We have been talking about holidays and celebrations lately in our classroom. At the start of the year we reached out to all families to have a better understanding of what each family celebrates and what is special in their lives. We have been introducing new holidays into our classroom with the guidance of our families. We celebrated Kite Day back in January and this month we celebrated Holi! The children were able to join in celebrating the holiday by reading “The Night Before Holi” by Swapna Haddow and Aditi Kakade Beaufrand. The toddlers got to learn about what the celebration is all about and how it is typically celebrated. The book taught us about how the night before Holi they have a big bonfire to mark the start of the festival. The festival marks the end of winter and a celebration about good over evil. As we read the book we got to see all the different colours that were scattered throughout the book and how the people were throwing colour and water at each other.
As a class, we prepared for a Holi by using our gross and fine motor skills to smash up chalk into a fine powder. On Holi (March 4) we sprayed water at the wall with spray bottles and threw the chalk dust at the wall and then added high fives to our friends' shirts! Some of the toddlers were hesitant to get dirty while others enjoyed sitting in the paint and colouring their bodies with paint! The toddlers got to see all of the colours on the wall and all over their friends! We had so much fun celebrating this holiday and we are so appreciative of our families for sharing this holiday with us and the encouragement we got from all families to participate!
From this activity the toddlers got to learn about different cultures and celebrations around the world. Many of our toddlers may have never heard of Holi or celebrated it before so it gave us a chance to learn and participate! We all have different backgrounds and celebrations that are special and we love learning about them and celebrating alongside all of our families! The toddlers thoroughly enjoy doing art activities and quite often like painting their hands and bodies so this gives them a chance to colour themselves and their friends! Plus, our colourful shirts can be a nice keepsake for children!
We have enjoyed getting to know all of our kids and learning about their celebrations and traditions. It gives us all a chance to learn and grow as individuals, as well as open up opportunities for children to participate! If there are any celebrations, traditions or special days that your family participates in we would love for you to share so we can learn about it as well! It is important that all of our children feel wanted and that they belong in our classroom, including artwork or activities from their own celebrations in the classroom!
