Teaching About Holidays in Kindergarten
Teaching about holidays in kindergarten is such a fun time of year! I just love the warmth, coziness, and colors of the season! Our students each have an interesting and unique background as well as winter holiday traditions! Celebrating every winter holiday in your classroom is SO important because we want all of our children to feel comfortable, valued, and appreciated!
But how do we go about doing this? What holidays do our children celebrate (it can be difficult to get a straight answer from a five-year-old)?
First things, first!
Have a Circle Discussion
One of the easiest ways to find out which holidays your students celebrate is to simply have a circle discussion! Ask your kiddos what holidays they will be celebrating with their families and to tell you their favorite part about it!
Now, we all know kindergarteners are 5ish years old and we have no idea what they will say and whether or not it is actually true 🤦‍♀️, so you can easily prepare for this type of discussion to get an accurate response!Â
Ahead of time, using your main mode of communication (email, note home, weekly newsletter, REMIND, etc.), send parents a notice that you will be having this circle sharing time with the students. Ask parents to talk with their children about their holiday and what their traditions are!
Send A Small Holiday Project Home
This is a little more parent-involved, but you can also have students complete a small holiday project at home to bring in and share with the class. This can also serve as a bulletin board or wall-hanging in the classroom or hallway.
My district does not require kindergarteners to do homework, besides nightly reading, but once in a while, we have students create things at home to bring in and share. One of the times we do this is during the winter holiday season. We send a one-page “questionnaire” project home to have a parent complete with their child. The questionnaire project looks like this:
My students love sharing these and telling the class all about what they created and their traditions!
Winter Holiday Show and Tell
Kids LOVE show and tell! They also love telling stories and talking about themselves! Simply ask families to send in an object, photograph or picture of their winter holiday tradition.
Some examples of items that students can bring in are a plastic ornament, dreidel, read aloud based on their holiday, Kinara candle, gelt, a photograph of their holiday celebration, or a drawing of their holiday. There are so many options and families can be really creative of what they send in!
Teaching About Holidays in Kindergarten
You will learn so much about your students by doing this and continue to grow the rapport that is so important in creating a fun and safe learning environment!
One activity that EVERY child loves is the Polar Express! Sarah, over at the Little Learning Corner, has fantastic ideas for a Polar Express themed-day! You check out her blog post, Polar Express Worksheets And Activities here!
Tag me on Instagram @sparkling.in.primary with your winter holiday celebration ideas or leave me a comment about how you get to know your student’s holiday traditions!
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Looking for Thanksgiving ideas for your class? My blog post here can give you some ideas!
Have a wonderful holiday with your students!
Be sure to check out other Hopping Fun Friday holiday blog posts!
Allie says
This is my FAVORITE time of year in my classroom! I love sharing the holidays with my students, and you’ve given us great ways to do that! I especially love the show and tell- I’ll have to incorporate that into my plans this year! Thank you!
Amber says
I LOVE these ideas! I like that you mentioned having parents discuss with their children ahead of time to make sure what they are sharing is accurate. I’d love to have a Holiday Show and Tell with my third graders this year. Thank you for the fantastic idea!
Caroline says
Your holiday snowman craft is adorable! Thanks for this timely post!
Rachae says
These are great ideas! I love how you have the family involvement. You can do a glove-hat tree too, where they can donate them to needy families. 🙂 Great article!
Amanda Surowaniec says
I love that idea!!
Loren Dietrich says
I always think its great when students get to share about themselves. I love the show and share idea!
Brooklyn says
These are fantastic shares for the kinder classroom. It is obvious how passionate you are!!!
Karyn says
I love how you include the families into your classroom Christmas activities. I always send home a Gingerbread cutout for the families to disguise so he/she won’t be eaten. They love that!
Kayla says
I love the show and tell idea! The holidays are SO fun, it’s my favorite time of the year to teach! Thanks for sharing your ideas!