I’m having lots of fun taking part in the ShareASmile Project! Through my other blog, Bits of Positivity, I’m one of eight bloggers participating in a Smile-a-Thon to raise money for surgeries to repair cleft lip, cleft palate, and other facial deformities in children around the world.
Our main ShareASmile activity is to find and photograph spontaneous smileys (smiley faces found in everyday objects) and upload them to the Spontaneous Smiley website. (Update: The Spontaneous Smiley website doesn’t seem to be working properly, but you can find current posts in the Spontaneous Smiley Public Facebook group.) For more information about the ShareASmile project, read my Share a Smile posts.
You don’t have to be part of the ShareASmile bloggers’ project to help out and have fun with your child at the same time. You can encourage your child to make a difference while having fun looking for smiles. And focusing on finding smiles is definitely a happy, positive activity!
Spontaneous Smileys
Here are some examples of the spontaneous smileys I’ve found recently:
Really Useful Box Smiley
Knife Holder Smiley
Garage Control Smiley
Car Smiley
Smile Hunt
I don’t have young children at home anymore, but I still had fun going on walks to search for spontaneous smileys. It would be even more fun with children – and there are many skills you can help your child develop at the same time.
Montessori-Inspired Photography Tray
I had a post previously on Montessori-Inspired Photography for Kids. I actually used a smiley photo album because it was my smiley-loving now-adult daughter’s first photo album.
The photo at the top of this post is an example of a tray you could create to encourage your child to find smiles. Older children could be encouraged to find and photograph spontaneous smileys to help Operation Smile.
With a younger child, you could go on a smile hunt to find smiles of any kind, whether it’s a spontaneous smiley, the smile on a doll, or the smile on your neighbor’s face. Finding spontaneous smileys is great for visual discrimination skills, but young children will probably feel more successful if they just hunt for any smiles. For young children, you could find the spontaneous smileys and help your child identify them at the time and later in the photograph. Your child could find the other smiles.
Smiley-Inspired Activities for Children
- Count the smiles you find: “1 smile, 2 smiles…”
- Allow your child to photograph any smiles he or she finds.
- You could have a photography tray similar to the ones in the photographs with a camera for your child to photograph smiles at any time. See the Montessori-Inspired Photography for Kids post for more ideas on presenting photography activities.
- Encourage your child to keep a smile journal. It could be a purchased notebook similar to the one in the photo at the top of the page or a handmade smile journal. Your child could draw pictures of discovered smiles or number and record smiles in any way appropriate for your child’s ability level.
- Have a smile photo album like the one in the photos for your child to insert either spontaneous smileys or his or her favorite smile photos. If you show your child how to carefully handle and insert the photos into the photo album, you’ll be giving your child a helpful practical life lesson at the same time.
- If your child is interested and would find the activity meaningful, have him or her help you upload any spontaneous smileys to the Spontaneous Smiley website. If you upload any spontaneous smiles during March, be sure to put “Elizabeth sent me” in the “Who are You?” section. (Elizabeth from Broken Treasures organized the Smile-a-Thon.)
- For young children, prepare activity trays using smiley images and/or 3-dimensional smiley objects to create hands-on learning activities.
- Create an Operation Smile homeschool unit study or include Operation Smile in your geography studies and cleft lip and cleft palate in your anatomy studies.
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You found some really fun smiles 🙂 Love all the extra activities you came up with!!!
Thanks, Artsy Momma! It’s really a fun project … I’m so glad I know about it. I’m on the lookout for spontaneous smileys now. It really would be the most fun to do with kids, though! 🙂
Love the smiles! What a great way to raise funds for a worthy cause!
Thanks so much, Janet! I love having such a fun way to make a difference … and it’s definitely a great cause! 🙂
Having fun for a worthy cause! I should try this out with my preschooler one of these days. Will upload pics and let him know he’s helping a lot of other kids with it. Never too young to start philantrophy! Thanks for the idea, Deb!
Thanks, Les! It would be awesome if you’d do that with your preschooler! 🙂
Lovely idea, thank you.
i’m your latest follower on RSS.
BeingaMama
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Thanks so much, Being a Mama! (I’m responding quite late because this went into the wrong folder.) I really appreciate your following me! 🙂
Ha!!! Love the smiles! I’d like to invite you to share this with our readers for Fun Stuff Friday @Toys In The Dryer http://www.toysinthedryer.com/2012/03/fun-stuff-fridays-16.html.
Thanks so much! I’m linked up with Fun Stuff Fridays! 🙂
What a fun activity. I see smiles everywhere..glad to know that I am not alone. Please consider linking this up at my new blog hop – http://hammockhomeschool.blogspot.com/2012/03/home-education-live-link-party.html
Thanks, Savannah! I’m getting better all the time at finding smiles! This went into the wrong folder, so I just linked up! Thanks for letting me know about your blog hop! 🙂
What a great idea and cause! We’ve searched for letters in ordinary objects and took photos.
Thanks for your kind comment, Jen! Great idea to search for letters in ordinary objects! 🙂
My son would love this! Great idea! Deb, can you add me to your Pinterest Montessori-Inspired Activities board? Thanks! I can add you to my Mont. boards, too! Lisa (on her 49th birthday today)!
Thanks, Lisa! I just added you to the Montessori-Inspired Activities board. I’d love to be added to your Montessori boards. And happy birthday!!! 🙂
This brought me a lot of joy just looking at the Smiles you found! Kids will love this!
Thanks so much, Christine! It was a fun project – and I keep finding more and more smiles all the time. I uploaded 17 spontaneous smileys to the Spontaneous Smiley website during the project! 🙂
Thanks for linking this up to our Afterschool Party. This seems like a very fun project for a great cause. My daughter is such a sweet photographer and always captures really true smiles from those around here, she will love this.
Thanks for your comment, Kim! It’s definitely a great project to get your family involved in! 🙂
Oh, how fun! My girls would love this project. Thanks for sharing with the Kids Co-op – I’m going to feature this on the Facebook page 😀
Thanks, Cathy! I really appreciate your featuring my post at The Kid’s Co-op Facebook page! 🙂
We just wanted to let you know that we’re featuring this on our page tomorrow! @toysinthedryer
Thanks so much! How exciting that my post was featured! 🙂
We did this and had a ton of fun!! Thanks for helping spread the word about the Share A Smile project!! http://ejoym.blogspot.com/2012/03/share-smile-day14.html
Thanks, Elizabeth! I LOVE what you’ve done with the ShareASmile Project … so much fun and for such a great cause! 🙂
You have such a great eye for detail. Thanks for sharing ShareASmile project with Afterschool!
Thanks, Natalie! Actually, this has improved my eye for detail. I’m seeing more spontaneous smileys now than when I started! 🙂
Well, that was a pretty fascinating read, not going to lie. I really hope you continue to write. Probably one of the more informative pieces I’ve read on this subject. Thanks!