you think, and recognize what you like and what you are good at”. Give an example of this using yourself.
Core Instruction	Whole Group: Why Am I Me? . After reading the story, explain to students that they are going to work on self portraits. Encourage students to think about what they like about themselves and what makes them “uniquely you”. Individual Work: Provide several questions to use as writing prompts (these can be modified for grade levels or differentiated for student ability). Have students choose at least three questions to answer that will be attached to their self portrait. Give students several minutes to choose their questions and record their answers. Some prompt ideas: What makes you laugh? What are you afraid of? What kind of animal would you be? What is something that you’re really good at? What is something you wish you were better at? What makes you a good friend? What is something that made you feel really angry? What is your favorite memory? Use five words to describe yourself If you could do anything tomorrow, what would you do? What is your favorite holiday or family celebration? Provide students with paper and crayons/markers/pencils and have several hand mirrors available for students to use if they wish. Invite students to work on their self portraits for a specific amount of time. Once students have drawn a representation of themselves they can take the remaining time to decorate the rest of their paper. Encourage students to decorate it in a way that reflects them – possible ideas would be to use their favorite colors, drawing or cutting out pictures of their favorite things, using stickers of things they like etc. Explain that the goal of their self portrait is to reflect who they are beyond just their physical characteristics. This part of the lesson can be broken up into two parts if needed or a section of it can be completed at home. Part 2 (This can be done at a later time once all portraits are complete): Create a bulletin board of the students’ self portraits. Do not post or cover the names of the students. Have the class do a gallery walk around the room and try to guess whose self portrait is whose. When students have had enough time to move around the room and look at their classmates’ work either uncover their name or attach a photograph to each self-portrait.
Wrap-up	Come together as a group and ask students to share something they learned about a classmate or something they may have in common with a classmate. Explain that our experiences, preferences, families, and feelings help shape who we are.
Learning Beyond Classroom Walls	Independent Engagement Create a class book using one of the prompts. Thematic Show and tell (favorite gift, something that represents your favorite holiday, something from your culture, favorite stuffed animal, etc.) Gratitude Journals Vision Board that includes pictures that symbolize their hopes and goals Establish a daily emotional check-in routine Civic Engagement Interview with a member of the community – Have students choose a question from the list and interview someone in their community.

Activating Prior Knowledge

Introduce the word self-awareness “Self-awareness is being able to identify how you feel, what you think, and recognize what you like and what you are good at”. Give an example of this using yourself.

Core Instruction

Whole Group:
Why Am I Me? . After reading the story, explain to students that they are going to work on self portraits. Encourage students to think about what they like about themselves and what makes them “uniquely you”.

Individual Work: Provide several questions to use as writing prompts (these can be modified for grade levels or differentiated for student ability). Have students choose at least three questions to answer that will be attached to their self portrait. Give students several minutes to choose their questions and record their answers.

Some prompt ideas:

What makes you laugh?

What are you afraid of?

What kind of animal would you be?

What is something that you’re really good at?

What is something you wish you were better at?

What makes you a good friend?

What is something that made you feel really angry?

What is your favorite memory?

Use five words to describe yourself

If you could do anything tomorrow, what would you do?

What is your favorite holiday or family celebration?

Provide students with paper and crayons/markers/pencils and have several hand mirrors available for students to use if they wish. Invite students to work on their self portraits for a specific amount of time. Once students have drawn a representation of themselves they can take the remaining time to decorate the rest of their paper. Encourage students to decorate it in a way that reflects them – possible ideas would be to use their favorite colors, drawing or cutting out pictures of their favorite things, using stickers of things they like etc. Explain that the goal of their self portrait is to reflect who they are beyond just their physical characteristics. This part of the lesson can be broken up into two parts if needed or a section of it can be completed at home.

Part 2 (This can be done at a later time once all portraits are complete):

Create a bulletin board of the students’ self portraits. Do not post or cover the names of the students. Have the class do a gallery walk around the room and try to guess whose self portrait is whose. When students have had enough time to move around the room and look at their classmates’ work either uncover their name or attach a photograph to each self-portrait.

Wrap-up

Come together as a group and ask students to share something they learned about a classmate or something they may have in common with a classmate. Explain that our experiences, preferences, families, and feelings help shape who we are.

Learning Beyond Classroom Walls

Independent Engagement

Create a class book using one of the prompts.
Thematic Show and tell (favorite gift, something that represents your favorite holiday, something from your culture, favorite stuffed animal, etc.)
Gratitude Journals
Vision Board that includes pictures that symbolize their hopes and goals
Establish a daily emotional check-in routine

Civic Engagement

Interview with a member of the community – Have students choose a question from the list and interview someone in their community.

Supplementary Resources

Additional books about self-awareness:

https://childrenslibrarylady.com/self-awareness-books/

Self Portrait Template:

https://simplyfullofdelight.com/all-about-me-self-portrait-free-printable/

Register For This Site

Sign up for updates.

Follow us