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 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.
Explore the intersection of positive psychology and autism intervention by teaching your students about Positivity Portfolios!
This comprehensive bundle includes everything you need to leverage Positivity Portfolios in the classroom, including teaching slides, a teacher's guide, printables for each activity, and supplementary resources. This is the perfect skill to introduce and teach during the holiday season!
Learning Objectives:
- Students learn to identify, recognize, and define each of the 10 positive emotions
- Students learn to identify/sort items, memories, and photographs according to positive emotions
- Students learn to build and savor Positivity Portfolios
Here’s what you’ll get:
An entire Positivity Portfolios unit, including,
- Student instruction and lessons in Google slides format
- Teacher's guide in speaker notes and also available as a Google doc
- Printable worksheets, activities, and materials for students
Begin teaching Positivity Portfolios!
- Activity 1: Introduction to Positive Emotions
- Activity 2: Benefits of Positive Emotions
- Activity 3: Building Positivity Portfolios
- Activity 4: Savoring Positivity Portfolios
- Activity 5: Sharing Positivity Portfolios
Integration into Current InstructionFor students who are working on navigational skills (walking the halls of the school independently), develop a Positivity Portfolio map where they walk the school and identify which areas trigger specific positive emotions (e.g., a favorite classroom brings them joy, a bulletin board that sparks interest, the gym which inspires hope or pride) for them. Encourage them to use these markers as landmarks when they are navigating to class.
- For a student working on tech skills (e.g., PowerPoint, Word, or Zoom), have them create their Positivity Portfolio on a tech based platform and learn to master tech skills in the presence of positivity.
- For students who create a daily activity schedule, start the day by having them map emotions to each schedule cue and then savor the cues that bring positive emotions.
- Teachers might create a “Positivity Portfolio” savoring cue in their classrooms and create space for all students to savor their portfolios regularly. The cue could be a specific song they play when it’s time to practice Positivity Portfolios or a cue card they hold up for the class. Create space for the regular practice of Positivity Portfolio savoring.
Why you’ll love this unit study:
*The lessons and activities are easy to read and implement
* You can use each lesson as a standalone activity or as part of a comprehensive, science-based unit study
* The Positivity Portfolio Unit Study comes with activities, downloadable worksheets, and even IEP and BIP recommendations tailored specifically to students with autism
Ways to Use
- Use it as an 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 students' 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 SEL resources?
- Explore the free full lesson plans and unit studies on the skills of happiness at our Skill Center. All units include 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.
