Diwali Printables for Kids

Diwali is the Indian festival of light, and it’s a fun holiday for kids to get into, but if you don’t celebrate it, it can be hard to know where to start introducing Diwali to kids. These printables for Diwali are an easy way to integrate some learning about the holiday into your curriculum or to use at home for a little learning.

Rangoli are a popular sight at Diwali, typically made with colored sand. But you can make your own rangoli from mandala-shaped coloring pages and either color in the design or use flowers or other items to decorate it. The Educators Spin on It has a rangoli activity using flowers (they got their printable from Mom Junction but you can also search online for mandala or rangoli coloring pages).

You could decorate yours with other natural materials, or use beads, buttons, pom poms and other objects you already have on hand to make your own designs.

Little Ladoo has another rangoli craft idea made with a printable template and torn paper. They also have a huge bundle of learning pages and activities in their shop you could use to do a whole classroom unit study on Diwali if you want.

Learn more about the symbols of Diwali, including rangoli, diya, fireworks, a temple, lanterns, gifts and a happy child from In the Playroom.

Made By Teachers has a set of printable Diwali Q-Tip crafts from Fun Learning with Us, including a diya, lantern and laddu. This is not a free download but it includes 11 different designs in color and black and white.

If you want to take a Montessori-inspired look at Diwali, check out the printable pack from Every Star is Different. They have a great blog post about what’s in the pack and how to use it, which might give you some ideas even if you don’t buy the pack, but there’s also a free rangoli matching game printable in that post.

Rainbow Lessons has a printable pack at Teachers Pay Teachers that is good for older kids (second to fifth grade) and includes writing activities and a fill in the blank worksheet to help them learn the basics. I love the candle presentation on the writing activities, which makes them double as room decor.

Another good pack for younger kids (pre-k to third grade or so) can be found at Kid World Citizen’s Teachers Pay Teachers page. It includes reading, math, coloring pages and more. They also have a blog post all about these activities if you want to take a closer look before you buy.

When my daughter was younger I would spend a lot of time trying to come up with activities she could do in the car on long road trips and things to entertain her when we were waiting at restaurants and things that didn’t involve screens.

But it turns out there are a lot of great activities you can do with just a piece of paper and a pen.

What Do We Do All Day has a great collection of pen and paper games, including some that can be done with just one person, though they’re all more fun if you have at least two.

There are some classics on here like hangman and dots and boxes, but there are also quite a few I hadn’t heard of before.

I don’t want to spoil the whole list for you because you should definitely click over there and look around, but I will share about the one that you see pictured above.

This game is called Bridges, and you start by making the big random shape and the dividing it into a bunch of sections (the post says 30-50 sections is ideal but I think this one is smaller than that).

Each player gets their own color marker and you take turns drawing bridges from one space to another, crossing a third. Once there’s a bridge, no other bridges can start, end or cross in those spaces. Keep going until no more bridges can be built, and the person who makes the last bridge wins.

Check out the post over at What We Do All Day for more great ideas for no or almost-no prep games you can play with your kids or that kids can play together. I’d love to know if you have a favorite paper and pen game, whether it’s on this list or a different one.

[Photo: What We Do All Day]

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