HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 🎉🎉🎉 I look at the first few days back with my students as a “soft-start” and here are some of the things we do during that first week! We all need time to get back into the routine, me included! I’ve got a great pack of FREE New Year activities included at the end of this post just for you!
1. Start with a New Year Class Discussion
After winter break, students are always excited to share what they did while they were away! Start your first day back with a simple New Year classroom discussion. Give students time to talk about their favorite winter break memories, something fun they did, or something they are looking forward to in the new year. This is an easy, low-prep way to reconnect as a class and ease students back into the school routine.. By giving them this time to talk or use as they like, it cuts down on interruptions during instruction and work time later in the day.
2. Review Classroom Rules and Routines
During our Morning Meeting, I go over the schedule for the day and we review our classroom rules. We have 5 rules in our classroom and we discuss what following each one looks and sounds like, as well as what NOT following them looks and sounds like.
During this meeting, I also let them know that we have some fun New Year’s activities to work on this week, which gets them excited to get to work!
3. Share Family New Year Traditions
We talk about family traditions around Thanksgiving, as well as our December study of holidays around the world, so they are familiar with what traditions are. At this time, we talk about any special traditions that their family did for New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day.
4. Read a New Year Picture Book
I like to read Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution so we can talk about resolutions, making good/kind choices, and start thinking about goals for this year. I’ve seen quite a few great New Year’s books lately, so I will be adding to my collection! Can’t have enough books!!
5. New Year’s Activity Pages for Students
I use my New Year’s activity pages for several activities throughout the week.
- Our weekly poem is “Happy New Year” and we read and work with it each day. You can read more about my weekly poem routines HERE!
- We complete the “Looking Back” activity on the first day.
- We also start our “Top 10 Goals and Wishes” pages on this first day.
- Later in the week, we do the “Looking Forward” page.
- As we are getting ready to kick off our informational writing unit, we do a fun “How To Celebrate the New Year” writing piece.
- Morning Work/Early Finishers activities during this week also consists of some of the other New Year activities from this pack…
- Logic Puzzle
- Word Find
- Color By Code
- Crack the Code
- Crossword
- On Thursday and Friday, we work on the “Time Capsule” page. We usually pick the date to be around high school graduation time and we discuss a safe place to keep it. I message parents to let them know it’s coming home so they can treat it with care!
Free New Year Activities for the Classroom
Looking for easy New Year’s activities for your students? Download this FREE New Year booklet to help students celebrate a fresh start! Students can reflect, write, and draw as they think about the year ahead. It’s a simple, low-prep activity that’s perfect for morning work, a writing station, or your first few days back after winter break.
Thanks!
Happy Teaching!
Jennifer ~ Practical Primary Teacher 🍎🍏
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