The Harvest Festival is traditionally celebrated on the Sunday nearest the Harvest Moon, which this year is Sunday 11th October 2022. But harvest isn’t just one day, it’s a season, and the message of thankfulness that harvest brings is relevant year-round. So, extend your school’s harvest festivities with these fabulous harvest celebration ideas for primary schools!
How to Celebrate Harvest in Assemblies
Choose a local charity to support and set up a ‘food bank donation station’ that will encourage children, parents and teachers to donate food for those who are less fortunate than ourselves.
Celebrate the wonderful produce that is grown from our land with a Harvest Parade - encourage the children to bring fruits, vegetables, or even flowers and proudly parade them through the school hall to begin your assembly. These don’t have to be real, they could be painted, drawn or collaged.
Plenty of singing will bring everyone together in celebration – our favourite harvest songs include subjects such as giving thanks, friendship, planting and growing, healthy eating, as well as farming (of course!). For more song inspiration read our Top 5 Harvest Songs for Schools for great ways to combine music and fun this harvest season.
How to Celebrate Harvest in the Classroom
Explore themes of friendship, team-work and sharing with a performance of The Enormous Turnip, a much-loved children’s tale.
“How on earth is the old man going to pull up the turnip that has just grown bigger and bigger and bigger? He definitely needs some help!”
Our delightful mini-musical The Enormous Turnip (ages 3-7) by Niki Davies from the Song & Story Series is perfect for this and combines a simple script and a few short songs.
Harvest Celebration Ideas with the Whole School
What is your school community most thankful for? Design and create a harvest thankfulness box to place in your school hall, reception, or even one for each classroom. Ask the children to write down the things they are most thankful for. Pick one or two out at assembly, or at the end of each school day to share with everyone. It’s best if these are anonymous so all the children can reflect on the thankful thought. Why not start or end your day with Singing A Thankful Song from the This Is Me songbook (ages 7-11).
Harvest Festival Celebrations in Every Lesson
The Harvest Festival brings to light so many important points of discussion and reflection. There are many topics to explore during lessons from arts and crafts, to science and maths. For example, Food miles – how far has your packed lunch travelled?
Ask the children to research how many miles the food in their packed lunch has travelled before it reached them. There are many online food mile calculators that can help with this task, but most produce will tell you exactly where it has travelled from on the label. Or, why not discover facts about the Harvest Moon, how harvest is celebrated in other countries, how food nourishes our bodies and helps us grow? The list is endless...
Whichever way you choose to celebrate harvest in your primary school, don’t forget to include some singing – whether it’s with a traditional favourite like We Plough The Fields And Scatter or The Harvest Hoedown from our brand new harvest songbook for children aged 4-8 My World: Harvest. This great new songbook includes a huge helping of happy harvest songs that are perfectly picked and ready for singing. So, gather the children together and enjoy this bumper yield of fantastically fun and catchy songs that are perfect for younger voices.
There’s so much you can do to celebrate Harvest Festival at school. Don’t forget to check out our dance videos and our new Harvest Pinterest board which is filled with inspiring activities, tips and celebration ideas to use across your school.
(First published September 2018, updated September 2019)
How to Celebrate Harvest in Assemblies
Choose a local charity to support and set up a ‘food bank donation station’ that will encourage children, parents and teachers to donate food for those who are less fortunate than ourselves.
Celebrate the wonderful produce that is grown from our land with a Harvest Parade - encourage the children to bring fruits, vegetables, or even flowers and proudly parade them through the school hall to begin your assembly. These don’t have to be real, they could be painted, drawn or collaged.
Plenty of singing will bring everyone together in celebration – our favourite harvest songs include subjects such as giving thanks, friendship, planting and growing, healthy eating, as well as farming (of course!). For more song inspiration read our Top 5 Harvest Songs for Schools for great ways to combine music and fun this harvest season.
How to Celebrate Harvest in the Classroom
Explore themes of friendship, team-work and sharing with a performance of The Enormous Turnip, a much-loved children’s tale.
“How on earth is the old man going to pull up the turnip that has just grown bigger and bigger and bigger? He definitely needs some help!”
Our delightful mini-musical The Enormous Turnip (ages 3-7) by Niki Davies from the Song & Story Series is perfect for this and combines a simple script and a few short songs.
Harvest Celebration Ideas with the Whole School
What is your school community most thankful for? Design and create a harvest thankfulness box to place in your school hall, reception, or even one for each classroom. Ask the children to write down the things they are most thankful for. Pick one or two out at assembly, or at the end of each school day to share with everyone. It’s best if these are anonymous so all the children can reflect on the thankful thought. Why not start or end your day with Singing A Thankful Song from the This Is Me songbook (ages 7-11).
Harvest Festival Celebrations in Every Lesson
The Harvest Festival brings to light so many important points of discussion and reflection. There are many topics to explore during lessons from arts and crafts, to science and maths. For example, Food miles – how far has your packed lunch travelled?
Ask the children to research how many miles the food in their packed lunch has travelled before it reached them. There are many online food mile calculators that can help with this task, but most produce will tell you exactly where it has travelled from on the label. Or, why not discover facts about the Harvest Moon, how harvest is celebrated in other countries, how food nourishes our bodies and helps us grow? The list is endless...
Whichever way you choose to celebrate harvest in your primary school, don’t forget to include some singing – whether it’s with a traditional favourite like We Plough The Fields And Scatter or The Harvest Hoedown from our brand new harvest songbook for children aged 4-8 My World: Harvest. This great new songbook includes a huge helping of happy harvest songs that are perfectly picked and ready for singing. So, gather the children together and enjoy this bumper yield of fantastically fun and catchy songs that are perfect for younger voices.
There’s so much you can do to celebrate Harvest Festival at school. Don’t forget to check out our dance videos and our new Harvest Pinterest board which is filled with inspiring activities, tips and celebration ideas to use across your school.
(First published September 2018, updated September 2019)
Click here to post a comment.
