21st November World Hello Day

Today is the 39th annual World Hello Day. Anyone can participate simply by greeting ten people. This demonstrates that you think personal communication is important for preserving peace. World Hello Day began in 1973 in response to the conflict between Egypt and Israel. The day is observed now in 180 countries as an opportunity for people to express their concern for world peace. Your simple greeting sends a message to leaders encouraging them to use communication rather than force to settle conflicts.

There are several picture books which you can use to start the idea of greetings as a means of communication. Choose from:

Two suitable for very young children

• Hello, Goodbye by David Lloyd and Louise Voce

• The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster and Chris Raschka

Two which expose children to 'hello' in many languages

• Hello World! by Manya Stojic

• Say Hello! by Rachel Isadora

and a poignant story about a boy who feels left out and alone while other children play together which has an underlying message about how it doesn't take much to just say 'hello'

• Say Hello by Jack and Michael Foreman.

22nd November World Hello Day

Yesterday was World Hello Day. I thought that it was a funny thing to be having, so I looked up why it is celebrated. It was interesting to learn that anyone can take part simply by greeting ten people so as to emphasise how important personal communication is for preserving peace. So in classes today we talked about it and decided we would try to say hello to ten people each today. We read Say Hello by Jack and Michael Foreman and Duffy Everyone's Dog by Patricia Bernard and Cathy Netherwood. Both of these books stress how important it is to speak to and include others. They also are multicultural in that they look at the word for 'hello' in a multitude of languages. We then used the Say Hello to the World website to look up how to say hello in even more languages. Researching I also found that Rachel Isadora has a new book called Say Hello which is about Carmelita who goes walking with her mother and dog through her neighbourhood stopping to say hello to friends and shopkeepers along the way. As in Duffy, which is no longer in print, the greetings are in many languages, so if your library does not have Duffy and you are looking for a book this may prove to be a good purchase. I will certainly look out for it as I like Rachel Isadora's books.