Many might not know the significance of Labor Day except that it is the official end of the summer, and school is looming around the corner. Or, depending on your school district, the first holiday of the school calendar.
The best way to teach your children about the history and reason behind Labor Day is to get them involved in special activities like making Labor Day crafts. Children are most likely to remember lessons where they play a participatory role.
If you have no idea what to do, here are some of the best activities to jumpstart your weekend.
Suncatcher Stars in Patriotic Colors
You will have lots of fun making these with your children. A bonus point is that you probably have everything you need in your house already.
You will need:
Red and blue watercolors
Coffee filters
Droppers (the smaller, the better)
Grab as many coffee filters as you need and flatten them out. Stack them and draw a star on the top one. Then cut out the whole bunch in the shape of the star you drew.
Carefully line a work surface or activities tray with some wax paper. Any other paper or material will absorb the watercolors, and your stars won’t shine as bright.
Your little helpers can now use the droppers with paint to squirt the paint onto the coffee filters. You will all love watching the paint spread and absorbed into the paper.
Once you fill the wax paper with stars, transfer it to another side of the counter to dry, then lay another sheet for the rest of your stars until you are done.
After the stars are dry, carefully remove them off of the wax paper and tape or hang them wherever you can show them off as your Labor Day décor.
Labor Day Fireworks
This one is easy, and you will have lots of fun. All you need is:
Read and blue paint
White paper
A fork
Here’s what to do:
Dip the back of the fork in one color and then press it on the paper so that it shows the lines. Repeat the process as you go around the paper in a circle. Next, wipe off the fork, dip it in another color, and slide the lines on top of the previous color. Voila, there you have it—patriotic fireworks for Labor day!
Handmade Thank You Cards
Labor Day is about appreciating members of the community that help us. You can show your kids how to write thank you messages.
Ask the children who they would like to appreciate in their communities and guide them to write personalized thank you messages specialized to their line of work to show them that they are seen and appreciated.
For example, you could write to doctors, nurses, firefighters, and other members who help in the community. You can distribute these stars at the grocery stores, phamarcies, the library, or even to the different family members that you appreciate.
Fireworks in a Jar Experiment
Remember, the goal is to make learning fun, and you will see many happy faces with this one.
Here is what you will need:
Glass jars
Oil
Water
Food coloring and
A bowl
Here’s what you’ll do:
Fill the glass jar about three-quarter way with water. Then in a separate bowl, mix about five tablespoons of oil with about four drops of any color of food coloring you want.
Slowly pour the oil mixture into the jar of water and observe. The food color will slowly sink to the bottom of the jar as it passes through the oil and the water. Then it will expand and mix with other colors and create fireworks.
This activity is two-in-one. It is a fun labor day craft and doubles as a science experiment showing that water and oil do not mix. Amazing, right?
Labor Day Career Inspiration Board
Inspire your child to strive towards their dream career or what people do for a living by creating an inspiration board for them.
On this board, you can pin or stick different cutouts of items from their chosen path or other career paths in case they have not yet decided on a particular one.
You will need:
Magazines and old newspapers
Glue
A pair of scissors
Craft markers
Cardstock
Get old magazines or newspapers and select pictures of people doing different professions. Then, cut out the various people's attires for the different jobs, either in uniform or extra gear. For example, you can select firefighters, nurses, professional athletes, doctors, swimmers, cowboys, actors, or even fashion models.
On the cardstock, write, “What Will I Be As a Grown Up?” and glue the different cutouts from the magazines and papers onto it.
Discuss each profession, who knows, you might spark an interest that might grow into a lifelong pursuit.
Make a Box Town
You can reconstruct a town from old boxes and anything you find around your house without buying anything.
All you need is:
Old boxes
Colored paper
Cartons
Scissors
Glue
Paper tubes
Tape
Empty containers or tins
For the buildings, wrap up the boxes and containers with colored paper. You can have an adult cut out the windows and doors if you like. Or, you could decorate with different colored paper if that is what you prefer. The paper tubes can act as chimneys.
For the trees, the tissue tubes act as the trunks, and you can use either color as the tree top on a piece of paper and then tape it to the trunk. Alternatively, you could cut out a canopy from green colored paper and stick it to the trunk.
Arrange your boxes to recreate your little town. Label the buildings according to their functions and workplaces, for example, the library, the drug store, the saloon, school, etc.
Homemade Tool Belt
This is an easy, cheap, and fun craft all rolled into one. You just have to make the little ones draw different tools, color them, cut them out with scissors, and then tape them onto a belt. Viola!
Labor Day Puppets
All you need is regular-sized lunch bags. Then ask the children to draw puppets of different professions and stick them to the lunch bags. You can also ask your children to cut out different pictures of workers from magazines and then stick them on poster boards. This craft is ideal for pretend play and will keep your child occupied for a while. The bonus part is that they can have a fun puppet show with results.
Police Officers as Community Helpers
If you have little children obsessed with everything police, this section is specifically for you. Here are a few ideas of police-themed craft ideas for you for labor day.
For the police cars, you will need:
A white paper plate
Glue
Blue tissue paper
Craft scissors
Cardstock (black and white)
Hand-held office stapler
First, cut the paper plate into half to give you two cars to create. Then, allow the young ones to practice their paper cutting skills by making them cut the tissue paper into small squares.
Thirdly, you will smear your paper plate halves completely with glue and then let the young ones cover them with the small tissue paper squares they cut.
While you set them out to dry, cut out the car's other features from the cardstock; the windows and the tires. Then, staple the features in their respective positions onto the dried paper plates to complete the task. And there you have it, police cars in honor of your community helpers, the policemen!
Popsicle Stick and Button Flag
Above everything else, Labor Day is a patriotic day. You get to celebrate and honor all those who contribute economically and socially to our great nation. There is no better way to show patriotism than with a flag.
For this, you will need:
Blue cardstock
Red, blue and white buttons (various sizes)
Glue
Popsicle sticks (jumbo size)
Sequins
Get seven popsicle sticks and place them next to each other vertically in a straight line. Then take two others and glue them onto the vertical sticks horizontally, one at the top and the other at the bottom, as if making a fence. Allow them to dry completely.
Cut the blue cardstock into a small rectangle to place at the top left corner of your popsicle flag frame. Next, glue the sequins onto the blue rectangle for the stars. Once that is done, you can have the children glue their buttons onto the frame in rows of red and white.
Leave them to dry completely, and then show off your handy work.
Bottom Line
These Labor Day-inspired arts and crafts will keep you busy with your children. There will be lots of fun and learning, no matter which craft you try. Let us know which ones you loved. Enjoy your labor day weekend!