Fun activities to celebrate Dusherra with kids

Dussehra festival is the celebration of the triumph of good over bad or evil. It is celebrated on the 10th day of the month of Ashvinas as the record of the Hindu calendar.

This auspicious festival is celebrated to honour the victory of Lord Rama over the demon Ravana, people burn a cut out or effigy of Ravana with ten heads on this day to celebrate the victory of Lord Rama. 

The Ramleela is enacted to show the story which is followed by the burning of Ravana. 

Dussehra is considered to be an auspicious day for new beginnings, people make new purchases for their homes and people also worship their cars, bikes and wealth at home. 

Here are some fun ways to celebrate Dussehra with preschoolers and get them  involved in engaging activities to help benefit their intellectual and learning skills. 

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Puppet Show enacting Dussehra

You can make simple hand puppets, stick puppets or finger puppets of Lord Rama, Goddess Sita and demon Ravana and enact a puppet show for the children. It’s always fun and exciting to tell a story with  puppets, acting and narrating a story makes learning fun and exciting for kids. 

Enacting the Ram Leela 

Pre schoolers really enjoy dressing up as different characters and applying make up to enact the character. Allow them to dress up as Ram, Sita and Ravana and apply make up and wear jewelry as required. Let them say a few dialogues. Decorate a back drop with plants and trees and make it enjoyable for the kids. 

Flower Rangoli

Dussehra is a festival that is celebrated in different parts of the country differently. However there is one thing common and that is the practise of decorating our entrance door with a beautiful rangoli.

Getting children to make a Rangoli with fresh flowers of different colours or paper balls, helps them use their imagination and enhance their cognitive skills. 

Simply draw lines or make a rangoli design with a chalk . Let them fill the design with coloured flowers 🌸🌺🌻🌹🌷🌼💐 or crumpled paper. Spread glitter on the rangoli at the end. Kids love glitter. 

This also helps them in recognising colours and improve their gross and fine motor skills. It improves their puncer grip too. 

Make a Garland

Make coloured paper flowers and make them into a beautiful flower garlands at home. Let them enjoy creating their own paper Garland which you can use to hang out on the door. 

Flower decorations

During the festival of Dussehra, temples and homes are well decorated with lots of flowers and lit lamps or diyas. 

The yellow and orange marigold flower is known as an auspicious flower and used for decoration during this festival with green leaves. 

Kids can make paper flowers or make a yellow and orange flower Garland to decorate  their homes with or they can take them to the temple during the festival. 

Dussehra is the festival of happy times and new beginnings and friend's and family exchange gifts to bring in good times. 

Teaching kids to make gift wrapping paper and packing gifts is loads of fun, this also teaches them to share and give gifts to their friends and family members as well. 

 

Get creative and let them use   ribbons, paintings and stickers to decorate the gifts they pack and make the gift look really colorful and attractive.

Get loads of fun ideas and good quality crafts from 

https://www.hobbyideas.in/

Making delicious halwa

No festival is complete without giving, receiving and relishing delicious halwa and sweets.

Halwa is  a favourite amongst children and fun to make as well. So get the ingredients ready and have the children help making this halwa in the kitchen. 

Watch the utube video for the making of a delicious pineapple halwa. 

https://youtu.be/b6EapNq2X7o

The pineapple halwa is really easy to make and requires  minimum preparation. Cooking in the kitchen with children need adult supervision. 

Children simply enjoy all the simple things in life and there is nothing better than having them celebrate the happiness and joy of a festival and making beautiful  memories. It's fun learning the tradition and culture of our country through festivals.

It's important to teach through play and let them learn the importance of our Indian festivals.