50 fantastic ideas for celebrations and festivals

The 50 Fantastic Ideas series is packed full of fun, original, skills-based activities for Early Years practitioners to use with children aged 0-5.

Each activity features step-by-step guidance, a list of resources, and a detailed explanation of the skills children will learn.

Creative, simple, and highly effective, this series is a must-have for every Early Years setting. Important dates and occasions are often marked with a variety of celebrations and festivals.

These occasions are also important markers for children in the passing of time and repeated experience.

In Early Years education the best time to talk about a celebration or festival is often after it has occurred rather than before it happens. This is because many young children don’t have a strong memory or understanding of something that occurred a year ago.

So the closer they are to the experience, the richer their learning can be. In this colourful new book by Alistair Bryce-Clegg there are activities that cover:ChristmasDiwaliEasterHanukkahChinese New YearHalloweenBonfire NightEach activity encourages the children to learn about a particular celebration or festival and also to acquire new skills or techniques.

Each of these skills and techniques can be taught on their own, or linked to other activity ideas that you (or the children) might have.

The list of celebrations and festivals that are covered is by no means exhaustive, but the activities are flexible enough to allow practitioners to keep their core content and apply a different theme. They are limited only by your imagination…!