Labor Day for Kids

Kids who are already back in school will be relishing an extra-long weekend with the Labor Day holiday, but most kids probably don’t know what the holiday is really about. (Fun fact: my daughter was born on Labor Day weekend so I always say it’s to celebrate a different kind of labor.)

But Labor Day is actually a serious holiday meant to honor the struggles of previous generations of workers who fought to gain more humane working hours and conditions, to prevent child labor and to provide for the safety and health of workers in ways its easy to take for granted now.

Depending on the age of your kids, you can slip in some facts about Labor Day like these from Kids Konnect (which also has printable worksheets), or watch some of the Labor Day videos from History Channel. Did you know Labor Day actually started in Canada?

What Do We Do All Day? has a great list of books to read for Labor Day, and you can bring all the patriotic, red, white and blue crafts back for one last go if you want to give the kids something to do while the barbecue is warming up.

Do you teach your kids about Labor Day? I’d love to hear your ideas.

[Photo: from History of Labor Day video at History.com.]

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Labor Day Activities for Kids

Shark Week generally happens in July, but any time is a good time to learn more about sharks.

First, start with some fun whale facts like these from Kids Craft Room. Here I learned about the dwarf lantern shark, which is the smallest shark and only grows to about 6-8 inches (about 15-20 cm) long. It also emits light. How cool is that?

Natural Beach Living has some great printable shark information guides, where kids can learn about different kinds of sharks, match the facts to the pictures, or print out doubles and do a shark memory game.

Living Life an Learning has some great shark activity pages including the parts of a shark, types of sharks, a crossword puzzle and more. Also check out their parts of a shark and word scramble download, and a life cycle worksheet.

Learn about how sharks float with this great activity from JDaniel4’s Mom.

Need more facts about sharks? This fact pact from The WOLFe PACK on Teacher Pay Teachers includes fact sheets, a printable flip book, informational text, vocabulary, comprehension questions and more.

Living Montessori Now has a great collection of shark themed activities with a Montessori inspired twist. You’ll find a shark roll and cover, shark phonics and lots more shark activities Deb has collected from all over the Internet.

Remember the “Sharknado” movie? A Few Shortcuts turned the combination of sharks and tornadoes into a fun science activity. You’ll need a bottle connector for this project but otherwise should have everything you need on hand. Use their template to make your sharks out of aluminum foil. So fun!

You can also do some shark themed coloring with these coloring pages from Encouraging Moms at Home. Or make a cool 3D shark with this template from korkotak. And there are tons of different shark crafts collected in this post from Kids Activities Blog.

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