Happy World Smile Day! This is a great day to have fun with kids and teach them more about the power of a smile! Show them how smiles are contagious and how they can spread to everyone. Help them feel how powerful positive energy can be when they can do something as free and as easy as smiling at someone which in turn makes them feel happy instantly. Now THAT is some pretty great Power. Like a Smile Superhero!
- Do an experiment with young children by having them smile at someone. Did they smile back? For older children use a graph and see how many returns they get on their smiles. Use tally marks to count how many smiles the children see walking down the hall to another class.
- Make smile buttons, badges or ribbons to wear on Smile Day
- Make smile cards (like business cards or greeting cards) to give to people on to make them Smile today.
- Children can draw smiley faces on round stickers and hand them out to friends on smile day. (these stickers are very cheap and often used for garage sales)
- Have children watch themselves in mirrors and practice different smiles – they could draw self-portraits during this time and make a collective smile book.
- Sing “If You’re Happy and You Know It” and have children think of new things to do such as “Moo like a cow”, “Hug a Friend”, “Blink your Eyes”, “Say hola”, “Show a SMILE”, etc.
More Activities Related to Smile Day:
- Talk about tooth care
- Books about Feelings
- Spell the word smile
- find “smiles” in nature
- use a smile sensory bin for a fun center
- have children find smiles in magazines and newspapers. They can use scissors to cut out the smiles and glue them to a big poster to display for smile day.
