Celebrate World Emoji Day

July 17 is celebrated as World Emoji Day (because July 17 is the day shown on the calendar emoji) and it’s the perfect day to plan a little emoji fun.

Emojis can be a way to talk about emotions, but they can also just be fun!

Do some easy drawing with the printable complete the emoji drawing activity from Look We’re Learning.

How well can you tell emojis apart? Test your powers of perception with an I spy emoji game printable from Paper Trail Design. Create Craft Love has a printable emoji bingo game, or you can make an emotional spin on Twister with this party game idea from The Activity Mom.

Make paper plate emoji masks with this crafty idea from Natural Beach Living. Or grab some fun emoji coloring pages from Cool 2B Kids for car rides and other times you need a quiet activity.

This optical illusion emoji spinner is a lot of fun to make, and you probably already have the supplies you need at home to make it. Grab the tutorial from Jane Hayes Creative.

Use yellow cups (or paint some yellow) and the printable from 10 Minutes of Quality Time to make a spinning emoji cup. You can also draw in your own favorite emojis if they aren’t included on the printable.

Speaking of favorite emojis, another fun activity would be to design your own emjoi. Is there something you love that you think needs a symbol (for me it’s knitting!)? Or a favorite food that’s missing from the lineup? Have kids (and adults!) design their own emoji and write or talk about why they picked what they did. You can even vote on which ones you’d like to see made into real emojis. Teach Simple has a printable on making your own emoji, or you can just draw it on regular paper.

Play guess the emoji! Do you really know what that emoji means? Check out this list from SmartPrix to see if that symbol means what you think it means. There are lots of emjoi quizzes online, but you can also make your own, where you use emjois to describe the name or plot of a book or movie and see if other people can guess what it is. Sort of like Pictionary without the drawing (and you don’t even have to be in the same room!).

Talk about Emotions with Emoji Playdough

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Advent Calendar Ideas for Kids

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

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