May Fun Learning Holidays
Looking for ways to supplement your homeschool curriculum? How about short unit studies to explore a variety of topics? These fun holidays are a great way to celebrate and provide engaging learning opportunities for your kids. Here’s my list of May homeschool unit study ideas using fun holidays.
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What to Celebrate in the Month of May
Every month has designated awareness holidays. Take advantage of these holidays to introduce your kids to a new experience or get them to try something new. Also, if your child wants to dig in, use these holidays to spend additional time focused on a particular area of interest.
Let’s look at some of the monthly awareness themes for the month of May that you can use to supplement your homeschool curriculum.
Asian American & Pacific Islander Month
Learn something about the history and contributions of Asian Americans in the United States. Here are some resources to get you started.
Asian American Education Project: Lesson plans covering 1850s American to modern day.
Teacher Vision: Resources related to art, music, history, literature, including printables, activities, and book suggestions.
PBS Learning Media: Lesson plans, video content, discussion questions and related vocabulary.
Military Appreciation Month
The American Battle Monuments Commission has an education page that offers powerful resources covering WWI and WWII. Lesson plans are geared to middle and high school levels and include well-researched sources, videos, and hands-on activities. The Fallen Heroes pages offer a powerful glimpse into the individual sacrifice made by service members.
National Bike Month
Besides going on a bike ride, your kids can learn about the history of the bicycle, bicycle maintenance, and be inspired by people continuing to invent new forms of bikes in the present day.
7 Crazy Bikes You Have to See to Believe (YouTube): Wow your kids with this collection of new bicycle inventions by ordinary people.
Evolution of the Bicycle (YouTube): Quick visual history from the velocipede (hobby horse) to the mountain bike.
Intro to Bike Maintenance (REI video class): Five-video series covering tools, parts of the bike, fixing a flat, and more.
National Photography Month
Most of us walk around with phones in our pockets that have amazing camera capabilities and our kids will grow up taking this for granted. For kids interested in photography, there are many resources available to instruct and inspire them.
The World’s Most Powerful Photographs (YouTube): Short 2-minute video showcasing emotional moments while describing what makes a photograph powerful. There are images that sensitive kids might struggle with, so preview the video before showing it to your kids.
iPhone Photography School (YouTube): This channel is packed with useful advice. The owner also offers paid photography courses available on his website of the same name. This is intended for adults, but a motivated middle school student would find plenty of tips and tricks.
21 Types of Photography (Photography Life article): Brief description and example of 21 different types of photography as an overview of the wide variety of possible photography careers.
30-Day Photography Challenge for Teens: This article contains links to resources that offer advice on architectural photography, action photography, portraits, black and white photography, macro photography, and light techniques. There are 30 photo challenge prompts that can be used across any time period.
National Salad Month
May is also National Salad Month—a perfect opportunity to encourage your kids to eat their veggies! Try a variety of salads and incorporate learning about nutrition as you eat your greens.
FruitsandVeggies.org: Find out what’s in season and nutrient content in specific foods
40 Healthy Salad Recipes: This roundup of easy, healthy salad recipes will keep you eating salads all month long. Your kids can practice reading recipes, shopping, chopping, and building flavors.
National Week Holidays for May
Next up are the national awareness weeks to use as homeschool learning opportunities during the month of May.
Wildflower Week: 1st week
This free wildflower unit study from Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool is geared for 2nd thru 7th grade and offers book and media suggestions, crafts and hands-on activities, as well as basic biology and plant structure topics.
Children’s Book Week
Carve out extra time to celebrate the joy of reading this week. Spend time reading aloud, looking at book illustrations, and sharing favorite books. Even your teens might enjoy reminiscing about and rereading their favorite children’s book. If your memory needs a little refresh, check out Time magazine’s list of the 100 best children’s books of all time.
A Few of My Favorite Children’s Books to Read Aloud
Read: Book Recommendations for Tween Girls
National Day Holidays for May
Now we’re on to the individual day holidays for the month of May. Choose a few to incorporate into your homeschool for a variety of learning and fun.
National Space Day: 1st Friday in May
Make a solar system model, explore Free School’s Solar System Tour on YouTube, or check out what NASA‘s up to today.
Star Wars Day: May 4
Teachers Pay Teachers has resources to incorporate language arts, math, science, and music lessons and activities that celebrate May the 4th/Star Wars Day. If your kids love Star Wars, they’ll love a day of learning centered around their favorite characters.
Bird Day: May 4
Visit Happy Strong Home for a beautiful bird unit study including printable pages, book ideas, and craft projects.
National Skilled Trades Day: May 4
This day is designated to increase awareness of the many job opportunities in skilled trades. The list of skilled trades includes:
- construction (e.g. electrician, plumber, mason)
- industrial (e.g. welder, machinist, mechanic)
- healthcare (e.g. vet tech, EMT, sterile technician)
- service (e.g. chef, esthetician, computer technician)
If you know someone in a skilled trade, ask if they would be willing to have your student job shadow for a few hours.
Cartoonist Day: May 5
The Center for Cartoon Studies offers many resources to learn cartooning and improve your skills, including a free one-week cartooning workout and specific lesson plans for teaching with cartoons.
Watch this fantastic TEDx talk from Graham Shaw showing how you can quickly learn to draw many different cartoon characters. Have pencil and paper ready to participate when you watch.
Download my free comic book template and encourage your kids to create their own comic world, or use them as an alternative to a book report or a way to show something they’ve learned in history or social studies.
Visit my printables library for more fun homeschool resources!
National Fitness Day: May 7
Spend a day focused on healthy movement and the importance of physical health.
My Fitness Friday activity pack includes a variety of games and learning activities that incorporate movement. And, it doesn’t have to be done on a Friday! You’ll find yoga stretches, active game ideas, a scavenger hunt, and family olympics ideas. Plus, a math facts game that gets your kids moving, an adjective game that has them tossing a ball, a state capital game that lets them throw something, and even a brain teaser “create-a-quote” game that keeps them moving.
My Fitness Friday activity pack includes a variety of games and learning activities that incorporate movement. And, it doesn’t have to be done on a Friday! You’ll find yoga stretches, active game ideas, a scavenger hunt, and instructions to hold a “family olympics.”
Plus: a math facts game that gets your kids moving, an adjective activity that has them tossing a ball, a state capital game that lets them throw something, and a brain teaser “create-a-quote” game that keeps them moving.
World Red Cross Day: May 8
Watch “American Red Cross Explained in 3 Minutes” for a quick overview of the Red Cross delivered in a relatable way by teens.
Visit the Red Cross website for kid-friendly activities related to disaster preparedness, or find a broad range of activity guides for youth interested in supporting the Red Cross humanitarian mission.
One final suggestion is to do a unit study on Clara Barton (founder of the American Red Cross) at Homeschool Giveaways.
Clean Your Room Day: May 10
Take advantage of this “holiday” to give your kids some useful tips about cleaning up. Depending on your house rules, these may help your kids keep their rooms just a little bit tidier.
- Keep a small trash can in the room and always toss garbage in it.
- No food in the bedroom.
- Make your bed every morning.
- Always put dirty clothes in a laundry hamper.
- Don’t let laundry pile up. Pick a day to wash, dry, and put away clothes every week.
- Do a quick tidy at a set time every day. Choose a time (before dinner, before bed, etc.) to pick toys, books, and clothes off the floor each day.
- Designate a shelf, table, or other small area for “I’m still playing with that” items that they really don’t want to put away every day.
- Purge regularly. Keep a basket or bin in the room or closet for kids to toss in outgrown clothing and items they’ve lost interest in. At least once per quarter, donate things that aren’t being used.
- Have a miscellaneous drawer or basket for “special items” or random collections that don’t really have a good home. At least once a month, go through the drawer and toss items that no longer have any importance or sentimental value to them.
National Biographer’s Day: May 16
Spend today reading biographies about people your kids are interested in. The “Who Was?” series is an obvious choice, or check out the list of 100+ Best Biographies for Kids to Read from Kid Pillar.
This could also be a good day to invite your kids to choose a person they want to learn more about and visit the library to choose a biography as their next non-fiction read.
One more way to celebrate National Biographer’s Day is to have your kids be the biographer and choose a person to write about. For a list of people to spark their interest, check out these biographies for kids from Ducksters.
International Museum Day: May 18
Make it a field trip day and head to a museum. Art, science, history, or any other type of museum near you. Celebrate the collection and preservation of culture, history and valuable objects today.
Here’s a list of 75 impressive virtual museum tours covering art museums worldwide, plus science, technology, and natural history museums.
National Maritime Day: May 22
This national day was created to recognize the maritime industry. May 22nd was chosen in honor of the date that the ship Savannah set sail on the first transoceanic voyage under steam power. Watch a 2-minute video from the Maritime Administration describing the importance of the U.S. Merchant Marine.
World Turtle Day: May 23
For kids interested in turtles, take a day to learn more about these fascinating creatures.
seeturtles.org: Educational resources geared to grade 6-12 including lesson plans, videos, and fact sheets about sea turtles.
worldwildlife.org: Teaching resources about sea turtles for grade 3-5.
The Homeschool Scientist: Helpful list of resources to incorporate in a turtle unit study.
National Scavenger Hunt Day: May 24
A scavenger hunt is a great way to learn and have fun at the same time. Try a traditional scavenger hunt, looking for specific things outside: birds, flowers, trees, animals. Or a scavenger hunt within the pages of a book: example of foreshadowing, parts of speech, table of contents, dedication, etc. Your kids might enjoy a scavenger hunt through your town, one with a photo challenge, or
Check out a list of 25 scavenger hunts for kids from We Are Teachers for some great ideas. If you don’t find just the right one there, Surviving a Teacher’s Salary has a huge list of 50 free printable scavenger hunts for plenty of options.
National Tap Dance Day: May 25
Introduce your kids to classic and modern tap dance routines to celebrate this holiday.
Good Mornin’ (from Singin’ in the Rain): My kids love this one—what a fun good morning video to watch on May 25th!
Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell (Begin the Beguine)
Geoffrey Goldberg (Tap Dance on the Pier)
National Paper Airplane Day: May 26
Time for a paper airplane contest! Visit Fold ‘n Fly for step-by-step instructions to make dozens of paper airplanes.
National Creativity Day: May 30
Challenge your kids to think creatively today with a creative challenge project. John Spencer’s YouTube channel offers creative writing prompts and design challenges your kids will love. Start with his video, We Need a Bigger Definition of Creativity, then visit the Maker Challenges for Students and Writing Prompts for Students to give your kids some creative challenge options.
Additional activity ideas to celebrate creativity day:
Maker day: offer your kids a variety of tools and supplies. Visit Our Family Code for a list of more than 60 maker activities for kids.
LEGO challenges: set a few parameters and then watch your kids unleash their creativity through LEGO builds. Fun Learning for Kids has a printable LEGO challenge calendar you can use for inspiration.
Art activities: let your kids spend the whole day painting, drawing, crafting, or sculpting. Remember, it’s fine to turn on a YouTube tutorial and follow along step-by-step. Learning from others and practicing what they learn is how they become confident in their abilities and empowered to allow their own creativity to grow.
Read: 99 Fun Paper Activities for Kids
Memorial Day: Last Monday in May
Likely, Memorial Day is a school holiday for your family. In the days leading up to Memorial Day, take time to explain to your kids what this holiday means.
The History of Memorial Day (Reading Through History)
The Homeschool Mom has a long list of resources for teaching and learning about Memorial Day.
Check to see if your town has a Memorial Day parade, visit a local cemetery to place flowers on the graves of family members, or take a trip to a veterans memorial in your area. The American Legion has a searchable database for memorials in your area.
Visit my homeschool resources page for monthly unit study ideas, projects, and homeschool planning help!
How to Use Fun Holidays for Unit Studies in May
Remember, the key to using fun holiday lists like this in your homeschool is to keep it simple. Don’t try to celebrate every single holiday or awareness theme. You and your kids will be overwhelmed.
One way to implement supplemental learning activities like this is to keep a list of fun holidays. Then, note down the ones you celebrate with the year and what you did. Next year, come back to the list and pick another one or two to celebrate.
There are, of course, more “national days” you could choose to celebrate that are not included in this list, many of them focused on food. It’s fun to choose a few of these as well to add in treats here and there or as a way to have your kids try new foods.
Find additional May fun holidays that aren’t necessarily learning-related in these two articles.
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May Unit Study Ideas for Homeschool Learning
