Learning about Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa is a celebration that I’ve written about a little in the past (see: Kwanzaa Activities for Kids) but I feel like it doesn’t always get the attention it deserves since it happens in the week after Christmas. It’s not a time most kids are in school, but you can talk about it as part of winter holidays around the world, or discuss it at home and talk about how you bring the principles of Kwanzaa to your family.

If you need a refresher on the basics, this coloring sheet from Crayola covers the seven principles of Kwanzaa. Kids Activities Blog has a set of printable fact sheets that talk about when it is celebrated, why it was started and what the celebration means. There are also lots of great videos about Kwanzaa for kids, including this song about the seven principles from Sesame Street and a Kwanzaa facts video by Twinkl.

Around the Kampfire has links to other videos and more ideas for talking about Kwanzaa in the classroom. They teach about Kwanzaa in a holidays around the world unit, which you can purchase from them if you need it. Mrs. Richardson’s Class also has a mini unit about Kwanzaa that you can buy that includes vocabulary cards, fact organizers, pocket sorting and a compare and contrast between Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

Crafting a Fun Life has a couple of great projects for your Kwanzaa study, including making a kinara (candle holder) craft out of simple shapes and a collage. She made hers using Kwanzaa stickers and paint, or you can print out Kwanzaa clip art from places like Free Images to use in your project. That’s where the kinara photo above came from.

Need more coloring pages to help your kids learn about Kwanzaa? This set of 17 pages from Academic Intelligence on Teachers Pay Teachers includes individual pages for the seven principles, as well as other images. Another good one on TPT is this Kwanzaa PowerPoint presentation from Shelia Melton, which is great for K-5 students. It goes into good detail about what the seven days mean and how Kwanzaa is celebrated.

I also like these activity sheets from Malisa Goes Digital on Etsy. They include fact cards that you can read and use as a memory game, cutting practice and two-piece matching puzzles.

It’s the time of the year to start bringing a little Halloween fun into every lesson plan you can, so here are some ideas for witch themed math activities your kids are sure to love.

Practice symmetry skills with this witch hat counting game from Friends Art Lab. Kids can stick stickers of the same type on each side of the hat, then count how many total, how many of each type, etc. And you end up with a cute piece of art to boot.

Frugal Mom Eh has a number of witch themed worksheets including a connect the dots, label the witch and Halloween themed scattergories. But the one that caught my eye was the witch’s leg coloring page, which is a color by the answer to the math problem.

Nurtured Neurons has a cute witch counting came where you match the witch to the number of bubbles coming out of her cauldron. This one requires membership in their community but you might be able to get a free preview.

The witches brew on a ten frame activity from Miniature Masterminds is a cute one to work on one to one correspondence. Use little erasers or buttons if you want to reuse the cards, or add stickers to match the number on the card, which adds a fine motor skill component.

The Teacher Bag has a cute Halloween counting game kids can use to make their own potion in a little cauldron. You could make your own version with all the little Halloween themed bits you have handy, and either make a spinner like theirs or just write out some recipes and have kids go through the bigger cauldron to find all the ingredients they need. Then count them up! This post from Pocket of Preschool has a similar idea you can use with their printable or make your own with whatever items you have on hand.

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