Affirmation Zine SEL Classroom Activity for Social and Emotional Learning

Over the past few years there has been a big push for social and emotional learning in schools. Classrooms have always been a place where teachers expoused the "Golden Rule". But since the days of Covid, the teaching world has been really digging into what it means to be socially and emotionally educated. 

Many districts now mandate some level of social and emotional learning (SEL) into the school day. SEL is the process of developing skills in 5 core areas: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsibile decision-making. 

Teachers are tasked with delivering lessons in SEL whether it be through a pre-designed curriculum or through the creativity of a teacher and her fellow cohorts.

One SEL activity I have done with my students is an Affirmation Zine.

Download a Free Copy of this Affirmation Zine Activity Here.

Daily Affirmations aren't new. There are limitless suggestions on the internet to help a person start their day with positive words or to create a go-to resource which helps a person when they need a positive boost in their thinking.

For my students, I wanted to create something that was small, simple to make, and easy to carry in a pocket. A zine was the perfect solution! Zines are made from a single sheet of paper. When folded in a specific way, and carefully cut on a particular line, they become a mini-book. Once you have made the first one, subsequent zines are easy.

For their Affirmation Zine, I wanted students to have support during the brainstorming but also maximum creativity. Students were given a checklist of options from each of the 5 core areas of SEL. They also had a separate brainstorming sheet to design a front and back cover.

Depending on your students' understanding of SEL and the 5 core areas, they may not need a given list to determine their affirmations. Some students may already have a set list of affirmations they want to use. If SEL is a new concept for your students, providing a list of affirmations for each area is a great starting point to get students thinking about what they want to write in their zine.

Although my students receive SEL lessons from a detailed curriculum, I decided to provide the pre-written choices broken down by core area. For my students, it worked well.

Brainstorming:

For younger students, you can use the pre-filled affirmations. There are 16 to choose from. Students can use the affirmations and graphics as inspiration for their zine and they copy them into their zine as closely as they wish. Or, students can simply color, cut, paste them as is.  

I used the checklists with my class. To make the most of the brainstorming, I read each core area aloud. We talked briefly about what each affirmation meant and what it would look like in daily practice. Once students had checked a box, I read the next section. 

It's important to take your time during the brainstorming. Students need to have investment and thought in their zine for them to be valued and useful. 

There are spaces at the bottom of the checklist sheet for students to brainstorm their own affirmations and to jot down ideas for the covers.

Once students had their brainstorming complete, it was time to fold and cut the zine! This was the most challenging part of the zine creation. However, going slowly and one step at a time made it a more managable process.

Teacher Tips:

• Whatever length of time you allocate for the folding and cutting, double it. Many, many students will struggle with the folding and cutting. Ex: Students with weaker fine-motor skills will struggle with folding the paper precisely. Students with weaker spacial reasoning will struggle with where/how to cut on the line.  It took my class longer than I thought it would. The good news is that it will get easier; the next zine we made was much faster because they were familiar with the process.

• Model the process before students do it. Instruct students to put all materials down and watch how you are creating the zine. There will be some that think they know what to do, they will not watch, and then there will be mistakes.

• If the initial folds are incorrect, the zine will not work properly. Walk around and watch that students are doing the initial folding correctly.  It's okay to go slowly one step (fold) at a time. In fact, do all the folding and checking for correct grid lines before there are any scissors on the desks.

• Print more copies than you think you will need. When mistakes happen, you will be able to provide the student(s) will a fresh paper to begin the process anew. This is especially helpful when a student thinks they can "cut" the zine to a correct a folding mistake.

Inside Pages:

After all the folding and cutting, it was time for students to write their affirmations on the pages and design the covers. Encourage students to carefully copy the affirmations using the correct spelling and punctuation; especially if they are using the suggested affirmations from the given checklists.

The Covers:

Students had a brainstorming sheet to design front and back covers. The sheets I supplied were scaled down just a bit. That way, if a student spent a lot of time drawing and coloring in detail, they could cut the "draft" and use it on the zine.

Front covers were mostly large icons with some titles and/or names. The back covers were a 50/50 split between an additional affirmation and some sort of ending phrase such as "The End". 

This activity took us 2 lessons to complete. As stated above, I really took my time going through the brainstorming process. The cutting and folding took some time as well. However, the time spent was well worth it. The students love their zines, read them often, and many proudly display them on their desks.

How my students use their zines:

• read them daily as part of their morning routine
• display them on their desks
• store them in their cubbies or pencil cases

A couple weeks after making the Affirmation Zines, we were finishing up a unit on the Haudenosaunee. As a culminating activity, students were tasked with creating a zine about the Native People of New York. The zines were folded, cut, and completed in one lesson. I used construction paper (without folding lines) for the Haudenosaunee zines and the students were able to adapt. They commented on the increased size of the pages, the different texture of the paper, and how the pencils and markers work differently with construction paper. 

Zines are so versatile! I will definately be planning for more throughout the school year.

Some academic ideas for zines:

• Sequence of Events in a Story
• Story Elements
• Daily Routine 
• Top 6 Facts About...
• Phonics: vowels teams, silent e, prefixes, suffixes, schwa, etc...
• Math Algorithms: step-by-step guide
• Vocabulary 
• Highlights of a Field Trip

Some other ideas for zines:

• SEL: "Ways to Show Empathy", "Calm Down Strategies"
• Thanksgiving: "Things I am Grateful For"
• Christmas: "My Holiday Traditions"
• Seasonal: "What I Love About Fall/Winter/Spring"
• Student Favorites: food, movie, book, subject, etc...

Tim Burton Self-portraits

Have you seen Tim Burton Self-portraits come across your news feed? If you teach upper elementary (or higher) this is a MUST-DO for the fall. 

You do not need to be an art teacher to do this! They are easier than they may seem and the end result is an absolutely amazing seasonal bulletin board for the hallway.

I've had my eye on this particular bulletin board idea for a couple years. I would see it every October and kick myself "once again" because I forgot to do it. This past fall I was determined to remember.

PRO TIP: Put it in your plans when you start your back-to-school planning. I mean it - write it into your calendar for the last week of September or the first week of October because, otherwise, the days will start to fly by and you will forget!

MATERIALS:

• Grey Construction Paper (cut off 1 inch horizontally and vertically if you want to mat onto the black construction paper)
• #2 Pencils
• Black Colored Pencils
• White Colored Pencils
• Sharpie (optional)
• Black Construction Paper (optional; to mat the finished portraits)

TIME: 

• 2-3 Lesson Blocks

TO BEGIN:

I make copies of possible face shapes, features, and hair for every student. (A quick Google search will give you plenty of choices.) These reference sheets come in handy during the beginning drafts. I hand these out first and ask students to think about which shapes and features make the best sense for their self-portrait. We also talk about how Tim Burton exaggerates features. So, maybe your eyes will be disproportionately large, but your ears and/or nose can be small.

It's important for students to know a few things:

1. They need to lightly sketch the shape of their face and the features. If they need to erase and/or adjust the lines, it will be much easier. This is especially true with construction paper. Too much erasing leads to "fuzzy" paper and tears.

2. There is no "wrong" way to draw these self-portraits. A wacky line, uneven ears, a crooked smile: these are the norm in Tim Burton's world.

TIME TO SKETCH!

Once we have had this discussion, I hand out the grey construction paper and #2 pencils. I set up my projector and lead the students through a directed drawing. I talk a lot about filling the majority of the page with the head. Some students will still draw a really small head shape. When they do, just have them erase (or turn the page over) and start again. For students who struggle with visualizing or planning space, this will be a frustrating step. But once the head shape is in place, it gets easier. 

It's important to not move forward until every one has a really good head shape sketched.

As we move to facial features and hair, I try and give the students some pointers for spacing. For instance, draw a very light line down the center of the head shape to have a visual guide for symmetry, use your fingers to "measure" distances and keep eyes the same size, measure from the edge of the head shape toward either side of the mouth to keep lip lines equidistant. (Although, many students choose a crooked smile.)

It's also helpful to remind students to keep lines extra-light during this process because they may add an accessory that will be drawn over other parts (ex: glasses over eyebrows) and they may need to erase the original lines in favor of the newly added lines.

Through directed drawing I guide them in the following order:

• eyes first (they need to be big and will take up the most space)
• mouth
• nose
• eyebrows (just a single light line to begin)
• ears
• hair
• neck/shoulders
• accessories (glasses, earrings, stitches)

When students have finished their sketch, I collect them and store them until our next lesson.

TIME TO SHADE!

Once students have a solid self-portrait sketched out, it's time to shade! There is skill to shading. Some students will be very skilled with this task, others will need a fresh tutorial. I have them practice on scrap paper first. (I don't hand out their self-portraits until after we have practiced.)

We talk "all the art talk" so they have a grasp of how to shade the eyes, other features, and hair. We discuss the power of both the black and the white colored pencil. There is practice at shading with repeated strokes versus rubbing with a finger. We spend a bit of time shading. It's worth taking the time to discuss and practice because when students apply the skill to their self-portraits they are more confident, there are fewer mistakes, and the results are beautiful.

After practice, I hand out the self-portrait sketches and lead them through the start of shading. They are invited to watch and listen as I make my way around my own self-portrait. 

This is the time in the process where there needs to be a discussion about how to "finish" the eyes. Specifically, where will they draw the irises and where do they want their self-portrait to be looking? Once we had this chat I noticed a lot of students changing the location of their irises. Once the shading is applied, some stduents will prefer a different spot. Guide them to start shading the eyes lightly and deliberately. They should be able to get an idea of what their eyes will look like without shading (if case they want to move the irises around before settling on the final spot). Remind them to take their time. 

The eyes are a bit of a focal point in a Tim Burton self-portrait, so it's important to get it right. 

My students took a couple days to shade their self-portraits. Most were done in 2 days. A few others took a day or two more during free time to finish. The results were outstanding!

One of the stark differences in shading and finishing the portraits was "the Sharpie factor". If a student used a Sharpie to outline or shade, those portraits had a sharper contrast. The portraits that only used pencils displayed a little softer. We loved them all.

 

Time to Display!

To complete our self-portraits, I placed a black piece of construction paper behind the grey to give the illusion of a "mat". Then they were ready for the hallway!

I had some extra space on the board, so I decided to add a couple Tim Burton elements to accent the work and finish off the display.

If you are a visual learner and would like to see a video of this process, I thought the following two tutorials below were the most helpful.

I sent these two links to my team. We each checked them out (separately) and then proceeded to execute the lessons! Even though each teacher watched tutorials independently and delivered instruction differently, the end result was a perfectly themed hallway display for the fourth grade wing!

Consider: This is an excellent non-Halloween activity. It allows you to display a bulletin board for Halloween that isn't technically Halloween. If you have students who do not celebrate October 31st, this is a great way to include them in some "Halloween fun" while still respecting their beliefs.

Other Blog Posts You May Be Interested in:

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Pumpkin Glyph Bulletin Board!

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Ideas for Holiday Fun in an Elementary Classroom 
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