Classroom Activities for Labor Day
Celebrate the American workforce with our Labor Day printables, including reading passages, puzzles and key term word searches - perfect for back to school.
Why Do We Celebrate Labor Day?
Labor Day celebrates hard-working Americans. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, the holiday was first celebrated by labor unions and was pushed forward by labor activists to become a federal holiday recognizing the social and economic contributions of working men and women. The holiday is now often viewed as the final holiday of the summer, marking the end of summer and, for some, the beginning of the new school year.
When is Labor Day 2024?
The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated in 1882 in New York City and by 1894, 23 more states had adopted the holiday. On June 28, 1894, it was legally declared that the first Monday in September would be used to observe the holiday. Labor Day 2024 will be celebrated on Monday, September 2nd.
Classroom Activities for Labor Day
Celebrate the American workforce with our Labor Day printables, including reading passages, puzzles and key term word searches - perfect for back to school. Students will enjoy learning about the history behind this holiday. Incorporate the many achievements of American workers into a unit on careers, inventors, history, or economics. With our collection of Labour Day lesson plans and activities, spanning social studies and history, language arts, math and more, integrating this holiday across your curriculum couldn’t be easier!
Labor Day Printables
Teach your students about Labor Day with these printables. Includes reading passages with activities, a key term word search, and practicing writing skills by completing sentences.Labor Day Lesson Plans
Help students understand Labor Day with activities such as learning about child labor, creating appreciation cards or a career collage for the bulletin board, and writing individual articles to create a classroom newspaper.- What Is Child Labor?
- Appreciation Cards
- Women and World War II
- Career Bulletin Board
- Labor Day Newspaper
Labor Day & Economics Connected
Economics is tied to jobs and working. Help your students understand this concept by having a class job fair, learning what jobs kids did in the past, or using our creative lesson on the mining industry.- What Is Child Labor?
- Job Fair
- Kids at Work
- Rocks in My Pocket
- Work Stoppages Involving 1,000 People or More
- Mothers in the Labor Force
- National Labor Organizations
- Persons in the Labor Force, 1840-2005
- Leading Industries
Labor Day & History Connected
Explore history connections in these Labor Day resources. Includes warm-ups with comprehension questions on influential people's jobs, comparing jobs in the Middle Ages with jobs today, as well as how women entered the workforce during World War II.- What Is Child Labor?
- Women and World War II
- Clara Barton Reading Warm-Up
- Castle Life
- Florence Nightingale Biography: A Reading Warm-Up
- Women Inventors
- More Women's History Resources
Labor Day Math Resources
Interconnect math skills with these Labor Day activities for students. Includes conducting a class survey about careers, compiling the data and creating a graph, counting, solving word problems, and finding percentages.Labor Day Art Activities
Incorporate art activities into your Labor Day lesson by using patterns to create pictures, making a stethoscope and paper dentures, and much more.- Choose an Occupation
- Appreciation Cards
- Make a Stethoscope
- Doctor and Dentist Patterns
- Police and Firefighter Wheel Pattern
- Make a Set of Teeth
- Fire Chief's Helmet
- Fire Engine and Police Car Puzzle
- I Want to Be a Carpenter
- Police and Firefighter Patterns
- More Art Activities
Labor Day ELA Activities
Choose from these activities to help students expand their knowledge about Labor Day. Students will interview an author, create and write appreciation cards, or write an acrostic poem about careers.- Suggested Author Interview Questions
- Be a Journalist!
- The Firefighter Reading Warm-Up
- Let's Choose a Career
- Appreciation Cards
- Career Words
- My New Year's Resolutions (7-12)
- Transcript of Authors Live with Jerry Spinelli
- Community Helpers Writing Activity
- Curious George's First Day of School Teacher's Guide
- More Language Arts Activities
Jobs & Careers
Investigate Jobs and Careers with your students through activities such as interviewing another student and writing an article for a class newspaper, holding a class job fair, and learning about community helpers.- Community Helpers: Matching
- Be a Journalist!
- Favorite Labor Day Activities Slideshow, Grades K-8
- Appreciation Cards
- Second-Grade Soil Scientists
- Community & Careers Printables Slideshow
- Job Fair
- Dr. Mae Jemison Coloring Page
- Community Helpers
- Preparing for the Interview
- More Jobs & Careers Teacher Resources
