Arbor Day for Kids

Arbor Day is a day dedicated to the planting and appreciation of trees. It is celebrated on the last Friday in April in the United States. The first Arbor Day was celebrated on April 10, 1872, in Nebraska. More than one million trees were planted on that day. Arbor Day is now celebrated in all 50 states and in many other countries around the world.

Arbor Day is a reminder of the importance of trees to our environment. Trees provide us with oxygen, clean air, and water. They also help to regulate the climate and provide habitat for wildlife. Trees can also beautify our communities and make them more livable.

Kids can take part in Arbor Day by planting a tree or learning more about trees in your yard, playground or town. (Maybe also climbing a tree if the weather is nice.) Or try a tree-related scavenger hunt like this one from Homeschool of 1.

Woo Jr. has lots of great printables about Arbor Day, including fact sheets, leaf identification, a page for doing research about the state tree of a state, a word search, a crossword and more. This is a great place to start building your lessons.

Raising Our Kids has a good collection of Arbor Day coloring sheets, as does Best Coloring Pages for Kids. Or grab a word search from Monster Word Search.

And of course there are all sorts of tree related crafts that you can make to cap off your Arbor Day celebration (or make while you’re reading or watching The Lorax, of course!). There’s a nice collection of tree crafts for Arbor Day or any other time available from Fun Family Crafts. Or have kiddos draw their favorite tree and share a story about it.

How about making a chocolate popcorn tree for a snack? Get the instructions from Hungry Happenings.

Lots of Americans seem to think that May 5 is Mexican Independence Day, but that holiday actually falls on Sept. 16.

May 5 is the celebration of the Battle of Puebla, in which the Mexicans defeated the French in 1862. Independence Day marks the beginning of their fight for independence from Spain in 1810. That was the day of what’s known as El Grito de Dolores, or the cry of Dolores, for when the Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rang the church bells at his church in Dolores and declared that Mexico should be free from Spanish rule.

They would fight for their freedom until 1821 when they finally gained independence.

Fabulous Classroom has a little of the history and ideas for celebrating the holiday for all age groups. There’s also a link to a good video in that post about the real story of Mexican Independence Day.

Twinkl also has a good tops about the history and different activities, discussion ideas, crafts and foods that can be incorporated into lessons at school or used at home.

I also found a few pins that no longer link to a website but include good information on Mexican Independence Day, including some questions for students to answer based on the reading. You can find more printables and questions for kids from TX Homeschool Mama on Etsy (also available in Spanish).

You can find a lot more paid resources about Mexican Independence Day at Teachers Pay Teachers.

Mexican flag crafts are a fun option for celebrating Mexican Independence Day (though the current iteration of their flag has only been in use since 1968). Kids Activities Blog has a free Mexican flag printable and a few different ideas for decorating it including dot markers and torn tissue paper.

You can also find some great Mexican crafts at Red Ted Art. The post includes all sorts of Mexican inspired projects including Day of the Dead crafts, Frida Kahlo pinatas and upcycled musical instruments. I love the giant paper flowers they shared from Honestly WTF.

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