Ringing In the New Year, Classroom Style

Are you a New Year's resolution person?  Well, I am.  I have had the same resolution for the past few years.  Start going to bed on time.  I'm sorry to say, like many resolution makers, I've already broke it.  We were in school a total of three days this first week back from winter break, I did not go to bed on time once.  Oh well...I'll try again next week.

During our three days back this week, my firsties rang in the New Year with style.  We did some retraining, some reviewing, and some fun New Year's themed activities.  Here's a peek at a few of the New Year's resources our class enjoyed.

We built background knowledge by reading the few New Year's themed books I've been able to get my hands on.  For some reason, there are not very many of them. 

We read P. Bear's New Year's Party by Paul Owen Lewis.  This book is a counting book about the animals arriving to Polar Bear's party.  (If you would like a copy of a free activity I used with this book, a few years ago, you can click here.)

We read Squirrel's New Year's Resolution by Pat Miller.  This story is super cute.  It does a good job explaining what a resolution is.  It follows Squirrel as he tries to figure out what his resolution should be by asking the other forest animals about their resolutions.  I like reading this book in class just before we do any resolutions writing or set any goals for the New Year.

Another New Year's themed book I shared with my first graders was The Night before New Year's by Natasha Wing.  This edition of The Night Before... books is true to form as it stays consistent the pattern of The Night Before Christmas, but inserts the symbols and traditions (this time) from New Year's.  It's a great jumping off point for students to share their family traditions for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

New Year's Day (Celebrations in My World) by Lynn Peppas and New Year's Day (Holiday Histories) by Kathryn Imler are two nonfiction explanations of New Year's.  They are a great way to explain traditions and facts about this holiday.

Shante Keys and the New Year's Peas, by Gail Piernas-Davenport, is a wonderful book to use with your young learners.  This rhyming story tells the story of Shante as she visits neighbors to borrow some black-eyed peas.  She learns about different New Year's traditions from around the world from her neighbors.  I love this book.

Throughout the week, as we read these stories, we created a New Year's anchor chart to display and reference in class.

Having the anchor chart helped students with a couple of writing assignments they completed about New Year's.  One of the writing assignments went along with a cute New Year's craftivity we completed to share our resolutions.  Our New Year's Kids look totally cute as a hallway display and the kids love, love, love the blowouts.

If you are interested, this writing craftivity is available at my Teachers Pay Teachers story.  You can click on one of the pictures for details.

We started our January math and literacy centers this week.  Some of the centers are New Year themed.  The one pictured below is a review of the short and long a sound.  

It's amazing to me how improved my students are with centers at this point in the year.  They are so much more independent and willing to problem solve each month.  It's really rewarding to see.

Below is a FREE New Year's math center that I've incorporated during our center time during the past couple of years.  Students practice matching the numbers that are 10 more, 10 less, 1 more, and 1 less.  If you would like a free copy of this center to use with your class, click on the picture below.

Another free New Year's math resource you may want to check out is my Out With the Old and In With the New: A Happy New Year Math Mini Book.  This little booklet features word problems that review some of the skills that we've covered so far this year.   I'm all about holiday inspired math mini books as we continue to learn how to tackle word problems. 

I've updated it through 2025. You can click on the picture below for a free copy of this booklet.

Although New Year's Day has past once we return from break, I still really enjoy finding ways to integrate it into my classroom.  It makes the beginning of the second semester start on a really positive note.

I hope you had a great first week back from break.  Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers to a great rest of the year!

January Jumpstart (January Centers, Y as a Vowel, and Loads of FREEBIES)

Boy was it a cold start back after winter break.  I can take a few days of this weather, but I'm just about over it.  Of course the cold did not slow us down in class.  We made the most out of the 3 days and 5 hours that we had this week.  (Monday was an admin. day and Thursday was a delayed start.)
My goals for this week were to introduce our January math and literacy centers (all 21 of them), to do a little Daily 5 retraining, to launch Rocket Math (addition fact drills), to teach all about Y as a vowel, and to work in some fun New Year's activities.  Quite a list for a short week.  I'm happy to report that we fit everything in. :)

My students are all about getting new centers.  I change them out each month.  I intro all of them over a day (or two) during a few mini lessons.  After I explain and model all the centers, they are up and running.

I love the year long review these centers provide.  They also free me up to meet with students to do a little reteaching.

In math this month we are working out of my Baby It's Cold Outside {10 Math Centers for January}. This packet includes work with addition, subtraction, number comparisons, number order, nonstandard measurement, time to the half hour, missing addends, and more.  You can get a closer look by clicking on the picture.

Below is a FREE center from this packet, Snowman Comparisons.  With this center students will practice comparing numbers with the greater than and less than signs.  Click on the picture for your own FREE copy.

   

As for our literacy centers, we'll be working with the companion packet, Baby It's Cold Outside {10 Literacy Centers for January}.

This packet includes work with rhyming words, long and short a discrimination, sentence sorting, contractions, synonyms, antonyms, compound words, sight words, and more.  You can check it out by clicking on the picture.

You can have a FREE center from this packet by clicking on the picture below.  Hot Chocolate Blends provides your students practice with initial blends.  After matching all the initial blend picture cards with the word cards, students will write their answers on the recording sheet.

   

Besides our work with literacy centers and math centers, we also spent a bit of time practicing Y as a vowel.  We started off by going over our anchor chart and brainstorming words that end with y.

If you would like this anchor chart to use with your students, click on the picture.

We talked about how most one syllable words that end with y have the long I sound.  While most two (or more) syllable words that end with y have a long E sound.

Students applied their vast knowledge of Y as a Vowel by doing various sorts, reading, and writing activities.  We primarily worked out of my Words at Work {Seven Word Work Activities for Y as a Vowel}.  You can learn more about this packet by clicking on the picture.

If you would like a free copy of one of the activities from this packet, click on the picture below.  It's a word sort with Y as long E and Y as long I.

With all of this learning going on, we had to fit in some time for a little creativity.  Plus, my walls were bare after all of our Christmas craftivities went home.  We really needed some student artwork to liven the classroom.  

So . . . after reading some favorite New Year's themed books, we discussed resolutions.  Students thought about personal resolutions and wrote them down.  Then we made our New Year's Resolution Kids.  

Using the party blowout was certainly not an original idea, but I love it.  The kids love using them too.  I'm a little worried that the blowouts will be ripped on the Resolution Kids as soon as I send them home.  For first graders, blowouts can be just too fun to resist.  Maybe I need to get another set of blowouts to give my students when they take their projects home.

We had a great week.  Everyone seemed to be rested and ready to get back to our routine.  Next week we'll be celebrating our 100th Day of School.  I cannot believe we are already at the 100th Day point in the year.  Time flies when you're having fun.  Time also flies when you are super busy.

Thanks for stopping by.

FREE New Year's Activities for the Primary Classroom

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone is rested and ready for the second half of the school year.  January offers lots of special learning opportunities.  One of which is New Year's themed classroom activities.  New Year's holds a special place in my heart because it is a time to focus on goals and can be a clean slate (if you want it to be).  New Year's Day is also my birthday, so I really enjoy extending New Year's past January 1st with my kids at school.
There are loads of free New Year's themed resources out there.  Here are some that I've used in the past and some I'll be using this year.

First up is a new math center I created to go along with my monthly math centers (Baby I's Cold Outside {10 Math Centers for January}).  It is called New Year Number Sense.  It provides students practice with identifying and ordering numbers that are 10 less, 10 more, 1 less, and 1 more than a given number.

The center includes colorful number cards and a blackline master recording sheet.  The recording sheet can be a stand alone activity if you would like.  Click on the picture below if you would like a FREE copy of this New Year's themed math center.

Another free resource I love (that includes some great centers) is Cara Carroll's Happy New Year! packet.  She shared this a few years ago and it's still a go to for me when we return from winter break.  It has activities for time to the hour, basic addition facts, abc order, antonyms, and for making words.  

You can click on the picture below for more details.

Last year we did a little non standard measuring with backed peas.  It turned out really fun, although I'm fairly certain some of my kids ate the uncooked peas.  Not to worry, we had plenty.

Students estimate how many black-eyed peas it will take to measure each picture.  Then students use black-eyed peas to measure.  

For this activity there are color and blackline master options for the picture cards.  There is also a blackline master recording sheet.  If you would like a FREE copy of this packet, click on the picture below.

An adorable New Year's freebie that I just recently came across is from The Glyph Girls (pic is from their blog).  At their Teachers Pay Teachers store they are sharing this colorful craftivity that students can write about their goals for the new year.  

Again, you can click on the picture for more details about this project.

If you are looking for a writing activity along the same lines, but do not have time for a craftivity.   You should check out the First Grade Buddies' New Year's Writing printable.  Students get a chance to write about their accomplishments from the past year and what they want to accomplish this year.  This print and go activity has been updated it for 2015.  You can visit their blog for your own copy.

If you are working on or would like to review number comparisons, you may want to check out my free greater than and less than printables I put together a few years ago.  If your students are like mine, they need constant practice recognizing and comparing numbers.

You can get your own free copies by clicking on the picture below.

Finally, I'd like to share my math word problem mini book for the New Year, Out With the Old and In With the New.  I'm all about using seasonally inspired word problems with my students and this booklet is a perfect way to do that.  

I've updated my New Year's themed math mini book through 2025.  You can have your FREE copy by clicking on the picture.

There are all sorts of fun classroom activities to go along with the celebration of the New Year.  I hope the suggestions above make your planning a little easier.

Best.

Squirrel's New Year's Resolution: A Language Arts Mentor Text for the New Year

The first Sunday of 2014.  The holidays have wrapped up and it's time to get back in the swing of things.  Although I have about 100 other things I should be doing, I'm taking minutes to join up with the Collaboration Cuties for their weekly Must Read Mentor Text Linky.  This week's topic is Language Arts texts and my pick is Squirrel's New Year's Resolution by Pat Miller.

This book is perfect for my first graders because it does a great job explaining what a resolution is.  Squirrel does not know about resolutions and finds out from her friend bear.  Bear explains that "a resolution is a promise you make to yourself to be better or help others."  (I love that explanation.)
While squirrel has difficulty thinking of a resolution for herself, she spends her time helping her woodland friends.  They eventually point out that she her actions speak for themselves.
The story is sweet.  The illutstrations are vibrant and have fun details.  If you do not have this book in your collection, I recommend checking it out.  It's great for this time of year.

After reading Squirrel's New Year's Resolution, my students will complete our little New Year's themed craftivity and write about their resolutions for the upcoming year.  I don't really know who came up with the idea of using the left over blowouts with a writing assignment, but I think it is adorable.  Plus first grader resolutions are really fun to read.

While we are not in school to celebrate New Year's, I love to spend the first week after break reading some New Year's themed books and bringing in various New Year's themed activities.  My birthday is on New Year's Day and I guess this is another way to keep the fun going a little bit longer.

Stay warm and be sure to visit the Collaboration Cuties for more great mentor text suggestions and ideas.

A Mentor Text and Two Free Activities for the New Year (Plus a Giveaway)

There's only two more days on our Advent calendar until the big day.  With a six year old at the house, the excitement is off the chart.
Although, we're not to Christmas yet, I'm thinking ahead the first few days back after the break.  One book I'll be using is Shante Keys and the New Year's Peas by Gail Piernas-Davenport.

This book follows Shante as she visits neighbors to borrow some black-eyed peas for her family's New Year's meal.  She learns about different ways other cultures celebrate the New Year from her neighbors.  The text is rhyming and the illustrations are bright and lively.  If you do not have this book in your library, you really should check it out.  It is informative and a great way to start the New Year in your classroom.

To go along with this book, I thought it would be fun to do a nonstandard measurement activity with black-eyed peas. So I created New Year's Measurement.  This free packet includes New Year's themed picture cards for measuring and a recording sheet.

 Students will estimate how many black-eyed peas it will take to measure each picture.  Then students will use black-eyed peas to measure.

There are color and blackline master options for the picture cards for this activity.  If you would like a FREE copy of this packet, click on the picture below.

We will also be working a bit with word problems.  I've updated my New Year's themed math mini book for 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 through 2025 and I plan on using it .  If you would like a FREE copy of it, just click on the picture below.

There are all sorts of fun classroom activities to go along with the celebration of the New Year.  I hope the suggestions above can make your planning a little easier.

Oh, and one last thing . . . To mark School Is a Happy Place's first anniversary, I'm having a little giveaway for a $50 Amazon gift card.  Anyone can enter the giveaway once.  For additional chances to win, join School is a Happy Place as a new follower and/or become a new follower on Bloglovin.

Good luck.  The winner will be announced on December 30th.  (Sorry-the giveaway was in 2013)

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