Celebrate Canada Day with Your Kids

It sometimes gets overlooked in favor of American Independence Day on July 4, but Canadians celebrate the birth of their nation on July 1 each year.

It’s not Independence Day, but it marks the signing of the Constitution Act, which, on July 1, 1867, joined the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Canada into a new nation that would be called Canada.

If you’re any good at math you’ll realize this year, 2017, is a big anniversary, 150 years since the confederation was formed. If that’s not a reason to celebrate and learn more about Canada, I don’t know what is.

Learning about Canada for Kids

If you’re from a country other than Canada you might not know much about its history, geography or culture. Thank goodness for the Internet, right?

Learn the basics from National Geographic Kids. Check this page at Ducksters for more on Canada’s geography, economy government and people.

KidZone has worksheets about Canada for a variety of ages, the lyrics to the national anthem and more. Kids World Travel Guide has some more facts about Canada your kids might be interested in, such as that nearly 90 percent of Canadians live within 125 miles of the border with the United States.

If you want to delve deeper, Kathi Mitchell has a great collection of links about Canada for further study.

Canada Day Crafts

Some great Canadian bloggers have excellent collections of crafts and activities you can do with your kids to mark Canada Day.

And Next Comes L has sensory activities, painting projects, a list of books to read and more.

One Time Through has more than 20 Canada Day activities and projects. I love the tin can wind sock, which could easily be made different colors in different countries, depending on the flag where you live.

Happy Hooligans has some great Canada craft projects, too. The red and white god’s eye is a classic project from when I was a kid!

Don’t miss the Canada Day preschool printable pack from Frugal Mom Eh, and make sue you make the Canada Day fruit kebabs for snack time while you work on the worksheets.

You’ll also want to check out the maple-scented playdough from the Chaos and the Clutter. Play and Learn Every Day has some cute Canadian flag shakers (a great upcycling project, too).

When my daughter was younger she had a ton of LEGO bricks, and I’m honestly a little sad we got rid of most of them because there are so many fun things to do with LEGOs outside of the kits you bought them in.

I love seeing all the ideas people have for LEGO building challenges, and I have shared some ideas for LEGO games before, but I saw one on Pinterest the other day that I felt was worth a mention.

This one is for those ’80s and ’90s kids who spent sick days home from school watching “The Price is Right”: LEGO Plinko!

For those who don’t know about Plinko, the original was a giant peg board set up at an angle and the contestant would drop a flat disc at the top of the board. As it moved down the board it would hit the pegs and change the way it moved, and there would be different prizes in the slots at the bottom where the piece would land.

This version from Play Party Game works on the same principle, using LEGO bricks to make the game board and marbles in place of the Plinko disc since your game board isn’t flat.

You can really use whatever bricks you have for this build, and while it shows all the pegs the same size and evenly spaced, you can play with different configurations and see what happens. It’s engineering and a game!

And while you’re playing with your LEGOs, make sure to check out this post from Kids Craft Room that includes minute to win it style games you can do with LEGO. From speed sorting to tower building as fast as you can, these ideas are sure to get you thinking about different ways to play with LEGO.

And if you need even more ideas, check out my post with LEGO building challenges you can print out for kids (and adults!) to try.

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