Every January 29th marks Kansas Day, commemorating Kansas becoming the 34th star on the American flag in 1861. This annual event presents the perfect opportunity to introduce toddlers and preschoolers to their home state through engaging hands-on activities.
This article outlines ideas to celebrate Kansas Day with young children in fun and educational ways. Keep reading for a variety of crafts, music, books, imaginative games, snacks and more designed just for the toddler crowd.
Home on the Kansas Range Crafts
Little hands love getting creative, and craft projects allow toddlers to further solidify new Kansas knowledge through tactile experience.
Sunflower Headbands
The vibrant sunflower is not only the Kansas state flower but also nicknamed inspirer as the Sunflower State. Provide yellow and brown paper for little ones to glue ‘petals’ and a ‘centre’ into a wearable bloom headpiece. Talk about spotting sunflowers across endless Kansas summer fields while working.
Heartland Handprints
Finger painting makes any activity better. Cover paper Kansas outlines with washable paints. Let mini Kansans press their hands on the shape of their home state to create a unique memento for parents. Talk about making our mark on the places we come from while creating.
Prairie Patchwork Keepsakes
Fabric squares sewn together represent both frontier survival and modern life across the patchwork prairies. Guide tiny fingers in practising basic stitch techniques to create small quilts or pillows able to preserve personal treasures for years to come.
Kansas Symbols Toddlers Should Know
| Symbol | Details | Activity Idea |
|---|---|---|
| Sunflower | State flower | Make sunflower crowns |
| Western meadowlark | State bird | Use bean bags to pretend ‘catch’ meadowlarks |
| Honeybee | State insect | Use bean bags to pretend to ‘catch’ meadowlarks |
| Buffalo | State animal | Toss brown bean bags as ‘buffalo chips’ |
| Wheat | Key agriculture crop | Make ‘amber waves’ with yellow paper |
Reinforcing state symbols through toddler-friendly activities engraves cultural connections deeper at a young age.
Eat Your Way Through Kansas Day
What better avenue towards toddler cultural understanding than nibbling Sunflower State specialities? Build fine motor skills along the way.
Sunflower Snacks
The official state blossom offers more than floral beauty – crack shells to discover the nutrition hidden inside sunflower seeds. Provide shellers and picks for playful practice accessing the fatty morsels. Talk seeds as cash crops and nutritious additions to trail mixes, salads and spreads as you enjoy the fruits of youngsters’ persistence together.
Buffalo “Chips” and Salsa
Bean bag’s small hands can grasp and provide textured fun without a backyard mess. Toss the pretend droppings while learning the real pioneer history behind the moniker. Serve salsa and chips for dunking afterwards tied back to cattle ranch culture.
Homestead Stew Over Sod
Brown ground beef represents taming wild plains while dicing veggies pioneers would have harvested from their new land. Stir up memories of tough beginnings. Serve the savoury stew over squares of chocolate graham ‘sod’ then challenge tykes to carve and eat their plot section by section.
Reading Into the Heart of Kansas
Curl story time into the daily routine to impart both early literacy and background on local heritage through engaging tales.
Kansas Animal Tales
Read “Nights on the Kansas Prairie” together, immersing in descriptions of coyotes yipping, bull snakes slithering and great horned owls hooting just beyond the preschool playground borders. Stop to identify and mimic calls described, then slither like bull snakes back to quiet listening.
Sunflower Friends
“The Patchwork Quilt” centres little ones on the tradition behind scrappy textile crafts. Follow Tanya as she waits for Grandma to finish the family quilt featuring bits of baby clothes, neckties, aprons and her favourite dress.
Kansas Kiddos Long Ago
In “Amber Waves of Grain”, join farm children as Winograd’s crisp illustrations depict morning chatter around the breakfast table, hard chores and playful adventures against the backdrop of endless Kansas gold.
Playing the Day Away Kansas Style
Active adventures grant prime opportunities to cement state facts and culture while expending toddler energy. Alter relays and games to a Sunflower State theme for an engaging test run.
Sunflower Blossom Balance Beam
Cut giant sunflower shapes from cardboard and lay ‘petals’ in winding pathways for tiny feet to traverse while balancing arms outstretched like rays seeking sunlight. Practice naming state symbols while navigating the state bloom.
Pony Express Obstacle Course
Obstacle courses allow indoor or outdoor setups to mimic galloping prairie ponies racing to deliver mail across frontier Kansas. Have mini relay teams take turns hurdling ‘streams’ (blue towels) and jumping rolling ‘bison’. Stop for ‘checklist’ breaks naming famous Kansans perhaps featured on stamps.
Orca Escape
Weave red ribbons or pool noodles into underwater ‘coral’ for toddlers to dive and swim through while reenacting orcas from Kansas zoos making a break for the oceans. Remind young biologists these mammals reside right in their own backyard.
The Sunflower State overflows with natural beauty, agricultural abundance and storied history offering countless avenues to instill pride and meaning. These activities celebrate iconic aspects of Kansas while sowing seeds – perhaps sunflowers – for a lifelong interest blossoming from the toddler years onward.
Conclusion
Kansas Day offers the perfect platform for sparking little Jayhawks’ lifelong bond with their home region. By tapping multiple learning avenues tailored to tiny attention spans, the day’s legacy embeds deeper than dates memorized for tests before fading from memory. Tactile craft projects, dramatic performances set under frontier skies, hungry nibbles of hearty pioneer recipes and humming folk songs passed down generations imprint pieces of toddlers’ identity formed around the very soil they’ll inherit as stewards themselves someday. Guiding tiny hands in planting these seeds of state spirit means not only do tiny sprouts blossom sooner but stronger roots anchor them as future keepers of what makes Kansas special to share with the world.
