Portfolio Covers - Finding Ways to Describe Us

School is finally finished for me. Sigh. At the end of every school year, my Mom always asks me - So, what are you going to do first this summer? And I always answer the same way - Reclaim my life. Cause all the little things we need to do kinda get lost in the shuffle of a busy school year. Can you relate? I try hard to create a balance, but it's hard sometimes when you're up to your eyeballs in report cards, end of year activities, testing, managing and not to mention portfolios.

My first graders have a portfolio, but it continues to be a work in progress for me, I haven't gotten it all perfected yet. The one thing I do consistently though is the cover page. We always do an acrostic poem with our names. And since my kids are ESL, I need to stretch my boundaries in terms of what I accept for each letter. In the end, if I read their poem and it gives me a good feel about them, I'm happy with it. But, since my kids are a bit more limited with their English vocabulary, I give them as much help as possible. We start with these guys.

My daughter has an amazing collection of these, so after Spring Break I let my kids "adopt" a beanie and they keep it on their desk for a week. They have to give their beanie a name and each day, they need to come up with a new adjective that describes their beanie. It's very fun and helps my kids with their vocabulary. After a week, they switch their beanie for a different one and start the naming process again. 

From there, I move to their favourite characters, Elephant and Piggie. We spend some time describing them. Here is a bit of what they came up with.

Then, they were ready to try it on themselves. Here's a sample of what they came up with. Keep in mind, I allow for a lot of freedom, so the descriptions are not always just one word.

So, there they are. Apparently, I've got a lot of apple lovers! If you ever want to try this, I made the page so that it fits with any name from 3 letters to 9. You can download it by clicking on the pic below.

Until next time...