Communities in Virginia
Session 10: A Holiday

Materials

• Markers
• Crayons
• Paint
• Scissors
• Glue
• Construction paper
• Calendar

Instructional Activities

1. Refer to the session “An American Holiday & African Tradition.”
   
   
2. Talk about other holidays and their meanings. Be sure to discuss Independence Day as a holiday most Americans celebrate together.
   
   
3. Ask students to create a new holiday that will celebrate the people of Virginia. Have students come up with ideas on why it is good to have diverse groups of people living in our state.
   
   
4. Have students brainstorm different names for this new holiday. Discuss and reinforce the words culture and diversity. As a class, decide on the name for the holiday.
   
   
5. Have students decide how the holiday should be celebrated. (Correlate this activity with History and Social Science Standard of Learning 1.3, and review Kindergarten standards related to holidays.) Student responses may include the following: “People decorate trees for Christmas. They celebrate Thanksgiving with a feast of turkey and other traditional foods. Halloween is celebrated with costumes and jack-o-lanterns.” Ask students what needs to be done to celebrate their new holiday. Write down student ideas on the board, and as a class, vote on several suggestions.
   
   
6. Have students create posters to announce this new holiday. The poster should reflect peoples of different cultures uniting to be Virginians and Americans.
   
   
7. Have students use a calendar to set a nearby date for this holiday.
   
   
8. Make plans with students to celebrate this holiday. Other classes, parents, and guests may be invited to help with the celebration. Ideas for celebrating this holiday:
   •    Have students create a flag to be displayed in honor of the holiday.
   •    Have students create decorations. The decorations could represent the various cultures in Virginia (e.g., crowns, piñatas, lanterns).
   •    Have students create greeting cards in honor of this day to send to one another.
   •    Help students write a class letter to the governor explaining the reasons this holiday could be important to the state.
   •    Have students sample foods and listen to music from various cultures.