Holiday Preschool Lesson Plans and Activities: A Year's Worth of Celebrations
Holidays That Honor People
There are holidays throughout the year that teach children to respect and honor people who have made significant contributions to a society. You can take these opportunities to instruct preschoolers to value and understand how these contributions have affected their lives. Through these lesson plans you can also teach your students how to take action against the unfair situations in their own daily lives. With preschoolers the lessons and values need to be simple, but will play an important role that they will take with them for life.
- Martin Luther King Projects for Preschool Students
- George Washington Preschool Activities
- Preschool Activities for President’s Day
- St. Patricks Day Preschool Facts
- Celebrate Columbus Day with Crafts and Activities for Kids
- Columbus Day Crafts to Make with Toddlers
Celebrations of Love and Caring
There are several holidays that teach children about love and caring. These special days can be used to help preschoolers develop an understanding of relationships and a sense of belonging to their families. Included in these lessons are ideas for the children to make gifts to present to loved ones. Homemade gifts touch the heart!
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[Preschool Ministry: Valentine Lessons for the Classroom
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Mother’s Day Games and Activities for Preschool Children
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Make Mother’s Day Memorable! Christian Mother’s Day Crafts for Preschool
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Personalize Preschool Father’s Day Gifts with Question Booklets
Holidays Emphasizing Freedom and Peace
If holiday curriculum is presented effectively, valuable learning experiences can take place. These holidays teach children to value people’s struggles for freedom, peace and justice. These days of celebration bring much joy to children and valuable lessons to be learned.
- Happy Fourth of July: Toddler Lesson Plans
- Celebrate the Red, White and Blue with Preschool 4th of July Crafts and Activities
- Preschool Lesson Plans: Teaching About Hanukkah
- Fun Hanukkah Games to Play with Your Kids
- Celebrating Kwanzaa in Preschool
Minor celebrations emphasizing this concept:
- Cinco de Mayo Preschool Activities and Facts: Viva la Fiesta!
- Cinco de Mayo Books for Preschool: Time for a Fiesta
Other Traditional Holidays
Celebrate the traditional holidays with joy and emphasize the fun and excitement of giving and receiving. Use the five senses to get the most from each holiday with the smells, tastes, visions, sights and even things to touch. These articles are full of book titles to read, discussions, songs to sing, games to play and artistic crafts to decorate the classroom or home. The holidays are, and always have been, reflections of whatever we bring to them.
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[Celebrate These New Year’s Eve Kid’s Crafts for Preschoolers
](https://www.brighthubeducation.com/preschool-crafts-activities/58401-new-years-crafts-for-preschool/)
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“12 Days of Christmas” Theme Based Preschool Art Activities
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Let’s Graph! Christmas Themed Graphing Ideas for Preschool Math Lessons
Unofficial holidays we celebrate:
- Preschool Mardi Gras Activities for Fat Tuesday Celebrations!
- Lesson Plan for Celebrating April Fool’s Day with Preschoolers
- Preschool: Earth Day and Environment
- Earth Day Activities for the Preschool Classroom: Recycling
- Arbor Day Preschool Activities: Trees are Terrific
Multicultural Holidays
Honor every culture that is represented in your classroom. Holiday curriculum, when used effectively, appropriately and accurately offers great opportunities for multicultural learning. It is important to recognize that children from different cultural and religious backgrounds celebrate different holidays. Respect and honor their holidays and take the opportunity to learn more about other cultures through holiday celebrations. Help the children understand that not all people celebrate the same holidays as they do.
- Preschool Theme on Passover: How to Teach the Story of the Exodus
- Jewish Crafts for Rosh Hashanah: Preschool Crafts
- Jewish Crafts for Yom Kippur: Preschool Crafts
- Celebrate Autumn with a Chinese Moon Festival Lesson for Preschool
- Preschool Activities for Exploring Christmas Around the World
Let’s All Celebrate!
Holidays evoke much excitement and anticipation in the preschool classroom. Each season has marked holidays on the calendar along with other unofficial celebrations and multicultural ones as well. Many of the articles in this guide will help you provide the lessons and activities that make the holiday special to you and the children. So, get out the art materials to do a little decorating, belt out some holiday songs, move with games, read special books and engage the children in activities that help make the waiting easy and fun and with each holiday, itself, a true learning adventure.
References
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The information offered in this article is based on the author’s personal experience as an early childhood teacher.
Clipart:
Martin Luther King Day: http://classroomclipart.com/clipart-view/Clipart/Holidays/holiday9_2_07_jpg.htm
Valentine’s Day: http://classroomclipart.com/clipart-view/Clipart/Holidays/Valentines_Day/valentine-hearts_jpg.htm
Halloween: http://www.hasslefreeclipart.com/cart_halloween/page1.html
Independence Day: http://classroomclipart.com/clipart-view/Clipart/Holidays/holiday7_2_07_jpg.htm
Christmas wreath: http://classroomclipart.com/clipart-view/Clipart/Holidays/Christmas/wpc30137B_gif.htm