The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to set new goals, embrace a more positive mindset, and strengthen positive habits for success. As students head back to school to start the new year, it’s helpful to have some meaningful activities to choose from.
Use the ideas below to start your new year off in the best way possible:
Reflect on Growth
The beginning of a new year serves as the perfect opportunity to reflect on progress. To practice the art of reflection, you can hold a whole class conversation or arrange students in small groups. Use the questions below as a reflection starting point:
- What are some ways that you have you grown so far this year?
- What skills and abilities have you worked on?
- What skills and abilities have you improved?
- What strategies helped you make an improvement?
- What skills are you still struggling with?
- What skills and abilities would you like to improve more in the future?
- What strategies or supports do you think could help you?
- What is something you feel proud of yourself for?
- What hopes and goals do you have for the rest of the year?
- How can you make those hopes and goals a reality?
After discussing some of the reflection questions, you can have students complete an independent journal entry to dig deeper and share what they’ve learned.
Make reflection a daily practice with free end of the day reflection questions.
5-4-3-2-1 New Year Countdown
Use a new year countdown to touch upon 5 important social-emotional topics for success. In this activity, students will:
- 5- List five words they want the new year to stand for.
- 4- List four people or things they are grateful for.
- 3- Identify three things they are looking forward to.
- 2 – List two ways they hope to improve or grow.
- 1- Say one positive statement to themselves to start the year.
Use the 5-4-3-2-1 New Year Countdown Activity Book to create a lasting memory of this new year’s activity. It’s a great way to start off your year strong!
Choose Your One Word
Another activity for focusing on positive choices in the new year is choosing your one word. This word should symbolize your way of being in the new year. Some ideas for words students might choose include:
- Focus
- Grateful
- Confidence
- Persevere
- Strong
- Self-love
- Commit
- Dedication
- Creative
- Balance
Once students choose their one word for the year, they can design a drawing or collage to showcase what their word symbolizes for them.
Review Habits for Success
Remind students that they can help take charge of their success through healthy habits. No matter the age, we all need reminders from time to time about healthy habits like organizing materials, doing responsibilities right away, and practicing calming strategies to manage stress. The beginning of a new year is a great time to talk about these habits so we can integrate them into our lives.
Practice Gratitude
Gratitude is our appreciation for the things we have in life. Research has shown that practicing gratitude on a regular basis invites calm, builds meaningful relationships, and strengthens community.
To practice gratitude in the new year, encourage students to share some different things they are grateful for (in school and beyond). From art supplies to learning facts about the solar system, there is a lot to be grateful for. Students can create their own gratitude lists and store them in a gratitude journal or binder. In addition, you can keep a gratitude class list filled with all the things we are thankful for.
Use gratitude sentence starters to begin talking about different people, places, and ideas you feel most grateful for.
Create a New Year Chain
A New Year chain is a craft that you can keep around the room throughout the remainder of the year. To get started, cut pieces of paper into 4 smaller pieces. On each slip, have students write one wish or hope they have for the new year. This can be anything, such as individual goals and aspirations or hopes the world as a whole. Loop the slips together to make a chain that you keep around the room.
Set Goals
Setting goals with students teaches students that they can pave their own path to success! Goal-setting also highlights critical skills such as responsibility, planning, time management, and making good choices. First, it’s important to teach students how to set SMART goals. Rather than wishes or hopes, these goals should be specific with actionable activities students can use to make progress. Lastly, schedule time to check in on those goals throughout the rest of the year.
Make a Wonder List
Continue to encourage learning and curiosity by making a class wonder list. Your wonder list can include all different topics that students are interested in, questions they have that they don’t know the answers to, and ideas they want to research. Some questions you might have on your wonder list include:
- I wonder how gravity works.
- How many different plants are there in the world?
- Who invented the air conditioner?
- I wonder who invented cars and how they got them to work.
Keep this list throughout the rest of the year. Give time to look up some questions during breaks or when students finish assignments early.
Write a Letter to Your Future Self
Use the new year as an opportunity to get kids thinking about their future selves. Have learners write a letter to their future selves. You can opt to have them write it to their future self for the end of the school year, or even themselves when they graduate school! Both examples help students to think about goals and aspirations.
Practice Positive Self-Talk
A new year means the chance for a new positive mindset. Help learners build their encouraging inner voice with positive self-talk. To start, read and discuss several positive affirmations focused on starting a new year. Here are a few to try:
- I am ready to do my best this year.
- This is my year.
- Every year is a fresh start.
- A new year means 365 days to do my best.
- This year, I will work towards my goals.
- I am grateful for the lessons I learned last year.
- I am grateful for a new year.
Use these New Year Coloring Pages to teach about the power of positive self-talk as you celebrate the new year.
Design a Wish Wall
Make a wish for the New Year! A wish wall is a space where everyone can add their big and small wishes for the world around us. Have students use slips of paper or index cards to write out their wishes and post them right on the wall.
Create a Kindness Challenge
Any time of year is the right time to teach about kindness. The beginning of the year can serve as a great reminder to show kindness, use our manners, help others, and be a friend to those in need. The best part is that there are countless ways to show kindness. Use a free kindness activity to highlight some of the ways we can show kindness throughout the rest of the year. You can even make it a challenge by encouraging students to complete each of the kindness acts.
Test Out a New Activity or Lesson
The new year brings an ideal time to test out new activities or lessons with students. Consider adding a morning meeting to start your day with a positive social-emotional focus or adding a calm down corner to bring extra calm into your classroom. The ideas here are limitless, but it is worth mentioning that a new year can be a great way to invite some needed change into your class.
Leave a Reply