Kwanzaa Activities for Kids

Kwanzaa is a celebration that often gets overlooked at school for lots of reasons, not the least of which being its celebrated when most kids are not in school, the week after Christmas.

But it’s an important celebration for kids and adults to think about and honor, whether it’s something you do at home or in the classroom either before or after winter break.

If you need a refresher, Kwanzaa is a holiday created by Maulana Karenga and based on harvest festival traditions from southern and western Africa. It’s a seven-day celebration, with each day representing a principle of African heritage:

Umoja, or unity
Kujichagulia, self-determination
Ujima, collective work and responsibility
Ujamaa, cooperative economics
Nia, purpose
Kuumba, creativity
Imani, faith

A kinara, a candle holder with places for seven candles, is commonly used during kwanzaa, with one candle being lit each day. Homeschool Superfreak has more details including what order the candles are lit, other symbols common in Kwanzaa celebrations, and information about how the holiday was developed, who celebrates it, whether it is religious and more. They also have a digital resource for purchase that includes activities and recipes for celebrating Kwanzaa.

Homeschool of 1 has some coloring pages and fact sheets about Kwanzaa you can print and use at home or in a classroom. They include information about the history of Kwanzaa, the symbols and the principles.

HMH has an activity idea for each day of the week, including a printable memory game, instructions for making different symbols of Kwanzaa, and a recipe people can work together to make.

Activity Village has a cute handprint kinara kids can make, or make one out of a paper plate with instructions from Craft Club.

Another important symbol that’s easy to create by crafting is a woven mat, known as a mkeka, where other important items are placed on the table. You can make one with the instructions from Free Kids Crafts or Make and Takes.

This pretty unity cup from HGTV is a reminder of the community that comes together to celebrate Kwanzaa and that it is community that gets us through whatever troubles we face.

If you want to cook something for Kwanzaa, consider traditional African and African American foods like jerk chicken, gumbo, peanut stew or grits. Sweet potatoes, plantains and greens are other good options.

You can also check out some books about Kwanzaa, such as:

Together for Kwanzaa
My First Kwanzaa ABC Picture Book
Holidays around the World: Celebrate Kwanzaa (this book from National Geographic Kids is a good one, with photographs of real people celebrating, and the series includes lots of different holidays)
My Family Celebrates Kwanzaa
The Story of Kwanzaa

If your family celebrates Kwanzaa or you talk about it in your classroom, I’d love to hear about what you do!

[Kinara image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay]

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Book Review: African Icons

I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]

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