October: Floating Holidays, Specialty Weeks, and Specialty Months

Here comes October! Looking for some fun holidays and events to celebrate or use as springboards for activity ideas? Below are some floating holidays, specialty weeks, and specialty months for August. Check the blog daily for activity ideas centered around a holiday or event of the day. To look ahead and plan for the month, check out the full October calendar at ToolboxTrainingOnline.com.

---

Floating Holidays:

• Jewish holiday Yom Kippur begins at sundown on 10/8/11, 9/26/12, 9/14/13, and 10/4/14
  
• Jewish holiday Sukkot begins at sundown on 10/13/11, 10/1/12, 9/19/13, and 10/9/14
  
• Child Health Day (1^st Monday)
  
  
• Columbus Day (2^nd Monday)
  
• Sweetest Day (3^rd Saturday)
  
• Daylight Saving Time Ends (last Sunday)
  

---

1^st week

• Bank Teller Appreciation Week
  
• Customer Service Week
  
• Get Organized Week (1-7)
  
• Human Service Professional Awareness Week
  
• Newspaper Week
  
  
  
• Pickled Pepper Week
  

---

2^nd week

• Chili Week  
  
  
  
• Fire Prevention Week
  
• Pet Peeve Week
  
• School Lunch Week
  
• Squirrel Awareness Week
  

---

3^rd week

• Business Women's Week
  
• Consumers Week
  
• Forest Products Week
  
• Getting the World to Beat a Path to Your Door Week
  
• Kids Care Week
  
• Pharmacy Week
  
• Teen Read Week
  
• Veterinary Week
  
• Wolf Awareness Week
  

---

4^th week

• Magic Week
  
• Peace, Friendship, and Good Will Week
  
• School Bus Safety Week
  
• World Rainforest Week
  

---

Specialty Months:

• Adopt a Dog Month/Adopt a Shelter Pet Month
  
• AIDS Awareness Month
  
• American Magazine Month
  
• Apple Month
  
  
• Breast Cancer Awareness Month
  
• Car Care Month
  
• Caramel Month
  
  
  
• Child Health Month
  
  
• Christmas Seal Campaign Month
  
• Clergy Appreciation Month
  
• Clock Month
  
• Communicate with Your Kid Month
  
• Computer Learning Month
  
• Consumer Information Month
  
• Cookie Month
  
  
• Cosmetology Month
  
• Country Music Month
  
• Crime Prevention Month
  
• Dental Hygiene Month
  
• Depression Education & Awareness Month
  
• Dessert Month
  
• Dinosaur Month
  
  
  
• Diversity Awareness Month
  
• Do-It Yourself Month
  
• Domestic Violence Awareness Month
  
• Drum Month (International)
  
• Eat Country Ham Month
  
  
• Energy Awareness Month
  
• Family History Month
  
• Fantasy Month
  
• Fire Prevention Month
  
• Hunger Awareness Month
  
• Lupus Awareness Month
  
• Orthodontic Month
  
• Pasta Month
  
  
  
  
• Pharmacy Month
  
• Pickled Pepper Month
  
• Pizza Month
  
  
• Polish American History Month
  
• Popcorn Popping Month
  
  
  
• Pork Month
  
• Pretzel Month
  
  
  
• Roller Skating Month
  
• Sarcastic Month
  
• Seafood Month
  
  
  
• SIDS Awareness Month
  
• Stamp Collector Month
  
• UNICEF Month
  
• Vegetarian Awareness Month
  
  
  
• World Chocolate Awareness Month
  
  
  
• Youth Against Tobacco Month
  

September 29-30: Family Health and Fitness Days

It would be great to get families involved, but you can still do your own version of the Olympics with the kids to focus on health and fitness.

---

Kid Olympics

Materials:

§          Dependent on what activities children choose

Directions:

1.       Let the kids brainstorm different ideas for Olympic events.

2.       Think of ways to make the games cooperative instead of competitive.

3.       Check out the relays and sports activities in the Toolbox Training book 100 Game Activities for Kids for more ideas.

4.       Depending on how many events you choose to do, you might have small groups of children responsible for planning individual events (such as determining necessary materials, the rules, and where the event will be in your program space). This is an especially good opportunity for older kids in a school-based program.

Check out the full September calendar or get more ideas from books and activity card sets at www.toolboxtrainingonline.com.

---

September 28: Ask a Stupid Question Day

Well, we certainly don’t want to teach kids that their questions are stupid, but we can celebrate asking questions in general with a variation on the game “20 Questions”.

---

20 Questions

From the Toolbox Training book 100 Game Activities for Kids (activity H5).

Materials:

§          None

Directions:

1.       One child (the guesser) leaves the room.

2.       While child is out of the room, another child is picked to be “it”.

3.       When the guesser returns, (s)he gets to ask up to 20 questions that can be answered yes or no to determine who was picked.

Variations:

§          Can the guesser figure out who was picked with just ten guesses?

§          What if two people switch places and guesser has to figure out who switched?

---

Other Holidays and Events Today:

• First airport opened (1940)
  
  
  

Check out the full September calendar or get more ideas from books and activity card sets at www.toolboxtrainingonline.com.

---

September 27: Johnny Appleseed was born (actually Sept. 26, 1774).

With several holidays yesterday which combined nicely for one major event, Johnny Appleseed’s birthday gets bumped a day. There’s plenty of activities you can do with apples. Here’s one:

---

Apple Smiles

From the cooking card set available from Toolbox Training (activity D1). Adapted from familycorner.com.

Materials:

·         Apples (4-5)

·         Peanut butter

·         Miniature marshmallows (10-ounce bag)

·         Knife

Directions:

1.       Cut apples into wedges.

2.       Spread peanut butter on one side of an apple wedge.

3.       Place marshmallows on peanut butter to form teeth.

4.       Spread peanut on one side of a second apple wedge.

5.       Place on top of the marshmallows to create the other side of the mouth.

Also check out activities D3 (caramel apples – featured on the August 6 blog post), D4, E6, and I6 from the cooking card set available from Toolbox Training.  

---

Other Holidays and Events Today:

• Crush-a Can-Day
  
  
  

Check out the full September calendar or get more ideas from books and activity card sets at www.toolboxtrainingonline.com.

---

September 26: Hold a pancake day for family members.

If your program’s guidelines allow for cooking in your program, today is an excellent day for combining three different holidays into one event. Not only is today Pancake Day, but it is also Ancestor Appreciation Day and Food-Service Employees Day. Why not hold a pancake day where the kids serve as the food-service employees and serve family members? Depending on the ages of children, they may or may not be able to help actually cook, but consider having kids serve as hosts and hostesses as well as waiters and waitresses.

---

Other Holidays and Events Today:

• Pancake Day
  
• Ancestor Appreciation Day
  
• Food-Service Employees Day
  
• Johnny Appleseed was born (1774). Check out activities D1, D3 (caramel apples – featured on the August 6 blog post), D4, E6, and I6 from the cooking card set available from Toolbox Training.  
  
  
  

Check out the full September calendar or get more ideas from books and activity card sets at www.toolboxtrainingonline.com.

---

September 25: Comic Book Day

Let kids make their own comic books!

---

Create Your Own Comic Book

Materials:

1.        Paper

2.        Writing instruments

3.        Ruler

4.        Stapler

Directions:

1.       Encourage kids to create their story idea first.

2.       They can even plan out each picture and how it will tell the story.

3.       Encourage kids to start simple with just a few pages.

4.       Also consider developing a comic book as a group project.

5.       Finally, kids can develop comic strips or comic books online. Check out SuperHeroSquad.Marvel.com.

6.       Kids can also make their own super heros online at Marvel.com.

Check out the full September calendar or get more ideas from books and activity card sets at www.toolboxtrainingonline.com.

---

September 24: First toy store opened.

Let the kids create their own toy store!

---

Toy Store Prop Box

From the drama activity card set available from Toolbox Training (activity A21).

Materials:

·         toys

·         stuffed animals

·         board games/card games

·         cash register

·         play money

·         blank stickers

Directions:

1.       Prop boxes are items grouped together by a theme to allow children to pretend. They can be used as specific activities or put out during free time.

2.       The materials listed above are merely suggestions. You may come up with additional ideas and leave some of these materials out.

3.       The boxes that hold 10 reams of computer paper/typing paper are a nice size for prop boxes. They can be covered with nice contact paper to make them more attractive.

4.       You might also consider a creative way of putting all the prop box materials into something that fits the theme. For example, a camping prop box might go in a backpack; a travel prop box could go in a suitcase.

Also consider activity K4 from the nature card set.

---

Other Holidays and Events Today:

• Rabbit Day. Consider activity J2 from the cooking card set.
  
• Bluebird of Happiness Day
  
  
  

Check out the full September calendar or get more ideas from books and activity card sets at www.toolboxtrainingonline.com.

---