Smile Collage

Teaching Theme of the Week

from Education World®

A collage of smiles is sure to spread happiness.

Subjects: Health, Language Arts, Visual Arts

Grade Levels: preK-2, 3-5, 6-8

Objectives
Students will:

• reflect on happy times in their lives, and
• participate in creating a class collage.

Keywords
smile, collage, mural, Dental Health Month, teeth

Materials Needed

• mural paper
• magazines, newspapers, and other sources of advertisements/images of smiling people
• glue, tape, or staples
• writing paper

Procedure
Draw on a large sheet of mural paper an outline of a big smile. Include lips and teeth on the outline. Students might paint the lips red or cut red construction paper to conform to the outline of the lips.

For those of you with minimal art skills, you might use the smile image on this page as a guide.

Then have students collect from magazines, newspapers, and other sources pictures of smiling people. Cut out those pictures and glue, paste, or staple them to the lips of the smile mural to create a smile collage.

Another Idea
Take digital photos of your smiling students to include on the collage. You might even print the photos on red (or fluorescent pink) paper and cut them to form the lips.

Extend the Lesson
Have students write a paragraph or short essay about a time they could not help smiling or laughing. You might have students write their paragraphs on tooth-shaped paper. Then you can add the teeth to the mural. Or students might copy their edited drafts onto one of the teeth on the mural. Post the mural to a bulletin board under a headline such as "SMILE: It's Dental Health Month!"

Assessment
Students write drafts of their essays. They have a classmate edit their drafts before creating a final copy to post on the mural/bulletin board.

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