World Smile Day

In 1963, Harvey Ball created the smiley face symbol – a yellow circle with black eye dots and a smile curve. World Smile Day began in 1999 and is on the first Friday of October each year. It is a Day to smile and to make small acts of kindness. Harvey wanted to keep the smile connected to the human being and to reflect his original intent for the symbol to be used for goodwill and good cheer. His view was to reinforce the power of smiling to encourage someone else to smile and to brighten up their day. Take a look at Education World’s activity ideas for this Day including:

• the World Smile Day Coloring Page by HomeSchooling to color your own smiley face character and read a short excerpt about Harvey Ball;
• the story How Kind! by Mary Murphy about animals giving a series of gifts and expressing “‘How kind!’ on receipt;
• Sharing A Smile and measuring its length, counting the number of teeth shown and making a list of what makes you smile; and
• putting up a What Makes Me Smile poster for all to write what makes them smile and to be displayed all year as a reminder.