Using Holidays to Build Belonging and Meaningful Learning

The holidays and the new year are a wonderful time for communities to come together to both celebrate and reflect on where we have been and where we are going. By thoughtfully engaging with family observances, we can help children explore identity, community, shared traditions in ways that deepen learning. Learning about and sharing the traditions that are important in a school community helps everyone understand about the world with authenticity. Families and the community are a powerful asset in this learning journey.

When thinking about how to approach holidays and observances, we may need to make some shifts in our thinking and practice. It is an opportunity to teach things in new ways – to take up and connect to the teachable moments. Working with Big Ideas as a foundation for all content areas makes learning relevant and inspires children to contribute and discover more. When we work with Big Ideas we provoke teachable moments that can extend learning.

Big Ideas connected to building community and relationships with others are great jumping off points for researching what a holiday observance is, and how to engage with things that might be new to you.

At the cornerstone are Big Ideas such as:

• When we observe a holiday we use different tools and objects to represent how we feel and what we do. We are members of a group.
• We form relationships with each other.
• We are all learning new things and how to do things for ourselves.
• We belong to different groups/communities: family, neighborhood, class, school, city, team, etc.

Aren’t these the messages we want children to embrace?

These Big Ideas leave the door open to explore lots of ways children and families approach holidays and celebrations. To learn more about exploring Big Ideas, take the online course and pay special attention to the module on Following Children’s Interests. This intention takes you through how to approach an topic of investigation with children. For those who celebrate, enjoy the various observances this month and into the new year! May it bring you peace and light.