Black History Month EYFS – 5 African-inspired craft activities

What's included?

PDF of activity ideas

Key Stage

Early Years, KS1

Age

Years R-2

Subjects

Karen Hart presents a selection of fun children’s crafting activities, which EYFS settings can organise as part of their events to mark Black History Month in October.

Many preschool settings and schools throughout the country mark Black History Month. It’s a great opportunity for staff to involve children and families of all ethnicities in celebrating a range of different cultures in all sorts of ways.

Perhaps you already have plans for this year’s Black History Month, or perhaps you are looking for some inspiration.

In this download you’ll find five Africa-inspired ideas that can supplement your own or form the basis of an exciting and educational celebration in their own right.

The activities all require minimal resources and are really easy to set up. They’re also all tried and tested and deliver good results and fun.

Black History Month EYFS ideas

The download contains instructions for the following African-inspired crafts:

African marks – Children love finding new ways to paint and using cotton buds with this activity works really well
Bead threading – People wear Kwanzaa bead necklaces in celebration of all things African. You make them with beads in the traditional colours of black, red and green
Khamsa hands – These five-fingered amulets are popular good luck charms right across North Africa
Collar necklaces – This craft is inspired by the beaded necklaces of the Samburu people and the traditional ornate collar necklaces of ancient Egypt
Cotton bowls – Indigenous African people are well known for their beautiful, colourful hand-woven baskets

BHM early years case study

I was lucky enough to receive an invite to a Black History Month event at Charlton Family Centre, Greenwich.

There were activities, games and dancing for everyone to enjoy. The whole day felt like a real celebration of the cultural diversity within the preschool group and wider community.

Staff had erected a marquee next to the centre (as African weather seemed unlikely). They decorated the walls with beautiful Africa-inspired fabrics.

They’d also prepared activity tables ready for the preschoolers’ arrival, including:

mask- and musical instrument-making
dressing up in African clothes
headgear tying for both children and adults

There were also truly delicious foods from a wide range of cultures to try. When the children arrived, it was lovely to see so many had dressed in traditional cultural outfits. They were all eager to get stuck in with the interactive African drumming and singing performance provided by Global Fusion Music and Arts.

You couldn’t help but join in with the drumming and dancing; there were beats to copy, African songs to learn and sing along to, and lessons in creating percussion music.

The African weaving activity proved very popular. Staff had created mini looms from wool and shallow boxes. They provided lots of brightly coloured paper strips for the weaving – children were very impressed with their results.

Favourite activity

My favourite activity, however, was the ‘dream clouds’ table. Here, children each took a little card cloud shape and decorated it before adding their own personal dream – in honour of civil rights activist Martin Luther King’s famous ‘I have a dream…’ speech.

Of course, their writing was only scribble writing, but that somehow made them all the better!

The day finished with a big buffet of amazing foods from a range of black cultures, all made and donated by parents and carers from the group.

I was amazed to see such young children willing to try so many new foods – and clearly enjoying them. The whole event was one big, noisy, funfilled celebration, with everyone getting into the spirit of celebrating not just cultural diversity but, ultimately, the fun of singing, dancing and eating together with friends.

Karen Hart is a freelance writer and reviewer, a teacher of speech and drama education (LSDE) and a qualified preschool practitioner.