Bastille Day for Kids

When I was writing about France the other day, it occurred to me that Bastille Day was also coming up (July 14, to be precise), and I wasn’t sure that I had written about it before. On further digging I realized I had, but it’s been a few years, so let’s take a look at some more ideas for celebrating this pivotal day in French history. Of course anything in the post on France would be great to do as well.

First, if you want to start with a kid-friendly explanation of Bastille Day, get the basics from Britannica Kids.

Learn more about the French Revolution and play the Storming the Bastille game from Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool +. It looks a little like Chutes (or Snakes) and Ladders to me, but I think you might start over instead of just going back when you hit a guillotine space. She also has a France unit study that includes a printable lapbook and making pain au’ chocolat.

The Princess and the Frog made a wafer cookie Eiffel Tower (which they originally found on our Edible Crafts site; love a full circle moment!). When I went looking for that I also saw Eiffel towers made of pretzels and gingerbread, so get creative with your building challenges.

Make a fun French flag collage with this tutorial from Sparkle Living Blog (via Real Creative Organized). Search for French clip art or royalty free photos online to add to your artwork. And if you’re looking for more France themed crafts, check out this collection from Artsy Craftsy Mom. My favorite is the little printable city, which came from Handmade Charlotte, but there are lots of cute craft ideas here for Bastille Day or an day.

Grab some Bastille Day coloring pages from Plantz Matter, which also has a little French lesson if you want to learn some basics. Coloring Pages for Kids also has some good options for Bastille Day coloring.

Johnny Appleseed Day is sometimes celebrated on Sept. 26 because that is John Chapman’s birthday, but even if you’re just doing an apple unit study for fall it’s a great time to talk about Johnny Appleseed.

And that’s the place to start, that Johnny Appleseed was a real person named John Chapman who was born in 1774 in what was then the province of Massachusetts Bay. He traveled west when he turned 18 and despite the image of him randomly tossing apple seeds everywhere, he was really a deliberate planter of apple tree nurseries, which he left in the care of others and checked on every year or two.

Learn a little more of his story with these cute coloring pages (though not entirely historically accurate, they’re still cute) from Homeschool of 1. They also have a Johnny Appleseed themed word search printable.

This pin of a Scholastic News page doesn’t link to a website, but it gives you some basic information and a true and false quiz you can use with kids.

Crystal & Co. has a cute apple themed counting mini book you can print and use with your Johnny Appleseed unit. They also have some coloring pages with a bit of handwriting practice. Or practice cutting with the Johnny Appleseed themed worksheets from 3 Boys and a Dog.

Make a Johnny Appleseed puppet to help tell the story with this craft with a free printable template from Simple Everyday Mom. You’ll also find some cute printable worksheets there to learn his story and put it in the correct order.

Color, cut out and assemble this Johnny Appleseed drawing from Homeschool Preschool. They also have an apple seed counting activity you can use for practicing one to one correspondence.

Tiaras and Tantrums has a free printable apple unit that includes Johnny Appleseed facts and coloring pages, as well as how to say apple in different languages, tracing apple vocabulary, art project ideas, science experiments and more.

And if you need more apple themed activities to go with your Johnny Appleseed celebrations, check out my posts on apple crafts and apple learning activities.

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