New Year's Ideas

Hi, friends!  Happy New Year!  I think we can all agree that we are ready for 2021!  2020 is a year we will NEVER forget!  Today's post features some fun and simple ideas for New Year's that you can do in your classroom or with your children at home.  Upon returning from winter break, I like to have my kids ease back into things with some FUN!  Included in that fun are a few New Year goodies.  

First up, read-alouds!  I've found that there really aren't many New Year's picture books for kids.  I've had the same two for several years and this year I found a third to add to my collection.  You can grab the books shown below by clicking the affiliate link HERE.  

Squirrels New Year's Resolution-This is a cute story about a squirrel who hears about New Year's resolutions on the radio and is curious about them.  She visits her friends to get some ideas and find out what their plans are for resolutions in the new year.  I won't ruin the surprise by telling you what Squirrel finally chooses as her resolution!    

The Night Before New Year's-This is another book in the best-selling "Night Before..." series.  The rhyming text is always a hit with kids!  The illustrations in this book are super cute and include all the traditional New Year's festivities...party horns, party hats, toasting, resolutions, and more.  

New Year's Day-I am super excited to add this to my collection this year!  Praise for a non-fiction picture book!  This book is one of the "Celebrations in My World" series books.  There are books for just about all holidays within this series and I'll definitely be adding more to my personal library!  This particular New Year's book includes a table of contents (HELLO TEXT FEATURES!) with sections on various topics surrounding New Year's such as: New Year's Eve, Resolutions, Parades, and more.  I can't wait to share this book with my students next week!

I made a few graphic organizers to go along with the books.  You can grab them for free by clicking the cover below!

I found this cute BINGO game online this year and have it prepped and ready for my kids to play next week!  Click HERE to grab it.  

I have my New Year's Literacy Centers prepped and ready.  I have always done literacy centers (with kids in small groups) and this year centers are continued.  However, they look much different with kids visiting their centers independently.  This takes a bit more planning on my part but it's worth it!  We are hybrid, so I have a group of 8 and a group of 9.  Each group comes every other day.  Several of my kids go out of the room for RTI and the remaining kids are in the room with me.  It's a 30 minute time block.  The kids that are with me have centers.  They visit just one center each day they are at school, and they unfortunately have to be independent at their center.  Most of the time the centers are review from our FUNDATIONS lessons.  I use my supplemental games pack for this.  Occasionally I throw in seasonal centers.  

We will also be playing I Have, Who Has: New Years edition.  My kids and I love playing these games together!  I Have, Who Has is a fast-paced game that builds vocabulary.  It can be played with kids sitting on the rug in a circle OR kids sitting at their desks.  

We will be making these "Wishing Wands" on Monday as well.  The kids select a few things they wish for in the new year to add to their wands.  Then they cut the star out and tape it to a wooden dowel rod.  I added a little curly ribbon for a festive touch!  This wishing wand was a free download I found on TPT.  You can grab it by clicking HERE.  

As the kids arrive on Monday, they will choose a coloring sheet they like to color.  My kids eat breakfast in the room, so giving them morning work this year is out of the question.  A coloring page motivates them to finish their breakfast faster.  These coloring sheets are a free download in my TpT shop.  You can grab them by clicking the cover below. 

I found this cute 2021 confetti paper craft that we will be doing at some point in the week.  I just printed the year out, which can be found HERE (by Simply Visual on TpT) and cut up some AstroBrights paper (affiliate link) into small squares.  The kids will glue the scraps into the numbers and cut them out.  They'll glue them onto a piece of black cardstock (affiliate link).  This will make a cute and simple hallway display for January!

Finally, I'll be passing out these ring pops to my kids at some point in the day.  I bought a bag of 20 ring pops on Amazon.  Click HERE for the affiliate link.  I made little tags that I stapled on each ring pop.  You can grab the tags by clicking the cover below.  

I wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year!  Thank you so much for all the support you've given to my blog and TpT shop over the years!  

Hope you enjoyed this post!

xo

Megan