About This Lesson
The holiday season offers a perfect opportunity for students and teachers to pause, reflect, and create a Positivity Portfolio—a collection of items, memories, songs, or pictures that spark positive emotions like joy, gratitude, and hope. This activity fosters connection and encourages reflection, helping individuals and classrooms recharge during a busy time of year.
Inspired by Barbara Fredrickson's Positivity, Positivity Portfolios are a mindful way to cultivate happiness in daily life. Katherine May's Wintering highlights the winter season as a time for rest and renewal, aligning perfectly with the practice of creating a Positivity Portfolio. By embracing this natural rhythm, your classroom can reflect on the past year and prepare for new growth in the year ahead.
First, students should select one or several of the positive emotions to focus on over the coming weeks. Next, they can decide whether they’d like their Positivity Portfolio to be digital like a PowerPoint, Pinterest Board, or music playlist, or a physical collection in a shoebox, scrapbook, or on a bookshelf. Each day for up to a month, they should spend about 15 minutes compiling memories, items, or pictures that inspire the emotion(s) they selected.
Savor & Reflect: Support students in collecting portfolio items for about two weeks. Each time they add something, they should spend a few moments savoring all the other entries. This activity includes reflection questions like, “Over time, are you noticing an improvement in your positivity ratio? What other positive emotions could use a boost with a positivity portfolio?”
Here’s what you’ll get:
- Printable template with step-by-step instructions for creating a Positivity Portfolio
- Access to the Positivity Portfolio lesson plans and a unit study
Why you’ll love this activity:
- The activity is easy to print and customize in your classroom or at home
- Gives students a chance to pause and reflect during a busy time of year
- Great activity for winter and the holiday season
- You can use this resource as part of a comprehensive, science-based unit study.
- The associated free unit study for Positivity Portfolios comes with activities, downloadable worksheets, and even IEP and BIP recommendations tailored specifically to students with autism
- Encourages emotional literacy and growth in social-emotional learning (SEL)
Ways to Use
- Assign as an end-of-year activity for students to reflect on their favorite moments
- Use in staff training to encourage personal and professional reflection
- Incorporate into SEL curriculum
- Integrate into small groups and/or individual counseling sessions
- Families can use this at home, too!
What is a Positivity Portfolio?
A Positivity Portfolio, inspired by Barbara Fredrickson’s book Positivity, is a mindful intervention designed to help you cultivate positivity and happiness in your daily life. It’s a curated collection of items, memories, songs, or pictures that evoke one or more of the 10 essential positive emotions—joy, love, inspiration, serenity, amusement, awe, pride, interest, gratitude, and hope. Building and savoring your Positivity Portfolio for just 15 minutes a day can boost your wellbeing, enhance life satisfaction, and help you flourish.
Science of Positivity Portfolios:Positivity Portfolios are an evidence-based tool rooted in Barbara Fredrickson's Broaden and Build Theory of Positive Emotions. Positive Emotions like joy, gratitude, and hope expand awareness, boost creativity, and enhance problem-solving skills. Over time, these emotions help build lasting mental, social, and emotional resources.
In the classroom, Positivity Portfolios foster individual growth and encourage positivity resonance—shared moments of connection and care. These shared experiences strengthen peer relationships, create a supportive classroom culture, and promote collaboration.
Positive Emotions feel good, and they are good for you! People who regularly feel positive emotions experience:
- Increased wellbeing and life satisfaction
- Increased attention, awareness, and memory
- A boost in learning, creativity, and mental flexibility
- Stronger relationships
- Less perceived stress
- Lower depressive symptoms
- Improved sleep and sleep quality
- Improved cardiovascular function
Looking for more Positivity Portfolio Resources?
- Explore the free Positivity Portfolio Unit Study, which includes teaching slides, additional worksheets and activities, and even IEP and BIP recommendations tailored specifically to students with autism.
Proof Positive’s resources are and will always be free. Be well!
Bonus access to full lesson plans and unit studies on the skills of happiness at our Skill Center
