Valentine's Day!

 

Valentine's Day Candy Puzzle for K-1's from ABCya!
Fun little 1:1 correspondence game, put the candy back in the box. It talks, too.

 

 

 

 

 

Valentine's Day Crafts from Activity Village This well known British site has over 50 activities,
a long list of Printables, and a large collection of
original Valentine's Day colouring pages and cards! Serving your online needs since 2000!

 

Valentine's Day Games for Girls from from GirlsGoGames Two pages of games with links to even more!

 

Valentine's Day Games from Primary Games. A dozen online games and puzzles.

 

Valentine's Day Games from Apples 4 the Teacher. Nine online games including a Titanic dressup game and The Scared Groom game.

 

Valentine's Day Games and Activities from Billy Bear. One long page of Valentine things!

 

Valentine's Day Activities from DLTK. Cards, coloring, crafts, games, poems, printables, recipes, worksheets, and links!

 

Valentine's Day Activities from Squigley's Playhouse. Printables, online games, crafts, coloring, matching, lots more.

 

Kids' Arts & Crafts - Valentine's Day A good Pinterest page on the subject. If you want new ideas, you can always check Pinterest. There is something on this page for everyone.

 

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It's time for Diwali!

November 5th - November 9th, 2018

The five days of the 2019 festival : ?, 2019

Scroll on down for Diwali Games!

 

This is a diya/deepa, an Indian festival lamp:

Avali means a row of something: Lamps!
Diya + avali = Diwali!

 

 

Wonderful photos and information (keep scrolling down!) about the Diwali holiday.

All about Diwali from Nat Geo Kids

 

The Five Days of Diwali

Most of the above is from Nat Geo Kids - Most of what's below is from everywhere!

Diwali Games and Activities! A whole bunch of Diwali goodies!

About Diwali

more about Diwali from NatGeo kids

 

The US Senate officially recognized Diwali, the Festival of Lights, unanimously passing Senate Resolution 299 on November 14th 2007. :)

 

Diwali from ActivityVillage Colouring, printables, puzzles, crafts, a dance lesson, more!

 

Diwali Activities and Games from KidsGen has a lot of activities and some crafts, also easy home games.

 

Diwali Activities from Pinterest. Tons of pages on one page! Enough said.

 

Diwali Lesson Plans & Games for Kids from Mr. Donn. Yes, lesson plans! A list of links, and recipes, too. Also clip art.

 

Diwali Activities for kids and teachers from kiddyhouse. Explains Diwali, has traditional recipes for different days; arts and crafts let kids try rangoli art (About Rangoli, rangoli designs, and how to make a rangoli), hennaed hands and feet (mendi) online. Also stories (A simplified excerpt from the Ramayana), art, crafts, clipart, and lesson plans.

 

Diwali Fireworks Game Set off virtual fireworks in this online game. Real firework sounds, too.

 

Diwali Games from FunMunch. Flashy and loud online games.

 

Until next year - Subh Diwali!

 

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Halloween Game Sites! These have lots of online games, dressups, some art, some printouts, songs to sing, etc., for kids' fun!

 

 

 

Nine Halloween games from ABCya! The games are: Make a Pumpkin, Pumpkin Carving, Pumpkin Matching, Halloween Word Search, Halloween Crossword Puzzle, Ghost Typing, Letter Match uppercase/lowercase, Cute Puzzle Witch, and Scary Path. Some are free, some are paywall.

 

50 Halloween Craft Ideas For Preschool from No Time for Flashcards Crafty stuff for the younger set. Includes some math activities.

 

440 Free Halloween Fonts from little kid scary to adult scary, here are 440 fonts, free for you to download. Adults, 1 or 2 may have inappopriate words, so preview them first.

 

Halloween from Activity Village Printables, colouring, crafts, costume ideas, and more.

 

Halloween from GirlsGoGames A lot of games with links to even more!

 

Halloween from Primary Games

 

Halloween Math Activities for Kids from No Time for Flashcards A list of fun and crafty hands-on math activities for the littler kids, full of manipulatives. There are more at the bottom of the page under More Fun & Learning.

 

Halloween Music & Songs by Preschool Education Over 90 poems and songs for Halloween, with lyrics. This site also has fall themes, pages for other holidays, coloring pages, crafts, and plenty of other pre-K things.

 

Halloween Songs, Poems, and Fingerplays by Pre-K Fun. 16 songs and poems for little ones to sing along, act out, finger play, get craftsy with, and whatever else your creativity finds to do with them. Includes all the lyrics. Pre-K Fun looks like a site worth several visits.

 

Halloween Songs and Activities for Calendar Time We found this page at Fantastic Fun and Learning, where there are hundreds of activities, crafts, songs, movement, dances, arty things, ideas, and many links; all pre-K and K related. They, in turn, got these from similar sites. Very, very nice. Check out the Skeleton Dance!

 

Preschool Halloween Songs and Music from Everything Preschool. "Our Preschool Halloween Songs and Music contains the most complete Early Childhood Education Halloween Songs and Music Ideas on the internet." Has lyrics for twelve Halloween songs. This site also has Halloween crafts, games, preschool science (counting and crafts), five printable coloring pages, lots of well organized recipes for gross Halloween stuff, and bulletin board activities. Everything Preschool also has lesson plans and themes for teacher's use. "Our site contains Over 30,000 Preschool Education Activities Separated into over 100 Themes, 26 Alphabet Areas, & Lesson Plans."

 

Hellokids.com "is amongst the best websites for kids' activities. We offer you coloring pages
that you can either print or do online, drawings and drawing lessons, various craft activities for
children of all ages, videos, games, songs and even wonderful readings for bedtime."

 

In the old days, the holiday was spelled "Hallowe'en"

 

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HAPPY EASTER!

 

 

 

 

Dyed Minion Easter Eggs An egg-decorating tutorial from A Pumpkin and a Princess that walks you through the steps. Fun and timely!

 

Easter Activities from Alphabet Soup. Literature connections, poems, and games.

 

Easter Activities, Crafts, and Games from Apples 4 the Teacher. Poems, puzzles, coloring, crafts, recipes, printables, worksheets, and more.

 

Easter Fun from Billy Bear. Includes arcade games, dressups, word search, puzzles, and coloring.

 

Easter Activities from DLTK. Cards, coloring, crafts, dyeing easter eggs, games, poems, printables, recipes, worksheets, and links!

 

Easter Craft - Easter projects for all ages. A part of Kidfolio. 53 pins of various projects with differing levels of difficulty and media. Plenty off egg projects included.

 

Easter Fun from Squigly's Playhouse. Includes 21 arcade games, matching, word games, puzzles, and coloring.

 

Easter Games from Primary Games. Over 15 games plus puzzles and coloring!

 

Interactive Easter Game eCards from Blue Mountain. 19 free interactive little fun games for kids, from the Blue Mountain greeting cards people. They emailed us about their games! Thanks!

 

 

Printable Easter Coloring Pages from sheknows has 20 different pages for children to color. It is easier to Save these and then print your saved copies. The younger kids love to color these.

 

 

 

Top 10 Easter Crafts for Kids from Craftulate. A nice list, with photos and directions, of 10 craftsy things little fingers can make for Easter.

 

 

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St. Patrick's Day Games from A Kid's Heart.

St. Patrick's Day Games from Alphabet Soup.

 

 

St. Patrick's Day Activities & Games from Apples 4 the Teacher has coloring, puzzles, a memory game, and lots of printables including fairy tales.

 

Saint Patrick's Day Activities from DLTK. Cards, coloring, crafts, games, poems, printables, recipes, worksheets, and links!

 

Saint Patrick's Day Activities from Squigly's Playhouse. Includes several arcade games, matching, word games, puzzles, and coloring pages.

 

St. Patrick's Day Craft Party! Step by step with photos Making crafts for the holiday followed by a treasure hunt around the house and yard to find clue cards. Easy to adapt to a classroom.

 

St. Patrick's Day Games from Primary Games. They have plenty of fun games, and coloring pages, too.

 

St. Patrick’s Day Party Games for Kids from Shari's Berries "Ready to get into the St. Patrick's Day spirit? Our 21 interactive party games should help. They're perfect for family, friends or even a classroom of children. Brain teasers. Scavenger hunts. Bingo. We've got something for every age and activity level. Simply use the filters below to sort through our collection and find the right activity for your celebration." These are hands on games for kids to get their hands on! Very nice ideas here. Thanks, Julissa, for the email!

 

 

 

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Chanukah (Hanukkah)

Chanukah begins Sunday night, Dec. 2, 2018 and continues through Monday, December 10, 2018.
Chanukah is the Jewish eight-day, wintertime “festival of lights,”
celebrated with a nightly menorah lighting, special prayers and fried foods...
source = chabad.org

Hannukah a video by Miyam Bialik, PhD. and TV star! Humourous and accurate!

How to Light the Menorah Do it exactly right! The strict, official rules, the traditional way.
Uses olive oil. Includes the blessings for the various nights, in Hebrew.

Want to know more? Go to Chabad.org
Everything about Chanukah basics, history, customs, ceremonies, recipes, kids games.

How to light the menorah from Jewish Pathways. Uses candles. Assumes you know the
words to the blessings.

 

Dreidel Decorations For Hanukkah (And How To Play The Game)

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December 13 is Lucia Day

Christmas in Sweden

Rick Steves' European Christmas: Norway

"December 13th was also the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, in the old
'Julian' Calendar and a pagan festival of lights in Sweden was turned into St. Lucia's Day".

Easy Christmas Ornaments for Toddlers and Preschoolers from Happy Hooligans. "MORE easy Christmas ornaments that are quick to set up and simple to do! All of the homemade ornaments in this collection are perfect for last minute Christmas crafting sessions, and if your kids like to give hand-made goodies to friends and relatives, these make terrific little gift and gift-toppers."

 

150 Christmas Crafts for Kids to Do has a variety of kid-friendly craft projects. Different levels of difficulty for different age and ability levels.

 

Christmas in the Middle Ages "This feature looks at the origins of Christmas and how it was celebrated in the Middle Ages. It includes links to articles related to this topic." Three short videos discuss Origins, What went on at Christmas, Christmas Plays, Christmas Carols. Each has a short text of the same name. Excellent videos! There's also a section about Christmas trees, and some good links at the end.

 

Crystallized Icicle Ornaments with Borax - Make shimmering crystallized icicle ornaments with pipe cleaners, Borax and water! It's a classic science experiment and a Christmas craft all in one! From Happy Hooligans, "Crafts and Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out the Naughty or Nice list at Claus.com!

 

 

 

 

Christmas from GirlsGoGames A lot of games with links to even more!

 

 

Christmas from Primary Games including the awesome sugar, sugar What else needs saying?
It's Primary Games, so you know they'll have TONS of games and plenty of other things to see and do.

 

 

Christmas Games from Billy Bear! All their usual fine goodies!

 

 

Christmas & New Years from Squigly's Playhouse. Online games, pictures, crafts, puzzles.

 

 

Christmas Around the World - Christmas Cultures from whychristmas.com. "Find out about Christmas
Traditions around the world and how Christmas is celebrated in different countries and cultures."
There's a list of 60 countries to click on!

 

 

Claus.com Home of Sugarplum Mary and others. The Naughty or Nice game is very popular.
The Holiday Singalong section has singing cartoons!

 

 

December Holidays section of Appless4theTeacher. This covers classroom activities and games for:
Hanukkah, Winter, Christmas Fun, Religious Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year's. Good collection in one place.

 

Hanukkah

 

Make a Snowflake online with virtual scissors, or see other kids' snowflakes.

 

Merry-Christmas online games selection.

 

North Pole Excellent site, many sections, Elf Academy has good games for making change and telling time.

 

Santa Claus Animation Station "Santa Claus Christmas Website for Kids. Celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah,
Kwanzaa with SANTA CLAUS, Elves and Reindeer. An Animated, Interactive, FREE North Pole Christmas Tradition
Since 1996!" Animations, videos, songs, and more games that you can shake a stick at
! Where else can you watch Santa play beach volleyball? Nice, colorful, entertaining, very busy site!

 

Six White Boomers - a unique Santa song from Australia! (with lyrics)

 

 

Click on the pic to see Santa dancing at a powwow (video)!
At 2:30, one dancer sheds a sacred eagle feather. The recovery team springs into action!

Click here to see a short video of the Oglala Lakota Nation PowWow, from NatGeo.

A "drum" is a team of drummers who play at powwows. Powwows.com once had a list of 1,432 drums from all over
North America. Much like rock bands, some drums constantly change people and names; others go on for years
just adding younger family members. There are two main styles: Northern and Southern. For more information,
Powwows.com is a good place to start.

 

 

Cinco de Mayo from Apples4theteacher

 

Cinco de Mayo Activities for the Classroom - Unit of Study. Games, Coloring Pages, Crafts for Kids, Word Searches

 

 

 

 

History of Diwali

What does the holiday symbolize?

Who is Lakshmi? What is the purpose of the lamps?

What does Diwali mean to other religions of India?

One common thread rings true—the festival marks the victory of good over evil.

First day - people spring clean the home and to shop for gold or kitchen utensils

Second day - people decorate their homes with clay lamps and create design patterns called rangoli on the floor using colored powders or sand.

Third day is the main day (most important day) of the festival - Lakshmi puja, feasts, and fireworks

Fourth day is New Year's Day! Friends and relatives visit with gifts and best wishes for the season.

Fifth day is the last day. Brothers visit their married sisters who welcome them with love and a lavish meal.

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The Story of Chanukah