Discover new ways to recognize the week-long cultural festival, Kwanzaa.  Explore the seven principles, and for added challenge, learn them in Swahili, the East African language where Kwanzaa gets its roots. Create handmade crafts and displays to honor the rich heritage of the festival and decorate community centers, churches, and school bulletin boards. 

United in Friendship Bulletin Board Display

Create a bold and bright bulletin board to celebrate Kwanzaa! Combine basic display essentials, like paper letters and trimmers in rich colors to engage your audience and get everyone excited to learn about and celebrate Kwanzaa.

The African Weave borders add a touch of cultural heritage and beauty too.

Craft a friendship wreath by layering hand-shaped cutouts onto a circular piece of foam core (for dimension). This display of unity makes the perfect focal point for talking about the principles of Kwanzaa.

Woven Mkeka Mat

Celebrate Kwanzaa with this fun hands-on activity that’s great for individuals or groups. The mkeka mat, a traditional woven mat, is the foundation that all other Kwanzaa symbols rest upon and is an important piece when learning about and observing Kwanzaa.

Create your own mkeka using paper borders in traditional colors of Kwanzaa: black, red, and green.

Cut the borders into similarly-sized strips in width, and about a foot long. While everyone weaves, talk about the importance of the colors of your mat and what they represent as well as the principles of Kwanzaa. Continue weaving the colorful strips together until you have a small mat created.

Finish the edges with a solid color (we used black). Glue Friendship Hands Mini Accents to the outside edges as a fun “fringe” reminder of the togetherness that Kwanzaa represents.