I was so excited to see how many questions I got from a ton of you on my
Here’s what the general hour looks like: A small explanation of what Diwali is (festival of lights), followed by a book, and then a short activity. I like to switch up the activities annually so I’ll share what I’ve done in the past as well below.
Books:
Here are the 4 books I’ve been reaching for lately and think they’re appropriate for my aged kids (5-6 yrs). I will say most of these tend to be a little long so I will skip through a few pages or read just an excerpt. Let’s Celebrate Diwali, Twinkle Twinkle Diwali Lights, Let’s Celebrate 5 Days of Diwali, Adyn Loves the Indian Holidays (plus a few more linked here)
Activities:
These thick paper Rangoli prints from Teal Firefly were a hit for the preschoolers and were a great take home.
They also come in a card version which makes it great as an in-class activity and also something to give as a gift to family or friends.
Sand mandalas were a hit last year, and not as messy as they would seem. Tip: Lay out newspapers on the table so clean up is super easy. The disc comes with stickers so the sand sticks easily.
We did firecracker rings this year and the kids went crazy over them. These pipe cleaners are from the Dollar Tree and honestly with 2 packs you can do over 30 rings, with keeping kids busy for at least 10-15 minutes. (Full instructions on what to do from this blog Turn This Into That.)
This year I was inspired by these henna painted glass vases and found the exact same ones from the Dollar Tree (linking similar ones). I didn’t want to make a mess with puffy paint so opted for metallic glass markers (linking the brand I found to be the best here) and also provided these jewel stickers for the kids to decorate with.
Here’s another pic I grabbed off Google pics for inspo & love how festive they look.
RIan with his first grade class
Mila with her Kinder class
I loved seeing my kids enjoy celebrating this special holiday with their friends and taking pride in what they created!
Each student had a set up that looked like this. I also added a little name tag (a pack of 30 for $1 from the Dollar Tree) so they could put it on their bottle after decorating.
One touch I added was a little insert I created as a take home so the children could show their parents and help them get a sense for why we did this activity and what Diwali means to us. I made this up by clipping together different things I found on the internet and have the file attached here for anyone interested in downloading. I also added the firecracker ring here because the vase plus this seemed like it would take up more than an hour.
And that was about it! I hope you enjoyed this little Diwali round up and are inspired to teach a few activities yourself. Feel free to ask me any questions & I’d love to know what different activities you’ve done with your children in the comments below.
xo,
Ami
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