The New Year is a great opportunity for students to reflect, celebrate all they have accomplished, and set new goals! Below are some engaging and interactive New Year activities for the primary classroom! Read to find out more about them then click on the images for more details!
1. Make a Grand Entrance for the New Year! Greet your students with a decorated New Year door and some New Year headbands! Students will be so excited when they walk back into the classroom and learn that they get to celebrate it with their teacher and classmates. I have done this for years and my students have loved it! In addition to making the celebration even more special, it helps set the stage for the rest of the day!
2. Read New Year Picture Books! Whether they’re New Year or Lunar New Year books, these stories and texts are great to introduce little readers to the traditions of New Year and how it is celebrated around the world! Here are two New Year Picture Book roundups from my blog!
3. Reflect and Celebrate Accomplishments! Before setting new goals or creating New Year resolutions, help your students reflect and celebrate all the things that they have accomplished so far! This New Year brochure is perfect for just that! In addition, it encourages students to create a collage or draw out their vision for the new year as they look forward to the future!
4. Capture Last Year’s Memories! If you need a fun craft for students to capture and remember memories of last year, there’s a fun activity that is also a super adorable craft. Using the templates, students reflect and share their treasured memories of their summer, fall, winter, and spring breaks. Not only does it encourage them to reflect, but it also helps them to keep these memories forever!
5. Bring STEM into the New Year! Challenge your students with these fun STEM Challenges that encourage them to create their own confetti poppers and more! Not only are these hands-on, but they are also educational and help create a positive and collaborative classroom as students work and learn together to accomplish the challenges!
6. Set Simple Goals at the Beginning of the Year! The beginning of the year is the perfect time for students to reflect on their strengths and what they can do to improve. One of my favorite picture books to help students get into this mindset is The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson and illustrated by Rafael Lopez. This book reminds students that no matter where they are in their learning journey, the most important thing is to begin to learn and grow. After reading and discussing it’s central idea, encourage students to choose one or more goals that they may have for themselves this year. Students can either draw it out, for the younger grades or write it out.
For these activities and more Back-to-School activities paired with popular read-alouds, click here.
7. Reflect, Set, Grow!!!– Once students have had time to learn, encourage them to reflect, set, and grow some more! These engaging and no-prep activities allow students to do just that. Plus, they are perfect to share with parents during parent-teacher conferences.
8. Celebrate Lunar New Year! Bring in the lions and dragons and let’s celebrate! Immerse your students into a fun learning experience with these activites and crafts that will teach your students a different way of celebrating New Year!
This Lunar New Year / Chinese New Year/ Tet packet comes complete with printables, vocabulary cards, colorful signs, graphic organizers, a Chinese Zodiac Calendar and bookmarks, and an interactive game with game mats and dice templates, students will be greatly informed and thoroughly engaged the entire unit!
Save time from planning and have fun teaching about Lunar New Year!
Simply print and you are ready to teach!
Happy New Year, friends!