Smiley O’Reilly

By Judy Murphy

Almost every story you have ever heard is about someone being happy or sad. In some stories, people are happy, then sad, then happy. Or the story may be more complicated—like happy, sad, happy, very sad, very happy. During the story, a person may also be angry, worried, fearful, or full of laughter. Smiley O’Reilly is your story-telling pal. He can show all these feelings and more. Use him in family home evening or whenever someone is reading a scripture story to you.

You will need: scissors; ruler; wool or flannel fabric; glue; an 8 1/2″ x 11″ (22 cm x 28 cm) sheet of heavy paper; two buttons; and thick, soft yarn—one piece, 4 1/2″ (12 cm) long and two pieces 2″ (5 cm) long.

1. Cut out a circle of fabric about 8″ (20 cm) across.

2. Fray the fabric at the top of the circle by carefully pulling the threads. This is Smiley’s hair.

3. Glue the circle to the center of the paper.

4. Glue on the two buttons as eyes.

5. The shorter pieces of yarn are eyebrows. The longer piece is a mouth. Press them on to show the expression you want. Try making lots of different expressions to show how Smiley feels.

Illustrated by Brian Bean