7 New Year's Classroom Ideas

I have been thinking a lot about my students and how we are going to begin New Year 2013 once our Christmas vacation is over.  I want students to begin the New Year excited. So, I have come up with 7 ideas to celebrate in second grade once we return.  So, here they are: 7 New Year's Ideas for Your Classroom

1)  A Snowy New Year -   I will use a little snowy science experiment to bring in the new year.  It's actually going to snow in our classroom.  I will add a picture of video once I locate the snow that I so carefully put away in a place so secret that I forgot where I put it. Teacher amnesia!

2) Snowmen - Students will create a snowman snack to eat with marshmallows, pretzels, a Hershey's kiss, and other candies for a special treat at snack.  I used icing to get the candies to stick

Students will add little pom poms to the top of their hats.

3) Students will create party hats showcasing the new date 2013.  They will enjoy showcasing these by wearing these to lunch.

New Year's Hat: Students will decorate the blank space in the middle with  colored paper and other materials.

Thanks to my trusty Cricut, I have 2013 ready for students to grab and add to their hats.

4) Pass it On - Students will do random acts of kindness throughout the day to celebrate the new year and bring about good cheer and excitement within their classmates and school.  Students will write on die-cut hearts and leave them by classroom doors for teachers and students and give them to random strangers and loved ones.

Heart Die Cuts are cut and ready to go for our first day back.
Random Acts of Kindness Hearts

5) Students will continue the wintry SNOW theme by listening to The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.

6) Pop - Everyone knows you have to have some sound when the clock strikes midnight and the new year begins.  Students will Blow bubble gum bubbles (with permission from the principal of course) to create some popping sound.  They will then use balloons to begin their writing for the New Year's goals.

Leader in Me School - 7 Habits - 7 Goals
I created the 5" blurb with my  Cricut using Plantin SchoolBook.

I picked these up at Wal Mart on the Christmas clearance aisle for 50 cents each.

I also found these balloons to use at Wal Mart - 7 cents a pack for 12.

Goals for 2013 - We cannot forget goals!  Students will write their goals for the last part of the school year.  We will connect it Leader in Me style using the 7 habits.  Trying to make the terminology concrete in my students' minds this year is a concentration with this being our school's first year as a Leader in Me School.  Click here for Leader in Me 7 Habits - 7 Goals writing paper.

I am fully aware that all of you out there are not Leader in Me schools, so I created 2 more variations that you could use with this same idea.  Students could write a how to instructional paragraph on how they blew a bubble.  Click here for How to Blow a Bubble writing paper.  Once they experiment for a few minutes, they will begin making a class chart verbalizing their first hand information.  They will then write their paragraph.  Once the final copy is completed, students will blow up balloons to accompany a face to post with their writing.  They will also properly dispose of their gum prior to leaving the classroom.

Variation 3 would be to use the writing form New Year's Goals and do it similar to my example in the first picture.  Click here for the writing paper to accompany your New Year's Goals lesson.

7) It's time to study time: Students will create a New Year's clock and discuss a.m. and p.m. (real world connection) and create it on a clock.

I did an example and made 4" die cut circles for my students to use. 

At the end of the day, there will be one tired teacher and 18 excited students!