Positive Sticks


A few weeks ago we were Jelly Bean's therapist's office. She had these positive thought cards and angel prayer cards that the kids really liked.  I loved the idea of having something tangible they could grab to think about.  I made a mental note to find something along the lines of the cards and forgot about them.  That was until my Pintrest addition kicked in and I saw all of these cute DIY activities for kids with popsicle sticks like writing consequences or chores or activities on them. Really its amazing what people can create with popsicle sticks! 

And Positive Sticks became my Saturday night craft project.  There is a little bit of a double meaning because positive thoughts do stick.  Jelly Bean told me Friday how proud of herself she was because she finished all her homework at day care all week! That moment was made possible by a year of positive praise at every turn.

Materials Needed:
Permanent Markers (various colors)
Popsicle Sticks (I bought the 75 count pack)
Container (for finished sticks)
Embellishments (if desired)
Positive thoughts, affirmations, or quotes. (You can get a great list here.)

1) Write positive thoughts on sticks.
2) Embellish with stickers, paper flowers, jewels, etc.
3) Place in container.

I chose bright colored markers and embellished with bling stickers.  The sticks can be as simple or as creative as you want to make them. Paint or decoupage would add color and texture and make them more interesting.  (My kids are behind in their reading skills so I wanted to keep them easy to read.) You can make double-sided and add as many as you want.  The possibilities are endless.  I plan on having the kids add to the pail as they get better at making positive statements.I am also going to throw in some of my favorite quotes from movies and books they will recognize.

You can do it!


2 comments:

  1. This is really neat but I am a bit slow...can you give an example of how they are used. Do they just take a stick out when they need encouragement or do you give them a stick and are they put back in for later use? Sorry. I haven't seen this used and would love to understand how this works so I can use it with my kids. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I suppose you could do it either way. When I showed the kids this morning I showed them where I was going to put it and told them whenever they were feeling, frustrated, sad, angry (and then they started listing emotions like anxious) that they could grab a stick and that stick would be meant for them. My kids would leave them on the floor and teh dog would get them so I'm requiring they get put back. I will also tell them to go get a stick when I sense they are feeling something big and aren't ready to tell me so in hopes of easing the feelings before they grow too big.

    Also I made sure to mix up the colors and the sticks because I knew that my purple lover would only grab purple and sure enough thats teh first one she went for!

    ReplyDelete

Long Overdue Update

Well hello there! It has been years since I've written and published a post and recently I've had the idea that maybe this year was ...