The holiday season in the classroom can be a joyful time for both students and teachers. Many school communities are made of a student body and staff coming from different backgrounds, religions, and cultures that influence how they celebrate. This is why it’s important to both organize and plan holiday activities in the classroom that celebrate different cultures.

At JLP Inspiring Minds, our private school focuses on creating an inclusive environment where all students feel seen and heard.

What Does Being Culturally Responsive Mean?

Being culturally responsive in a classroom means incorporating your students’ backgrounds and experiences into how they learn. This allows their identities to become a tool to increase understanding and connection between the students.

Some key aspects of teaching with cultural responsiveness in mind include:

• Understanding different cultures
• Building relationships between students
• Affirming identities
• Standing up against potential bias
• Engaging families into the school community

Kindergarten Holiday Activities

While it’s fun to celebrate different faiths or cultures, other holiday activities can be used that don’t pertain to a specific religious belief.

Holiday Recipe Book

It’s not uncommon that food oftentimes is the central part of most celebrations. Now is a great time to invite students to bring a family recipe card with their favorite holiday dish. Ask their parents to include ingredient lists and instructions on how to prepare the dish.

You can compile the recipes together to create a winter-themed cookbook that you can send home with your students for the holiday break. Encourage them to pick a recipe and cook it with their family during their time off.

Family Tradition Discussion

Encourage students to share with the class the traditions their families have during the holiday season. This not only gives children a chance to be heard, but they can also learn about different cultures and how they celebrate.

Christmas Activities for Kindergarten Students

Christmas is an exciting time for young children who countdown the days until Santa arrives.

Dish Brush Christmas Trees

This holiday activity is inexpensive, as you can purchase dish brushes from the dollar store. You’ll also need paint, paper plates, and construction paper. To get started, I recommend drawing a triangle with a pencil on the paper so students have an outline to follow.

Pour green paint onto a plate and dip the dish brush into it. Form the tree using both. On a separate plate, put different colors of paint for them to add ornaments to their trees with their fingertips. Brown paint can be used to make a tree trunk. To decorate the tree, you can use glitter, buttons, or even sprinkles.

Christmas Wish List

This is a creative activity for your kindergarten classroom. All you need is paper and some toy catalogs or magazines. Have students write their names and cut out pictures of things they would like to receive for this holiday. For students struggling with cutting, draw a circle around what object they’re focused on, which will help them have a path to cut.

Hanukkah Activities for Kindergarten Students

This holiday focuses on the Maccabees, who found only enough oil to keep the temple’s light going for a single day; however, it ended up lasting 8 days. Hence why Hanukkah is celebrated for this many days. The first kindergarten holiday activity focuses on the number 8.

Hanukkah Counting & Number Recognition

Draw a menorah on paper and have students glue Popsicle sticks to each candle. They also can choose a variety of items, such as small erasers, M&M’s, buttons, or any other item where they can count to 8 during this activity.

Kwanzaa Activites for Kindergarten Students

Kwanzaa is a week-long celebration honoring African tradition celebrated from December 26 to January 1st. It focuses on seven different core symbols:

• A Kinara or candle holder for the seven candlesticks
• Mishumaa Saba (the candles)
• Mahindi (corn) represents the children celebrating the holiday meal, which it is a part of
• Mazao (crops), which make the corn
• Kikombe cha Umoja or the unity cup, is used to celebrate and give thanks to African ancestors
• Zawadi which stands for gifts shared between loved ones
• Kwanzaa Necklace

Please note: This holiday activity requires you to paint pasta ahead of time with red, black, and green paint. The easiest way is to thread the penne onto drinking straws and paint them that way.

For this easy-to-make necklace, you’ll need the dried pasta tubes and cord. Students will thread the pasta onto the cord, alternating red, green, and black to make a festive jewelry piece.

Enroll Your Child in a Well-Rounded Private School for K-5

At JLP Inspiring Minds, we ensure every child grows mentally, physically, and academically. We follow all of the Florida State Standards and National Standards necessary to give our students a place to learn with a hands-on approach.

Not only are we committed to your child’s education, but also their wellness too. Our All Sports Kids program is held in our 11,000-square-foot facility and offers a place to play kickball, soccer, football, hockey, and basketball. The Cheers floor offers a chance to learn new cheers and to practice tumbling.

If you are interested in enrolling your child at our Tamarac school, give us a call for more information at 954-746-5437 or complete our school registration form today.