Be True to Yourself … “A Bad Case of Stripes” activity

I was very excited that the Virtual Book Club for Kids picked David Shannon to be the featured author this month.  He is one of my favorite authors and illustrators of children’s books.  And my favorite book of his is ..

 It’s about a little girl so concerned about fitting in and not being labeled as different that she forgoes what she LOVES.  This only “covering” up who she really is … a she winds up with a very bad case of the stripes.  The cure … love what you love no matter what others may think.

I use this book frequently in my work as a child psychologist.  I have used it with kids that are anxious about going to school, kids that have frequent somatic complaints, and kids who need to increase their self-esteem.

I didn’t yet have an activity go along with this book, but the Virtual Book Club for kids and this great project idea from I Heart Crafty Things inspired me to create this activity that can be used at home with your kids OR as an activity in play therapy.

• Take a cute photo of your kid.
• Use a photo editing program to make the photo black and white.
• Print it out on a full size paper.

• Cut your kid out.

• Paste your kid on a plain white sheet of paper (I used card stock)

• Make several copies of your cut-out kid pasted on the paper. (that way you don’t have to do that whole process again if you or your kid wants to do the activity more than once!)
• Then have them color and create their own stripes … or whatever …

I had my hand at it, too. (side note: it was a GREAT way to test old markers out to see if it was time to pitch ’em).  Then I wrote down all the things that she loves … and makes her HER!

I look forward to using this activity in play therapy too!  Make sure to check out all the great ideas linked up below in this months’s Virtual Book Club for Kids!

Do you have a David Shannon book?  I’d love to have you join the blog hop!  All you have to do is…

1. Pick a David Shannon book to read with your child!
2. Do any activity, craft, cooking project, or other book inspired activity that goes along with the book your chose.
3. Share what you did with us starting Monday, April 15th. We will have a linky up for 3 weeks where you can share any blog posts (if you are a blogger) or you can post what you did at the end of the linky post in the comments or on our Facebook wall.

I can’t wait to see all of your fabulous ideas! Thanks for participating!

For more updates and to see loads of the posts by participating bloggers, head on over and “Like”our Virtual Book Club for Kids Facebook page.

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