Celebrating Juneteenth with Kids

Juneteenth, also known as Liberation Day or Emancipation Day, is a holiday that’s been acknowledged more in the past few years. It happens on June 19th, and it marks the day in 1865 when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced that the enslaved people of Texas had been freed.

Juneteenth was a celebration in Texas through the 1800s and began to spread through the South, often as a community gathering centering on food, in the 1920s and ’30s. The day became a federal holiday in 2021, and it is recognized as a holiday in every state.

While it’s a heavy holiday because it deals with the history of slavery and those enslaved people in Texas has legally been freed in 1863, it is also a celebration and marked by some as a second Independence Day.

We Are Teachers has a nice collection of books and videos to read and watch with kids about Juneteenth, which is a good place to start.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture has a great PDF on teaching or talking about Juneteenth with kids, including a discussion on when kids are old enough to learn about slavery and why it’s important to talk about and celebrate Juneteenth today.

In the past I’ve collected some facts and worksheets about Juneteeth for kids to use, as well as some great printable games and more resources for learning about Juneteenth.

If your community has a celebration that’s another great way to help kids understand that Juneteenth is a celebration as well as a remembrance of a dark time in our nation’s history. Or if you want to focus on the food aspect, there are a lot of great ideas for Juneteenth menus, including this one from Divas Can Cook. Just make sure there’s something red on the table (like strawberry soda or red velvet cake) because red foods symbolize resilience and joy.

[Photo: National Museum of African American History and Culture.]

In our continuing exploration of lesser known holidays, let’s take a look at Terry Fox Day, which is probably one you know if you’re Canadian.

Terry Fox was a Canadian athlete who had a leg amputated at age 18 because of cancer and then did a cross-country run to raise awareness and funding for cancer research. He was born July 28, 1958, and the first Monday in August is celebrated as Terry Fox Day in Manitoba.

Fox is considered a kind of folk hero in Canada despite the difficulties of traveling across Canada on foot (no one on his team spoke French, for example, the weather was often bad and cars would force him off the road) and the low number of donations at the beginning of his run. He ultimately had to end his run after 143 days and 3,339 miles, or 5,373 km, because his cancer had returned and spread to his lungs, but he raised $1.7 million, and a telethon a week after he ended his run raised $10.5 million.

Check out some Terry Fox quotes collected by My Little Desire. You can learn more in this video from CBC Kids, and listen to the Terry Fox song illustrated by a first grade class.

Twinkl has a bunch of Terry Fox related activities in both English and French, including an activity pack with a maze and word search, a coring challenge, a fact sheet and coloring page.

Most of the resources I could find were at Teachers Pay Teachers, but you can learn more about the activity pack for grades 1-3 that Mrs. Bremer’s Class has made, which tells his story and has kids write things they learned and discuss why they think he is a hero.

Creative Classroom Core has a few paid resources include writing activities, reading comprehension and a Terry Fox fact book.

That Fun Reading Teacher has a K-2 singalong with a differentiated reader and activity to teach kids about him.

You can also celebrate Terry Fox Day by talking about what makes a person a hero and who the kids in your home or classroom think of as heroes. And if you’re Canadian, there are Terry Fox runs in more than 650 communities in September, so you can make plans to participate or cheer on the runners to remember his legacy.

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