Navigating Fall Holidays
Rebecca Nagle reminded me that it was suddenly fall and a perfect time to share resources and reminders for the upcoming holidays. Her tweet thread explains it beautifully and shares helpful resources. Our blog posts below share different strategies and ideas for addressing Columbus Day (Indigenous Peoples Day), Halloween, and Thanksgiving in the classroom.
We taught these lessons with elementary school students (3rd or 5th grade), but they can easily be adapted for older learners.
Columbus Day (Indigenous Peoples Day): October 12th
Unfortunately, Columbus Day is still a federal holiday, although more and more communities have voted to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day instead. We facilitated Columbus Day Debates with our students one year and led a Holiday Inquiry: Columbus Day another year. If you choose to have a similar debate in your classroom, make sure you have time for debrief and a more general conversation about critical literacy and historical narrative. The holiday inquiry post also shares how we celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day in our classroom.
Halloween: October 31st
Halloween is already a lot for elementary school teachers without adding racist or appropriative costumes to the mix. We found it really helpful to talk to students beforehand and share notes from our conversation with families so everyone knew what the expectations around costumes were before they got around to bringing anything to school. Prevention and preparation are key for Halloween! We also loved having our students investigate and analyze different commercial costumes and share out what they noticed. Read more at Holiday Investigations : Halloween!
Thanksgiving: November 24th
Here are some Gratitude Activities We Love and Thanksgiving & Native American Heritage Month Resources & Reminders. The second post includes general tips to keep in mind when looking for resources about Native Americans, as well as some of our ideas for addressing Thanksgiving in our 3rd grade class that year.
We also wrote this post earlier this school year to help frame your thinking as you choose books or other resources for your classrooms (and yourselves!): Choosing Nonfiction Resources Critically.
Happy October!