It’s that time of year agin – harvest festival! And if like us, your school likes to put on a school wide festival for classes to each access, you may be stuck trying to think of fun and engaging Harvest Festival activities. So today I’m going to be sharing some of our favorite harvest festival activities that me and my students have loved taking part in!
What is a Harvest Festival? Why And When to Celebrate?!
A harvest festival is where we celebrate crops being gathered from the fields. It’s a time and opportunity for us to reflect on the food that we have. And it dates back reaaaaal far, back to ancient times. It usually is celebrated on the Sunday nearest to the Harvest Moon.
Farmers would give thanks for a good harvest. It was important because it meant that they were able to store food and eat well through the winter.
It provides us as educators the chance to teach our students about the process of how good is grown.. And how it gets from farms to our tables. It’s also a special date in the calendar for different religions.
What is the Harvest Moon?
The harvest moon is the full moon that takes place closest to the autumn equinox – anytime between September and October. The equinox is when the Earth’s equator is almost directly in line with the middle of the sun.
It is referred to as the Harvest Moon because it is bright and rises early. This meant that farmers were able to work for longer, gathering their crops ready for the winter – harvest.
How Do People Celebrate?
People celebrate in many different ways. In schools you may see;
- Special assemblies.
- Harvest displays and decorations.
- Food donations / collections.
- Teaching about harvest.
- Visits to local farms and churches.
- Harvest festivals.
And in this blog post today, while I’m mainly talking about Harvest festivals.. You’ll also find lots of other great ideas that you can do with your students without making it a huge Harvest festival.
Donations
Times are hard for everyone right now, we all know that. So asking for donations can be hard. Especially when in previous years maybe local food banks and churches would have provided a list of items they may need which we would pass on. But now, that can feel like a little too much extra pressure for our students families. So instead, we are sending home this fun letter asking for any donations that families to send in. Then, we are having our staff place all of the items in a box and one student from the class, or a member of staff, takes that up during the assembly. This way, students aren’t standing out if they’ve brought nothing, a little or loads. It’s done on a class by class basis and I think that’s just a little less stressful for everyone.
Harvest Festival Assembly
We love to start with a harvest festival assembly. We put together a list of harvest / Autumn themed songs (I’ll list some of our favorites below) and we use this time to work on our sign language, singing, vocabulary, dancing, and taking food items / donations up to the table.
Through the week, each class is also tasked with making some harvest decorations that we can use to decorate the hall that our assembly takes place in. I’ll list some of the crafts below that we love to do.
Song Ideas
- Cauliflowers Fluffy – My ABSOLUTE FAVE!
- Harvest Samba – (With Makaton Signs. I LOVE this one too!)
- Autumn Leaves are Falling Down
- The Scarecrow Song
- I’m a Little Pumpkin
- 5 Little Pumpkins
- Gray Squirrel
- Way Up High in the Apple Tree
- Dance Like a Scarecrow
- I’m a Little Scarecrow
- I’m a Nut
- Swing Your Partner by Jim Gill
- Dingle Dangle Scarecrow
Harvest Crafts
- Mini pumpkin decorating. I love to buy those little pumpkins and have students decorate them with paint and craft materials and have these on display.
- Pumpkin carving. If you’re about to get some good size pumpkins – or go on a trip to the pumpkin farm! – then this is always a fun way to extend upon that. Have everyone carve pumpkins together, put some battery operated tea lights inside and watch them light up the room during the harvest festival.
Activities
I know lots of you always struggle with what activities to have on offer during a harvest festival. So here are some that we like to rotate through over the years to mix it up and keep the event enjoyable for everyone;
- Pumpkin painting table.
- Bowling with pumpkins.
- Face painting station.
- Leaf raking station.
- Arts and craft station. Stamping with food is always a fun one here!
- Photo booth area.
- Speak to local farms to see if they will fetch along some animals for a small petting zoo.
- Pumpkin Spice Yoga – check out this amazing lesson plan here.
- Lucky Ducks – using Halloween themed ducks. This is always a huge hit!
- Quiet sensory area – this is one that I always insist on. It’s really helpful to offer a quiet sensory area away from the noise, lights, decorations where students can go to relax and have some time away.
- Paddling pool filled with corn and other fun harvest items.
- Pin the nose on the scarecrow.
- Decorating cookies.
- Bubbles.
- If you’re lucky enough to have a big parking lot – hay rides! Local farmers love to pop by and help out by offering some little hay rides around the parking lot. This is one of my reasons why I always preach about why it’s important to build relationships with others in the community because it can benefit everyone!
- Harvest scavenger hunt.
- Sack race.
- Maze.
- Harvest leaf masks. Download free template here.
- Candy corn ring toss. (Paint orange cones to look like candy corn and throw hoops around them)
- Sensory bin area.
What activities do you like to do for your Harvest Festival? Share in the comments below!
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Nikki
