1-2-3 Come Do Some New Year Activities With Me
As schools are coming to a close for a nice holiday break, I wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a happy, healthy, safe and relaxing New Year. I'm posting these popular New Year activities early, because if you're like me, I wanted to have my first day back, planned and run off before I left for a much-needed break.
I also didn't want to have to worry about putting up a bulletin board, so with that in mind, I designed some writing prompt "craftivities". Completed projects make awesome bulletin boards or hallway displays. (Easy-peasy and another thing checked off my list.)
Along with millions of others, we enjoy watching the Tournament of Roses Parade. With that in mind, I made up 6 interesting writing prompts that you can give your students on the day they they return from break. Quick, easy and fun, the "parade packet" fits in well for your writing block or Daily 5.
One prompt is specifically about the parade, and includes a Venn diagram comparing Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade to the Tournament of Roses New Year's Parade. Venn diagrams are a simple way for students to practice comparison and contrast writing. The other 5 parade-prompts, are generic in nature, so children who don't watch those parades have other options.
Click on the link to view/download the New Year Parade Writing prompts.
Another prompt, is a Happy New Year craftivity. Run the balloon pattern off on a variety of colors of construction paper. Students choose one, trim, and complete the 3 writing prompts. Children add hands to the clock so that it reads midnight. 
You can also have older students write a longer prompt on the back of their balloon.
The photo shows last year's sample, but I've included two patterns with a blank for years (201____ as well as 202____) so that you can use this craftivity in years to come.
For that finishing touch, tie on some curling ribbon & glue on a school photo. Completed projects look wonderful dangling bak-to-back from the ceiling, or scattered on a bulletin board. Click on the link for the Happy New Year Writing-Prompt Craftivity to view/download it.
Another simple New Year craftivity that makes a great January bulletin board, is entitled "Past Present and Future." Students reflect on the prior year, jotting down memorable moments from that year, as well as their current activities, goals and hopes for the New Year.
My sample is also from last year and from a high school student's perspective. As with the other dated activity, I've included templates through 2024, so you can reuse this idea for awhile as well. Mount them on a variety of colors of construction paper, scatter on a few snowflakes and you're bulletin board's done. Click on the link for the New Year Past & Future writing prompt.
Finally, my personal favorite, is a January writing prompt that I call "More or Less." It's a nice way to review this math symbol as well.
Have students brainstorm a list of things that they think they should do less of (watching TV, playing computer games, fighting with siblings ...) as well as a list of things that they think they should do more of (studying, reading, exercising etc.).
Write these on the board to help with spelling. Students return to their desk and write their own list on the pre-writing paper.
When they are happy with their lists, they write complete sentences on the greater than and less than symbol pages.
Have students color the symbols their favorite colors. When they are done, students trim their papers.
To turn this into a really interesting January bulletin board, have students trace their foot (with their shoe on). Offer a variety of colors for students to choose from.
They cut out their foot, glue on the "More or less I will try to put my best foot forward in the New Year" square, add a photo, name and the year. Click on the link to view/download the More or Less New Year Writing Prompt packet.
That's it for today. Thanks for visiting. I hope you found a few things here that will help launch the New Year with enthusiasm for writing.
I have a few last-minute things to get for tonight's special dinner, so I'm hitting the floor running. Wishing you a stress-free day.
"Remember to enjoy the doing of your "to do" list, and not just the accomplishment of getting it done."
1-2-3 Come Do Some Fun New Year Activities With Me
Each month I tried to introduce more vocabulary words to my students. It was always amazing to me, that my Y5's had no clue what some of the simple seasonal words meant and some of my kiddo's had never even heard the words before.
With that in mind, I designed this ABC New Year booklet. It was fun and challenging to think of words with a New Year-theme that started with each letter.
You can make one for each student so they can trace and write the words, or you can simply make a teacher's copy and share a page a day for the first week back after break.
As you read the booklet, have students shoot up their hand if you come to a word they are unfamiliar with, and take a moment to define it. Discuss the words and what they mean. See if they can come up with anymore and add them to the list.
For individual practice have children write that day's words in their writing journals or student-made dictionaries. This makes a wonderful Daily 5 word work activity too. Click on the link to view/download the New Year's Alphabet Booklet.
Since the New Year revolves around time, I thought it would be interesting to design a New Year easy reader, that takes a child from noon, on New Year's Eve, to ringing in the New Year at Midnight.
You can send the booklet home to be completed with their family, and then returned, or have this ready to go on students' desks for their first day back after break. Children trace and write the digital time to the hour + draw the appropriate hands on the analog clock.
The story ends with a writing prompt about what children did on New Year's Day and how they celebrated. Click on the link Happy New Year Telling Time Booklet.
I've made 3 matching Happy New Year cards to go with this booklet. They make a nice little surprise tucked on or in their desk when they return from break. Click on the link to grab them.
Venn diagrams are an easy and fun way to help students understand the concepts of comparison and contrast. They are a great precursor to help students write that type of paper, and are extremely helpful for the visual learner. Click on the link to take a look at 7 Venn diagrams with a New Year's theme.
Finally, my first graders especially enjoyed making class books.
Students complete the writing prompt and share their page with the class; collect, collate add a cover and you have a student-made book for your classroom library.
I had a special book basket for these. My students enjoyed looking at their endeavors. You could really see the improvement that happened as the months flew by and the basket filled up. They are great to share during parent visits and conferences too.
Click on the link to view/download the 3 writing prompt pages for a New Year's class book.
For 16 more writing prompts for January, click on the link. These are great for the writing portion of your Daily 5, or interesting ideas for your students' writing journals.
Thanks for visiting. Feel free to PIN away. If you'd like to see all of the creative educational things I spend way too much time pinning, click on the big heart to the right of the blog.
I hope you can pop back tomorrow for the newest FREEBIE. Wishing you a blessed New Year!
"I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the years'." -Henry Moore
Ho-Ho-Hoping Your Holidays Are Filled With Love & Laughter
Just popping in to wish all of our visitors a blessed Christmas Day.
"We wish you a Merry Christmas. We wish you a Merry Christmas. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!"
1-2-3 Come Plan A Christmas Party With Me
The day before any vacation can be pretty wild, as children are bound to be filled with lots of energy. Their excitement for the season finds some of them not sleeping well, so you have cranky pants to deal with too.
Because of this, I planned all sorts of educational games and especially fun activities for the last day before Christmas break. Our official "party" was "supposed" to take place at the end of the day. Let's face it, when it's Halloween or Christmas time, the entire day might as well be a "party" and by the time the "end of the day" rolled around, my Y5's were also pretty much done and tired as well.
Wearing my Santa hat and jingle bell necklace, I told my students that we'd be doing extra special lessons, games, crafts etc as part of our "party" and that we'd be having a great time all day, ending quietly with our gift book exchange and snack. I never once had a child say: "When is the party going to start?" They were also happily focused, busy learning all day, just in a different way.
Behavior was wonderful, because they got the chance to get the wiggles out throughout the day. Gross motor activities were a part of our report card standards, so even our dancing and prancing around was legit. To keep children calm, I also played soothing Christmas music throughout the day.
I've compiled a list with brief explanations, of all of my favorite classroom Christmas games that I've played with my students over the years. They are quick, easy, educational and fun. Most of them require little or no preparation. (Woo hoo!) I ho-ho- hope you find something that will fit in perfectly for your party day. It's so important to give students brain breaks to keep them refreshed. Click on the link to view/download the Christmas Games packet which includes 36 games!
I've up-dated the packet to include stationery for students to write how many words they can think of using the letters in Merry Christmas.
Give students 5-10 minutes to work on this individually, then have them work in groups of 3 or 4 to combine their lists. Remind children that they can make more words by adding an s or es to make plurals. (A teachable moment.) Contractions are another option, or ask students how many of their classmates' names can be made with those letters.
What team had the most? Put my list on an overhead; did they think of words that weren’t on my list? Have them guess-timate how many words are on the list and then have them count them to see who has the closest guess. (I thought of 657!)
Make a copy of the list and have students circle all of the words that they don’t know. For whatever time remains, challenge them to look up as many words as they can and then share one or two with the class.
Here are a few other table top lessons you could plug in to cover standards in a game-type fashion; also, any of the winter alphabet cards that I've been posting, would work well. All those letter packets include a 3-page tip list of ideas, including games to play.
If you're set for party day, but want something for that busy first day when you return after break, any of these snowman themed activities would also work.
This snowman matching game is a lot of fun and reinforces numbers, number words, counting and tally marks. It also includes a keepsake "craftivity." Click on the link to view/download the Snowman Number Puzzles.
Help reinforce upper and lowercase letters + numbers from 1-20 with an "I Spy" game. Teen numbers are sometimes toughies for little ones. Practicing with an "I Spy" game makes it more interesting. My Y5's enjoyed playing "I Spy" daily. It was a fun way for them to practice, as well as a quick and easy way for me to whole-group assess.
Teacher starts by calling out a number or letter; students trace it and then raise their hand when they are done. I could tell at a glance who was having difficulty. Play continued with different children taking a turn to choose the number or letter for classmates to find.
The worksheet served double-duty, as I'd tell my students to take it home to play again with a family member, this time circling the letter/number. Click on the link to view/download the Snow Spy packet.
Finally, students catch on fast to the concept of small-medium and large, as well as the difference between a 2D and 3D shape, when they can do a hands-on craftivity.
This was the reason behind "Snowman Melt" "My snowman was 3 snowballs, 3 spheres with a hat, now he's melted into 3 circles that are flat!" Click on the link to view/download it.
For more games and activities click on the link to visit Miss Mary's Victorian and Vintage archive.
If you're looking for some online Christmas games for your kiddo's to play as a computer center, I found a site that lists over 1,000.
Make sure you play any online games first to make sure that they are age and content-appropriate for your kiddo & educations.
For more ideas and FREEBIES, check out my winter Pinterest boards. They are themed and filled with lots of creative fun. I spend a lot of time searching the web for interesting and educational FREE stuff, so you don't have to. You can also click on this December link to pop on over to that section of TeachWithMe.
Once there, you'll find categories for the following: Christmas, Elves, Gingerbread, Ornaments, Reindeer, Santa, Snowmen, Snowflakes & Wreaths. Lots of these activities would also be terrific for your last day or Classroom Christmas party, particularly the ornament section if you're looking for a quick craft to do as a center.
That's it for today. I hope you found some "We're Winding Down" tips and FREEBIES for those last few days before you can collapse, rest, rejoice and get energized for next year! Feel free to PIN away.
"A good conscience is a continual Christmas." -Benjamin Franklin
1-2-3 Come Make A Name Ornament With Me
I'm not sure about your kiddos, but as the last day before vacation neared, I could sense the energy levels climbing. To help them stay focused, I always tried to do a few hands-on "craftivities" that my students would really enjoy, but also wanted to include standards to keep the administration content as well.
With that in mind, I designed the Keepsake Name Ornament packet. It's a quick, easy & fun Christmas ornament that helps reinforce your students' names, letter recognition, vowel identification, capitalization, graphing, counting and addition! Woo hoo!
This would be a wonderful center on the last day before vacation, or a special "craftivity" to do for your Christmas party day.
I've included upper as well as lowercase letter tiles that your students trim and glue to a strip of construction paper. I used red & green, but just one color looks nice too.
While children are at lunch or recess, laminate your students' completed projects and have a room helper cut them out, punch a hole at the top & add a yarn tie.
Gluing on a school photo makes them even more special, and even though the ornament spells their name, have them write their name and the date on the back.
For some math fun, I've included two point value charts, so your students can practice a bit of addition, by adding up the point value of their letters.
Use the chart with point values to 4, with younger students, and the chart with numbers to 26, for older students. Because their total will be large, have children figure out the place value of their name using this grand total.
There's an ornament worksheet to record their answer, along with other data, so that you can review consonants and vowels as well. Students can color this ornament, or simply run off on a variety of colors of copy paper.
Vowels are also reviewed, with a graphing extension. There's a graph for the total number of letters in your students' names too. As you can see, I've packed in all sorts of math extensions in this simple ornament "craftivity".
To add to the fun, I've included a "secret" coded Christmas message that you can challenge your students to solve. Students refer to the point value poster to figure out what the sentence says.
Make it a "speed" game, and see who can decode the message first. To save you time, I put two on a page for quick printing, and included an answer key. Click on the link to view/download the Keepsake Name Ornament activities.
Thanks for visiting today. As always, my December days fly by. I've got to get to the post office today or my family in Wisconsin, won't get their goodies in time for Christmas. Wishing you a stress-free day.
"May voices join with the multitude of the heavenly host to proclaim His glory. May hearts be filled with His everlasting song of joy and peace this Christmas season." -Unknown
