Objective: Students will identify happiness as a feeling. Students will recognize a collage.

Materials: Martin Mixed-Up at the Beach by Jess Golden Linehan, scissors, glue, magazines, paper.

Procedure: Ask students, “what makes you happy?”. If they have trouble thinking of ideas, lead them by giving examples. Ask, “are you happy when you draw?”, “are you happy when you lose your favorite toy?”, “are you happy when you get a birthday present?”. Tell students that you will be reading a story about a girl who is sad about something. Let’s see if there is anything that will make her happy. Read the story. Explain to the class that happiness is a feeling we have inside. Our faces can show our feelings. Review the illustrations in the book. Martin’s sister’s face shows she is sad. At the end, she is smiling. How does she feel at the end? Ask students if the things in the book make them happy (dancing? drinking from a bottle? going in the water?).  What other things make them happy?

Culminating Activity: Show students a collage. A collage is a piece of art with many small pictures placed together. The students will make their own collages of what makes them happy. Demonstrate how to cut and glue some pictures. At the tables are magazines the students can use.  When they are finished, students can show their artwork and tell about it. 

(For older students,  explore sadness and happiness, and use a divided page to collage the things that make them happy, and things that make them sad. Compare the two sides.)