Saturday, May 17, 2008

Smile Collage and Books

Together we made a giant smile collage. We used yellow construction paper left over from past projects and any kind of yellow wrappers we could dig out of our clean trash bag. The little man had some nice cutting practice and then indulged his creative side while deciding where to put each piece of paper. Eventually he grew tired of it and I had to fill in a few of the blanks at the end. After a few hours drying we added torn black construction paper for eyes, nose, and smile. He was quite pleased with the end result, and I think hanging it on the wall will be a great reminder for everyone to smile more often.


I also sat down with my son this week and asked him, "What makes you smile?" Immediately he started a surprisingly accurate list and only needed some prompting after a good seven or eight items he thought of on his own. I then took those answers and made it into a personalized book. I plan on continue this activity on a daily basis in hopes of instilling an attitude of gratitude. During his bedtime routine I'll ask, "what made you smile today?" Whatever he shares gets recoded in a small notebook next to his bed. Down the line somewhere I think he'll enjoy reading from this early journal.

I had another book-making brainstorm and intend to create one titled When I Smile.... which emphasizes the positive consequences of smiling. (ie: When I smile I feel happier. When I smile I remind other people to smile. When I smile it's easier to be nice to my friends. When I smile it makes other people happy. etc.)

2 comments:

Megan and Jon said...

I love this as a bedtime ritual and am going to start the same thing, what a treasure it will be in years to come.
Thanks for sharing

LaDonna and Ben said...

I loved the idea of a "What makes you smile journal". I know I should be helping my kids to keep journals and I think this is a good direction to go in. Also, I think it will help my children to think positively. Thanks!!