Students always love to celebrate holidays with their friends. Typically, this includes holidays like Valentine’s Day, Halloween, and Christmas. However, the fun doesn’t have to stop there! There are countless quirky, and even strange, holidays that most of us don’t even know exist. I love to use these national holidays to create extra excitement and engagement in the classroom. In this post, I’m going to share national holidays for August and September that are perfect for celebrating in the classroom.
Celebrating National Holidays in the Classroom
We all know how the excitement of the more traditional holidays can make classroom management a challenge. You might be wondering if it’s a good idea to add even more holidays to the mix. I think it is! Especially when you consider some of the benefits:
- Build Vocabulary: Celebrating interesting holidays is a unique way to introduce students to new vocabulary.
- Increase Engagement and Motivation: Get your students excited about learning with activities that are inspired by holidays.
- Connect to Other Content Areas: When students celebrate national holidays, they often learn about history, social studies, and even science at the same time!
- Foster Community: There’s just something about a celebration that brings a sense of community to the classroom.
It really doesn’t take much effort to incorporate a few national holidays into your routine. To give you some examples, I’ll share some August and September holidays that are always fun to celebrate in the classroom!
August and September Holidays to Celebrate in the Classroom
There are national holidays on every single day of August and September, so it can be challenging to narrow down the choices! Here are four of my favorite August and September holidays to celebrate in the elementary classroom:
1. Cherry Popsicle Day: August 26th
Cherry Popsicle Day is a welcome celebration at the end of August! Students are always so excited to learn about the accident that brought us the popsicle that we know and love. They are even more excited to learn that it was a school-age child who made the accidental discovery!
You can share the history of the popsicle with your class while creating an adorable cherry popsicle craft. This national holiday could also be a good time to introduce or review the states of matter with your students.
2. Talk Like a Pirate Day: September 19th
Yo ho ho! This is a great day to add some new vocabulary words to the mix as your students practice talking like pirates! You can demonstrate “pirate-speak” while reading aloud some fun pirate picture books.
Talk Like a Pirate Day is the perfect way to begin an entire pirate unit. Students can practice their pirate accents in preparation for the themed learning activities of the unit.
3. Ice Cream Day: September 22nd
By the time this holiday rolls around in September, your students have been working hard to transition into the new school year. This means a special treat might be in order! Celebrating Ice Cream Day in your classroom could be just the ticket.
An ice cream taste test is always a fun way to observe this national holiday, especially if you incorporate a science experiment by making your own ice cream in the classroom! You could also have students create an ice cream craft for the bulletin board and participate in a shared reading activity.
4. Johnny Appleseed Day: September 26th
September 26th is the birthdate of John Chapman, also known as Johnny Appleseed. Your students will enjoy learning more about this notable man known for planting apple trees.
After learning about Johnny Appleseed from read-alouds and class discussions, students can create their own Johnny Appleseed crafts. This holiday could also inspire additional classroom activities based on apples, farm life, or even the plant life cycle.
Activities for These August and September Holidays
Would you like to start celebrating national holidays in your classroom? I have put together some printable activities that make it easy to observe these fun August and September holidays.
First, students will learn about each holiday with an informational page. This handout includes essential information and interesting details about each holiday. For instance, students will learn about why cherry is the selected flavor for Popsicle Day.
Next, students can participate in shared reading with a themed poem for each holiday. There is even a student version for them to reference. Adding poetry to your daily routine is a great way to help students experience different types of literature. Plus, the interesting topics make the poetry more engaging for them to practice reading out loud. This is a great way for young readers to get a boost in confidence!
After reading about the holidays, students can assemble a fun craft. Don’t worry – it is quick and easy to download and prep! Students will have so much fun designing pirate gear for Talk Like a Pirate Day or choosing their own color combinations for an Ice Cream Day craft.
A Full Year of National Holiday Crafts
You can find all of the holiday activities mentioned above in one easy-to-download resource of National Holiday Crafts and Poems. You can use these engaging activities to celebrate national holidays or to bring some themed learning to your classroom any time of the year.
This set of activities includes 15 interesting and quirky national holiday celebrations that your students will love to learn about! Each holiday includes an informational page, a poem for shared reading, a student version of the poem, and a simple craft.
Just head over to my TPT store to take a closer look at all of the fun national holidays included in this resource.
Save These August and September Holidays for the Classroom
Be sure to save this post if you’d like to come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite teaching board on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find these activities and ideas when you’re looking for a fun way to increase engagement in your classroom this August and September.
