It’s that time of year… Once the calendar flicks over to November, the festive period is not far away! Rather than wait till the last minute, take this as your reminder to sort your end of year celebrations out now!

December brings with it the excitement of Christmas, summer holidays and the promise of a new year around the corner. It’s a time for happiness, connections and wonder for children, as they experience the magic of decorations everywhere and the coming together with family and friends.

The way early childhood education services end the year varies and there are plenty of ways to do it. Let’s explore some ideas to inspire your festive plans.

Ideas for early childhood education end of year celebrations

Revisit the year’s favourite themes: Get children and educators to vote on the best themes you explored throughout 2022 and base your end-of-year celebration around one or more of them. A theme can be extended into your decorations, songs, stories, outfits, and even your snacks!

Perform a cherished story: Choose a favourite story, or one that children can’t get enough of, and put together a performance of the story. Educators can narrate the story and the children can act it out. Add in some dialogue for children who feel confident too! You could even work on building your own props using recycled bits and pieces around your service.  Perhaps you can incorporate some of these activities into the children’s art and craft sessions.

Sing favourite Christmas Carols: At Bonkers Beat Music Kinder it’s been a tradition to invite Santa Claus and meet him by singing favourite Christmas carols with children and families. Usually a parent volunteers to be Santa and distributes a small gift to each child (prepared by the centre). You may select with your team of educators favourite Christmas carols, print them and assemble in a folder. Santa’s visit event makes this time of the year extra special, helps to keep traditions alive and brings everyone together.

Create a musical extravaganza: You probably know how we feel about music by now — every occasion is a time for music and singing! Pick out a bunch of the children’s favourite songs and perform a musical for families. You can incorporate instruments and dance moves along with singing loud and proud. Don’t forget to include some Bonkers classics — Ring the Bells is always a hit with children and families. You can get the audio, lyrics and Auslan signs for it in our Complete Christmas Pack here. 

In fact, the Complete Christmas Pack is full of resources for services to celebrate Christmas, covering crucial areas of curriculum, including, but not limited to communication and language development, math, history, wellbeing, geography, creativity and music development. 

For you, our dear followers and readers, we have a special gift! Enter the code GIFT22 and get 20% off this Complete Christmas Pack.

The activities include nomenclature cards, matching tracing cards, a Christmas scavenger hunt, activity and puzzle sheets, mindfulness exercises and more to extend a child’s knowledge and encourage curiosity. You can access this valuable complete pack for instant download here.

Now, let’s get started on seeing out 2022 with plenty of fun, lots of smiles, laughter, gratitude and happiness at our end of year celebrations!