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Labor Day Activities for Kids

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Labor Day in the United States is generally just thought of as the last big summer holiday before we dive into back to school activities (though plenty of kids are back to school already) but there’s an important meaning behind the holiday that’s especially important this year with lots of labor unions striking or threatening to strike.

Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United States.

The holiday originated in the late 19th century as a way to commemorate the contributions of workers to the American economy. It was first celebrated in New York City in 1882. By 1894, 23 more states had adopted the holiday, and on June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed a law making the first Monday in September of each year a national holiday recognized as Labor Day.

If you want some Labor Day printables and activities for the classroom, check out the Labor Day page at TeacherVision. It includes collections of activities about various jobs, information about child labor, a word search and other activities.

At home or in the classroom you can talk about future careers the kids might like to have and have them write, draw or collage about their chosen job. Or come up with a list of jobs and have kids learn more about them. Bonus points for careers that have union representation such as actors, factory workers and teachers. They can also draw different careers like on the Labor Day cube shown above, which is an activity from Crayola.

Older kids can learn about key moments in labor history and make a timeline like these from We Are Teachers (a detailed timeline can be found at Libcom, or you can search for local labor movements or those related to a particular industry). Or have kids research an important labor leader such as Cezar Chavez, Mother Jones or Frances Perkins (check out the list at the AFL-CIO website for more).

[Photo: Crayola]

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Fall Literacy Activities

Bring on the fall leaves, pumpkins and apples as we help little ones learn to recognize letters and get ready for reading with these fall literacy activities.

Practice letter recognition by feeding the scarecrow straw with the letters of the alphabet with this printable activity from ABCs of Literacy. It includes both uppercase and lowercase letters so you can practice with either or match them as you “feed” the scarecrow.

Match the letters on fall leaves with the letters on the worksheet to play leafy letter match from The Kindergarten Connection. Kids can color in the leaves they find or cover them with dot markers.

Or do the same thing with this free pumpkin color the alphabet activity using lowercase letters. It’s from The Kinder Life on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Work on sight word recognition with this pumpkin sight words printable activity from The Connet Connection on Teachers Pay Teachers. This free download lets kids practice their sight words while they hunt for a black cat.

Help kids learn to spell their names with this apple printable activity from Books and Giggles. Kids can find each of the letters in their name on apples, put them together to spell their name, then count the number of letters in their name.

Twisty Noodle has a fall words printable coloring page where kids can trace the letters for fall words: acorn, leaf, apple and pumpkin.

Little printable books are so fun for early readers to read and color. I See Fall is a free printable book from Fun a Day that includes six fall items: acorns, sunflowers, pumpkins, leaves, scarecrows and apples. You have the option of printing it will all the words on each page (I see pumpkins, for example) or with the word see missing so kids can practice writing it in on their own.

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