5 Great Resources for Learning about Celebrations in the Primary Classroom
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I love learning about other people’s cultures and traditions. This has translated into recognizing celebrations in the classroom. When we learn about the traditions and celebrations of others, we can make connections because we indeed have many things in common! It’s also important to foster understanding and be respectful of our differences. Give your students the opportunity to develop an understanding of why people have different practices and beliefs.
In this post, I will be sharing some of my favorite go-to resources for learning about traditions and celebrations.
Video Series
It’s My Party is a TVO Kids series where children explore the various elements of a celebration. Each 22-minute episode has 2 children that have never met - the party host and a guest. The host is the child celebrating the event and sharing their culture. The guest is somewhat unfamiliar with the event and is eager to learn and participate. I love that the series includes a variety of multicultural holidays and events such as Holi, Purim, Eid al-Fitr, and a Pow Wow. You can also find season 1 and season 2 on YouTube.
Articles and Book Series
CBC Kids - a collection of interesting and informative articles about many holidays and festivals. It also highlights a wide variety of celebrations such as Basant, Eid al-Adha, and Yom Kippur.
Epic has been a lifesaver, especially when it comes to teaching online! Epic is a digital reading platform for kids with thousands of books. There are TONS of books for a wide variety of holidays and celebrations. I’ve created a few collections - just click the links to check them out!
Bullfrog Books Series - Approximate level: E-J
Bumba Books Series - Approximate level: K
Cloverleaf: Holidays and Special Days Series - Approximate level: L
Celebrations in My World Series - Approximate level: N-R
I would also recommend reading #ownvoices books for celebrations, whether fiction or non-fiction. In this context, the books would be created by writers and/or illustrators who share the heritage or culture presented in the books.
Classroom Visitors
Inviting students’ family members to share their celebrations is a great way for families to engage in the classroom. You could also invite leaders of different faith traditions. Visitors can bring in personal artifacts, culturing clothing, and answer any questions that your students may have. Depending on your school policies, you could also prepare and/or eat traditional foods.
Printable and Digital Activities
I have also turned this love of learning about history and culture into a resource collection: Holiday Mini Books!
Each mini book is 8-10 pages and includes:
basic facts about the celebration
the history and/or religious background
explanations of traditions and special foods
an activity (word search, maze, secret code, word jumble, etc.)
a prompt for children to list what they’ve learned
a corresponding Google Slide version
I have created a mini book for Chinese New Year, Christmas, Day of the Dead, Diwali, Easter, Halloween, Hanukkah, Holi, Kwanzaa, Las Posadas, New Year’s Day, Passover, Purim, Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, Remembrance Day, Rosh Hashanah, St. Patrick’s Day, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, and Yom Kippur with more to come! See the collection in my TPT Store or BP Shop!
To summarize, here are my 5 fave resources for learning about classroom celebrations:
How do you learn about celebrations?
