About This Lesson
The International Day of Happiness (March 20) is a global celebration recognizing wellbeing, connection, and human flourishing as essential parts of learning and life. As educators, you support students academically every day, and nurturing emotional wellbeing, belonging, and self-awareness in the classroom is equally important.
This classroom guide helps educators bring happiness and wellbeing into learning through an inclusive, strengths-based approach grounded in positive psychology. Designed with autistic and neurodiverse learners in mind, this resource shows students that happiness skills can be taught, practiced, and experienced in ways that honor individual differences.
By participating in International Day of Happiness with Proof Positive, educators and students join a worldwide movement focused on wellbeing, inclusion, and thriving together.
Featured Activity: What Kind of Happy Are You?
This guided classroom activity invites students to explore and express different experiences of happiness. Through reflection and discussion, students build self-awareness while learning that there is no single “right” way to feel happy.
The activity is flexible across grade levels, learning styles, and classroom environments, making it ideal for both general and special education settings.
NEW! Professional Development Opportunity for Educators
Everyone Deserves Happiness Summit — FREE Virtual Event
March 20 | International Day of Happiness
Educators are invited to participate in a full-day virtual learning experience exploring wellbeing through education, autism, mental health, and positive psychology.
What you’ll gain:
- Practical, classroom-ready wellbeing strategies
- Insights from experts in education and mental health
- New approaches to supporting diverse learners
- Ideas you can implement immediately
Attend one session or stay all day — participate in a way that fits your schedule. Think of it as flexible professional learning designed to help both students and educators thrive.
Register for the FREE Summit
Here’s what you’ll get
- A ready-to-use classroom happiness activity
- Printable poster and student reflection worksheet
- Simple educator instructions for flexible implementation
- An introduction to inclusive wellbeing practices for diverse learners
- Access to a FREE professional development opportunity for educators
Why you’ll love this activity
- Easy to implement with no prep required
- Supports SEL, emotional literacy, and classroom connection
- Inclusive and autism-affirming design
- Encourages meaningful student reflection and discussion
-
Connects classroom learning to a global wellbeing initiative
Ways to use
- International Day of Happiness classroom celebration
- SEL lessons or advisory periods
- Morning meetings or counseling sessions
- Inclusive discussions about emotions and identity
- Wellbeing or mental health awareness activities
Why Bring Happiness Into the Classroom?
Research in positive psychology shows that wellbeing practices help students:
- Build emotional literacy and self-awareness
- Strengthen resilience and coping skills
- Improve engagement and classroom connection
- Support mental health and regulation
- Understand that happiness looks different for everyone
When happiness is explored inclusively, students learn that wellbeing is personal, valid, and accessible to all learners.
What are Positive Emotions?
There’s more to feeling good than just happiness. Let’s start learning and teaching a variety of ways to describe the good feelings and emotions we experience day to day. Research identifies 10 Big Positive Emotions, each with many benefits. Pride, gratitude, joy, love, amusement, inspiration, awe, interest, serenity, and hope are all positive emotions.
Feeling a frequent healthy dose of each of the positive emotions is critical to the human experience. It helps us develop the mental, physical, and social resources we need to thrive and flourish.
In fact, it’s positive emotions that help us create the resources we need, like connections to one another, creative thinking, or problem-solving skills, to not only thrive but be resilient in times of adversity.
In her groundbreaking work on positive emotions, Dr. Barbara Frederickson introduces us to the extensive benefits of feeling good, described by the Broaden and Build Theory of positive emotions. Her findings demonstrate that when individuals experience positive emotions, their awareness broadens. Broadening means experiencing positive emotions quite literally opens your mind, you think more creatively, solve problems faster, and experience an expansion in your thoughts, vision, and actions.
Over time, these moments of feeling good enable you to build critical resources physically, mentally, and socially. Positive emotions experienced frequently and deeply support thriving and flourishing. That’s why we want to intentionally seek more experiences of positive emotions!
Science of Positive Emotions
Positive emotions create opportunities for growth and healing, mentally and physically. The Broaden and Build theory is based on the notion that positive emotions enable us to develop new and creative ways of thinking to enhance wellbeing and promote resilience. Scientific evidence finds that even little moments of joy throughout the day add up to greater physical and mental wellbeing. People who experience positive emotions think better, perform better, and feel better. Experiencing positive emotions regularly can:
- Open our eyes and minds
- Increase creative thinking
- Expand our visual field
- Allow for global thinking and diversity
- Prevent depression and anxiety
- Undoing effect
- Improve cardiac functioning
- Increase healthy sleep
Learn more about the science of happiness and positive emotions
Looking for more Positive Emotions resources?
- Explore the free Jolts of Joy Unit Study, which comes with teaching slides, additional worksheets and activities, and even IEP and BIP recommendations tailored specifically to students with autism.
Looking for more SEL resources? - Explore the free full lesson plans and unit studies on the skills of happiness at our Skill Center. All units include teaching slides, additional worksheets and activities, and even IEP and BIP recommendations tailored specifically to students with autism.
Proof Positive’s resources are and will always be free. Be well!
