As the new year begins, it's the perfect time for both reflection and anticipation. For adults, it's a time to set goals and resolutions for the year ahead. But let's not forget the little ones! Kindergarten and 1st Grade is a vibrant world filled with curiosity and exploration, making it an ideal space to introduce the spirit of the new year through engaging activities and simple resolutions.
New Year's Activities for the K-1 Classroom
Translating this into the classroom can make for a fun day or couple of days after returning from winter break. One thing I like to do is to find a video on Youtube that shows the ball dropping in NYC for children to see what we mean when we say the ball drops. Then I like to play this quick video of the countdown.
I give each student a noise maker and we count down from 10 and of course, we yell Happy New Year and blow the noise makers. They get so excited! Naturally they want to continue blowing these afterwards, but I set it up ahead of time and say that we will all blow them after the countdown, but then they have to go in their backpacks to go home.
We follow this up with this adorable countdown craft.
Setting Goals and Resolutions for the New Year
The next thing we work on is setting goals or resolutions for the new year. I like to read the book, Squirrel's New Year's Resolution by Pat Miller.
Then we start brainstorming ideas for resolutions. We talk about how there are different types of resolutions that we could make. Here are just a few ideas:
Learning Adventures: Encourage a love for learning new things! Resolve to read a new story each week, explore a new color, or discover a new animal together. Students might want to learn how to do something new, like ride their bike without training wheels or learn karate.
Kindness Counts: Teach the value of kindness by setting a goal to perform a small act of kindness each day. Whether it's sharing toys or helping a friend, it's a powerful lesson. Showing kindness in the classroom, at home, and in the community. There are so many ways students can spread kindness in the new year.
Work Habits: Encourage students to think about what they can work on to become a better student and learner. Maybe raising their hands before yelling out or working to write or color neatly.
Healthy Habits: Emphasize healthy habits! Encourage eating colorful fruits and vegetables or being active every day through fun activities.
I like to make this part pretty simple for students and just have them choose one, maybe two, resolutions to focus on. We create these easy banners to hang around the room.
If you are looking for something a little more different, you could use this New Year's Glyph activity instead. If you are doing these in Kindergarten, I would recommend trying to help students in small groups so they can follow along with the steps of the glyph. In first grade, I was able to do these using a document camera along with them at their seats. It just depends on how well your students are able to follow along whole group.
The start of a new year is like a canvas waiting to be painted with new experiences and new memories to be had. For little learners, it's a time to foster creativity, curiosity, and the value of setting simple yet meaningful goals. As we guide them through these experiences, we not only celebrate the joy of a new year but also plant seeds for for a growth mindsest and working always be a better you.
If you would like to try these activities with your students, click on the image below:
Happy New Year!
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