Diwali in Kindergarten

Hi everyone!

When I posted about the Diwali centres and activities we did in class, many of you asked me to share more. All of the credit for these lesson ideas and activities go to my amazing ECE partner (she prepped everything, except the the word booklet and the fill in the blank information sheets). We have a large Indian community at our school and Diwali is an important holiday for many of our kids. We hope this inspires you to try some Diwali activities with your class too!

On the first day she read "Let's Celebrate Diwali" by Anjali Joshi for students to learn some basic facts about the holiday.

Then she set out these Diwali themed centres:

1. CARDAMOM PLAY DOUGH

We talked about how many sweets are eaten during Diwali and that cardamom is a spice that is used in some Diwali sweets.

Students were invited to create letters with foil in the play dough.

2. PAPER PLATE DIYAS

Students were invited to create a design on the paper plate with paint and then colour a flame and glue it on to the plate to create their own diyas!

3. RANGOLI CENTRES

We learned that Rangoli's are a traditional art form of India. First we coloured these Rangoli patterns with markers...

Then students were invited to make their own Rangolis on cork rounds with pattern blocks and flat marbles!

We searched up Rangolis on google images and put the iPad at the centre so students could look at them for inspiration. They LOVED making Rangolis!

Here are some of their beautiful creations!

I made up these Diwali booklets for the kids to work on as well.

You can find these Diwali booklets in my TPT store by clicking here.

She also showed them this Diwali video to learn more about Diwali: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ-VIbZSKIo

On the last day we also filled in the blanks for the Diwali information sheets we were going to post on the bulletin board to explain what we learned/did. This was a good review for the kids! I had the students tell me the missing words and the beginning sounds and had them fill it in.

You can download the fill in the blank Diwali information pages

by clicking here or on the image below:

I also had the kids write up little captions for each activity. We talked about how the other students looking at the bulletin board might not understand what is happening if we don't explain it and came up with the words we need together. I also took a picture of the 4 girls who celebrate Diwali and wrote on the index cards what each girl said about how they celebrate Diwali and put them up around the picture.

That's it! Thank you again to my amazing ECE partner for teaching our kids about Diwali. I personally learned so much! I hope this post is helpful if you are thinking about teaching about Diwali!

- Yukari

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Added October 12, 2023:

Hi friends! Just adding on to my original Diwali post since there are lots of good ideas here but I also wanted to share my new Diwali activity pack! This has been requested for years and I finally found the time this year to get it done! I had a few educators who celebrate Diwali look it over as well and it was well received so I hope you enjoy this little activity pack and it helps make incorporating Diwali lessons/activities in the classroom easier for you!

I included three Diwali lessons, one for a non-fiction book and two for the book "The Best Diwali Ever" by Sonali Shah. "The Best Diwali Ever" is such a cute book!