Inside: 10+ all about me activities for your preschooler to develop their sense of self, feel loved, gain confidence and practice describing themselves.
Chances are, if you have a child who is over 2, they are somewhat self-obsessed! This is because the early years are an important time for children to develop their sense of self. If you are wondering about how to support your child to learn about themselves, read on for all about me activities you can do at home.
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All About Me Activities for Preschoolers
Name Activities for Preschoolers
Becoming familiar with the letters of their name and how to spell (or write it) may be a source of confidence for your child, especially as they begin kindergarten or school.
For name learning activities, try these gross motor name activities that will get your preschooler moving or these easy hands-on name activities that that you can set up in less than 5 minutes!
Fun Self-portrait Activities
Here are three low effort, highly sensory ways to make self-portraits at home. These activities make great opportunities to talk to your child about who they look like in the family and how much you love them just the way they are.
Tip: use a portable mirror, or print an A4 photo to help your child create their self-portrait.
Shadow Self-portrait
On a sunny day, have your child stand with their shadow falling on the sidewalk or driveway and draw around it for them. They can then decorate themselves.
If you have more time, you can make chalk paint by grating your chalk colours with a cheese grater into a bowl or muffin tray and mixing in a little water (start with a few drops before adding more) and use paint brushes instead of the chalk itself.
Playdough Portraits
This is a great way to talk about the shapes of different parts of your face, especially because you may not have/ be able to make all the colours.
Related: For more learning fun with playdough, try these 8 Educational Playdough Activities for Kids, or use Playdough for Letter Formation!
Pasta Self-portrait Sensory Tray
Draw an outline of a head on a piece of A4 paper and place it in a baking tray. Fill a muffin tray or a few bowls with different types of cereal, pasta or dried beans and see what you can create!
Family Tree activities
Handprint Family Tree
Either use your child’s hand for each family member and then label, or get as many people in the family as possible to do their own hand.
Photo matching Family Tree
Try printing a few small pictures of the important people in your family and cutting them out. See if your child can match the pictures to the family tree you have created.
Extension: Guess Who?
Play a game of ‘Guess Who?’ by choosing a person in your family and describing them, what they look like and interesting things about them. See if your preschooler can guess who you are talking about and circle their picture on the family tree. This is a sweet way of talking about all the things we love about the people in our families.
My Body and my Feelings
How Long Am I?
This is a fun measurement activity that focuses on how long or tall parts of your child’s body are. Children learn so many important numeracy skills at the same time like counting, non-standard units of measurements, comparing quantities.
The printable is from the My Body Theme Discovery Pack from The Happy Learners’ Club. If you are not a part of my popular kids’ activity membership yet and would like to be, you can sign up to the waitlist here and you’ll be the first to know when the door next opens!
All the Things I can do!
Print and glue your child’s picture on a piece of paper and brainstorm together all the things they like to do and think that they are good at.
This is a good opportunity to gain insights into what they think about themselves and their abilities and remind them of the things you see them working hard to learn.
Popsicle Stick Emotions
Print off these cute faces and tape a popsicle stick behind each one. Practice choosing a popsicle stick face to copy into a mirror and try guessing each other’s emotion.
Say, ‘You’re feeling excited/angry/calm!’
Ask your child, ‘when is a time that you felt, ______?’ and see what they say.
Share with them times you have had different feelings recently. Learning to recognise and be ok with our feelings is a valuable way to understand ourselves and be able to talk to others.
All About Me Caterpillar
Learn interesting facts about your little ones like their favourite food, animal, ambition etc with this cute All About Me Caterpillar activity!
Questions about supporting your children’s development of their Sense of Self
In the early years, a child’s sense of self develops as they learn that they are separate from other people, they have their own thoughts and feelings. Throughout childhood, this grows into their social and emotional abilities to overcome challenges and build relationships with others.
Helping children to feel secure and loved, while also giving them positive opportunities to solve problems, have their own feelings and think for themselves encourages their self-esteem and confidence in who they are.
Having a positive sense of self puts children on a stable path to navigating the challenges they might face when entering school or childcare. Being able to describe themselves, talk about what makes them who they are contributes to them feeling understood, like they belong and like they are able to ask for help when they are finding something tough.
We can teach our child how to make friends by helping them to understand themselves and what they like so that they can share these things with other people. You may like to model some questions that your child can ask someone else about their family or what they like doing.
When learning about themselves, your preschooler might note that not everyone they know has eyes, hair or skin the same as them. Or possibly, they might realise that they cannot do something that one of their friends can do. We can explain that people don’t all look the same, and that it’s ok to be different from others. Finding things in common with others is what helps us to make friends and treat each other kindly. Try our list of All About Me activities to help your little ones discover their uniqueness and sense of self.
Finally, the most important part of these All About Me activities is the connection that your child gains with you from all of the exploring and discussing as they learn about themselves. So enjoy this time with them and know that you are supporting their positive personal, social and emotional development!
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