Link to Student Page

All About Me

Superstar Web Quest

This lesson was developed for a final project for ETEC 610 Instructional Design at Nova Southeastern University.  This lesson involves the students in learning about themselves and what makes them special. They will be learning about their name, their fingerprints, the type of music they like, how they look and what makes them special.  Students will create a final superstar poster to present to the class.

This lesson is anchored in the Kindergarten Social Studies standards and involves Language Arts, Science and Social Studies components.

The following curriculum standards will be addressed in this Web Quest:

Social Studies Standards:

The student will be able to :

understand the many different influences that help to form a person: family, age, gender,  ethnic background, culture, environment, education, physical characteristics, religion, friends, etc.

compare and contrast self to others

recognize and list difference

explain how each difference in people potentially enriches all people

recognize the things all of us share in common

understand the concept of respect and trust

apply concepts of respect and trust to others

understand how good works can hurt us or can make us feel good

understand actions do affect self and others

This unit is organized with one task to be performed by the child each day at home with the assistance of an adult or parent.   It involves in class whole group instruction, class participation, and individual research.   There is flexibility in the amount of time chosen to spend on each activity. You may chose to spend more or less time on the different activities. This time frame is a suggested time frame with flexibility as needed.

Due to the language in the links and the young age of the students, you may chose to guide your students through the tasks with the Process page. The tasks should be explained by the teacher or parent and the students should be able to complete the tasks with some assistance assistance (cross-age partners are also a good idea. Encourage the students to always be thinking, and self-reflecting about how they are special.

Name:

Read the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes.  Discuss how Chrysanthemum felt when the children teased her.  Have a feelings discussion about teasing.  Next, have each child identify his/her own name on a name tag.  Ask them to count the number of letters in his/her name.  Finally, give each child a paper with their name written in bubble letters and have them color in the letters of their name in their own unique way.

Fingerprints:

Paint each child's hand with white  paint and have them make a hand print on a piece of black paper.  Next, show them how to use an ink pad to make fingerprints and use a magnifying glass to see the ridges.  Use the hyperlink in the Web Quest to show the children the different kinds of fingerprints.  Discuss how each child has a different fingerprint and no two prints in the world are alike.

Music:

Play Greg and Steve's CD "On The Move" and invite children to copy the body movements in the song of "Body Rock".   This incorporates musical and kinesthetic intelligences.  Next, ask each child to think of his/her favorite animal and have them make the movements and sounds of the animal.  See if the children can guess what animal the child is acting out.  Make correlations between the type of animal and the personality of that animal (i.e. tigers are scary, elephants are slow, dogs are happy)

Guess Who:

Students will hear the book "I Like Me" by Nancy Carlson.  The class will make a chart of the eye colors and hair colors of the class.  They will be asked to look at their partners face and help them decide what eye color and hair color they have.  They will then fill in a class bar graph (teacher made) to see what the most popular hair and eye color is in the class. 

Possible books to read:

I Like Me by Nancy Carlson

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

My Book About Me by Dr. Seuss

Here Are My Hands by Bill Martin Jr.

Just Look at You! by Jullian Cutting

Hello Toes! Hello Feet! by Ann Whitford Paul

The Body Book by Shelley Rotner

Mice Squeak We Speak by Tomi dePaola

Making Faces by Norman Messenger

Changes, Changes by Pat Hutchins

A Tree for Me by Nancy Van Laan

Special Things by Virginia Loewen

Our Families by Sally Young

From Head to Toe by Eric Carle

ABC I Like Me! by Nancy Carlson

We Can Do It! by Laura Dwight

A Birthday for Frances by Russel Hoban

Students should be familiar with the computer and the mouse. The students will be receiving instructions on how to utilize the mouse to click on the Task and complete an assignment. The students will also be introduced to printing from the computer and the use of an ink pad to make fingerprints, a hand lenses, and a mirror.

The teacher will need a computer and knowledge of utilizing the TV to display the computer screen information for whole class instruction, otherwise, a space large enough for the class to see the computer screen for exploration and instruction.

The should be assessed with a needs assessment checklist both before and after the Web Quest to monitor their progress.  

Throughout the Web Quest, students will be assessed through teacher observations, completion of the name worksheet, bringing in the fingerprints with one print circled, bringing in lyrics to their favorite song, making a "guess who" picture, completing the superstar poster and survey and class participation and interaction.  

Finally the children will be assessed by the teacher using the assessment rubric.  They will receive a superstar certificate after completing the Web Quest.

When the students are finished, they will have a better understanding of themselves.  They will have an enhanced self- esteem and will have made comparisons between their likes and dislikes and the likes and dislikes of others.  They will develop an increased appreciation and understanding of the diversity of others.