Holidays and Celebrations Essential Activities for Kindergarten

The video opens with a description of what most children understand about Thanksgiving. The video mentions parades, a big meal and time spent with family on Thanksgiving. Then the video details the story of the Pilgrims and their voyage to the New World. After their arrival, the winter was cold and long. When it was spring the Pilgrims needed to plant food to survive. The Native Americans helped the Pilgrims plant food such as corn. At the end of the summer there was a great harvest. The Pilgrims celebrated and invited the Native Americans to a big feast. This was the first Thanksgiving.

Children love music and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” is an easy Christmas song to learn because of the repetitive lyrics. Young children learn this song quickly and have confidence and pride when learning and singing a new song. On the video, the words to the song appear on the screen as the music plays. As the song plays viewers see a whimsical Christmas story. First, jolly old Saint Nicholas hops from home to home dropping presents down chimneys. In one home the presents land under a festive Christmas tree. Then one by one animal characters enter the room and open and take a present from the tree. A mouse, bear, monkey and elephant visit the tree to claim a present. The video captures the magic of Christmas with the simple story and children young and old will enjoy the charming animation.

Teaching holiday songs is not only fun but allows children to experience holidays and traditions that might differ from their own. Students share their own holiday traditions and learn more about each other. A sense of community and togetherness forms as students learn about different ways of celebrating. With the arrival of Spring, Easter is celebrated around the world. For many cultures, Easter is a holiday with great religious significance. And many observe the religious and also modern traditions of this special day. Easter is experienced by families with a variety of activities that include having a special meal, dying eggs, crafts, chocolate bunnies, and an Easter egg hunt! This video has a great Easter Bunny song that children of all ages will enjoy this season. Children enjoy tales of the Easter Bunny, and children young and old enjoy Easter egg hunts. At Kids Academy, our favorite Elephant is having fun this Easter! Eddie the Elephant leaves his house and is ready with a basket to collect eggs. The Easter Bunny song plays cheerfully during the video. Elephant begins his hunt and at first, he only finds a colorful snail shell and a ball. But suddenly, he sees a glimpse of the Easter bunny! Colorful Easter eggs are now hidden in the trees, by the river, and in the grass! Eddie the Elephant finds many eggs! But these aren’t ordinary eggs—these eggs hatch into colorful birds that perform a playful dance and encourage Elephant to sing along! The video ends with a neighborhood parade of children, birds, and elephants- all lead by the Easter Bunny! Add this video into your collection of Easter songs for kids and bring merriment and music to the Easter season.

This Halloween, children and those “young at heart” can enjoy a special Halloween song set to a familiar tune- the Hickory Dickory Dock Song! Fun characters, including a ghost, mummy, vampire, and monster, enter a delightfully creepy house decorated with happy jack-o-lanterns. Each character enters the spooky house one at a time. The characters run up the clock and then back down and are often followed by some floating ghosts. The video ends with the last character, a rather rotund elephant dressed playfully as a pirate, running up the clock and then there is a funny surprise conclusion!