National Holidays Matching

Use this activity during a unit on civics, American symbols, and national holidays. Students can work individually, in pairs, small groups or as a full class. For grades K-6. Approximate time needed is 30 minutes.

Prior to introducing the activity, begin a discussion with students by asking the following questions:

• What days of the year are important to you and your family? What do you do on those days that make them important?
• What are holidays that you and your family celebrate? How do you celebrate those holidays?

Open the activity and model careful document analysis with one of the documents. After exploring the document as a class, match it to the appropriate Federal holiday. Ask students to analyze the remaining documents and to complete the activity by matching each document with the appropriate Federal holiday. When the activity is completed, an American flag is revealed.

After students have completed the activity, hold a class discussion on the following questions:

• Which of the national holidays do you think is most important? Why?
• Which of the national holidays do you think is currently celebrated most differently from its original intention? Explain your opinion.
• If you could remove one of the national holidays, which would it be? Why?
• If you could create a new national holiday, what would it celebrate? What day would it be celebrated on? Explain your reasons.

Explain that some of the holidays have changed names. Other holidays have changed dates. For more details about national holidays, visit https://www.usa.gov/holidays.