Kwanzaa Games and Crafts for Kids

One of the many facets of celebrating Kwanzaa is for kids to engage in games and crafts for the holiday. Here are some ideas you can incorporate into your seven-day Kwanzaa celebration:

Purchase a Kwanzaa jig-saw puzzle and have the kids put together its colorful pieces.

Have your kids play some of the multitude of online Kwanzaa games, one of which is printing out a sheet of Kinara candles, and placing them in their correct order.

Purchase the Nguzo Saba board game, which is not only educational since it is designed as the map of Africa, but it utilizes pictures to symbolize the 7 Kwanzaa Principles as well.

A wonderful craft idea is to fashion a basket utilizing red, green and black ribbons and placing fruit inside as a centerpiece for the table. Weave the ribbons through the basket to symbolize the three colors of Kwanzaa.

Make necklaces out of red, green and black beads using a satin cord. You can find these beads in any craft store.

Make a homemade Kwanzaa mat using black construction paper with red and green ribbon. Cut the construction paper into strips and intertwine the two colored ribbons alternately.

Another interesting and recommended game for kids is to teach Swahili. Choose specific words and have the child repeat them. One of the most familiar words in Swahili is Jambo, which means hello. There are also interactive word puzzles online similar to Jumble, in which kids are given a list of words and the object is to find them in a word maze.

Start a Kwanzaa scrapbook in which they can record what they have learned each year about Kwanzaa. They can write their thoughts about their heritage, stories they may have been told and observations on books they have read. They can decorate the front of the scrapbook with the 7 Symbols of Kwanzaa.

Kwanzaa crafts and games are an ideal way to pass down from generation to generation the values that are indicative of Kwanzaa as it relates to family and community.