Holiday Adventures for Kids All Year

Sharing holiday activities in the classroom is a fun and informative way for students to engage in celebrating the meaning and symbolism of special events.

Labor Day commemorates the last day of summer and celebrates economic achievements and successes of American workers. It is fun to celebrate community workers in the classroom in celebration of Labor Day. Introducing early elementary aged children to the services provided by police officers, firefighters, mail men, and the like gives them an idea of serving each other. A great class activity is to work together to give back. This can range from making cards for service oriented jobs, providing baskets of thanks for them, and giving back to those individuals that work daily to protect them.

Some books that go along with this study include: A Job for Wittilda, by Caralyn Buehner; Bruno the Tailor, by Lars Klinting; Community Helpers from A to Z by Bobbie Kalman; Fireman Small, by Wong Herbert Yee

Thanksgiving

The celebration of the Pilgrim's making their lives stable in the United States with fun, games, and food. There are so many activities for kids to participate in for Thanksgiving. Some of my favorites include making ships out of egg cartons that resemble the Mayflower, and track the ships route on a map. The map can be homemade or pre-made. (Kids enjoy making the maps too if there is time.) Students can make costumes of the Pilgrims and Indians and have a small feast in the classroom. I enjoy discussing the traditional foods that the Pilgrims ate, as well as discussing farming.

Some books that go along with this study include: How Many Days to America: A Thanksgiving Story, by Eve Bunting; Molly's Pilgrim, by Barbara Cohen; Pilgrims of Plymouth, by Susan Goodman; Pilgrim's First Thanksgiving, by Ann McGovern.

December Holidays: Kwanza, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year's

My favorite book for the winter holidays for young children is 12 Hats for Lena, by Karen Katz. While this book is fun to teach the months of the year, I absolutely love the projects that she has for the holidays, the creation of hats that are decorated by Lena for each holiday during the month celebrated. I believe it is valuable for children of all ages to have basic understanding of the celebrations of Kwanza, Hanukkah, and Christmas, and the story of Lena helps capture the excitement of all of these holidays.

For Kwanza, students can create fruit baskets and discuss why this is symbolic for the holiday. For Hanukkah, students can make potato pancakes, and make dreidels. For Christmas, students can decorate stockings and cut out pictures from magazines for gifts that they would love to give to others for the holiday.

This is also a great month to have a community project, a food drive, or making thank you baskets for community and others that help share their services to those in need.

President's Day

I enjoy sharing pictures of the presidents and taking coins and making pictures with crayon rubbings of the front and back of coins. Depending on the age of the students, the picture books of the lives of the presidents are fun to share, especially since there are some very vivid pictures that share with students the time period and accomplishments of the lives of presidents. It is fun to share the simplicity of the lives of some of the presidents as the students realize how these individuals in authority are citizens to the United States first and foremost.

St. Patrick's Day

I especially like, St. Patrick's Day by Gail Gibbons. This is an informative story for youth and still captures the silliness and fun that we can share with students in our classroom. We can make leprechaun catchers out of shoe boxes, paint, and decorations. I enjoy setting out only green items within the classroom as well - green construction paper, crayons, markers, etc. and challenging the students to only use these colors for their daily projects.

Easter

I teach in a Christian based school, so we place great emphasis on Easter week and the rise of the Savoir. Our activities our based on scriptures and the new life that is resembled in the celebration ,in the United States, of the Easter egg. We read about the life of Jesus and act out certain events in the classroom, specifically the removal of the rock at Jesus' tomb, and Jesus washing of feet before the Last Supper. Non-secular crafts might include decoration of eggs and bunnies. There are banners and other decorations that can be made for the arrival of Spring.

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day, I enjoy reading students the story about the Pledge of Allegiance. We discuss the importance of the country as our home and create paper flags. We send these as cards to those in the military along with a service project of sending over snacks and other items needed. The students enjoy participating in this project and feel a sense of ownership by taking action. I also enjoy making a Memorial Day cake with students, using cake, white frosting and fruit to create the lines of the flag - bananas, blueberries and strawberries.

Celebrating the holidays in the classroom is simple fun that encourages everyone's participation and excitement.