New Year Fun!

I'm so sorry I have been MIA for the past month. I decided to take a break from blogging. I have just been exhausted lately. It was SUPER hard for me to get back into the school mode. I'm still dragging a bit, but I'm making it. MLK Day yesterday sure did help! :)

I'm hoping to get caught up and share with you what's been going on in my classroom! I'm going to skip over holiday stuff (too much to share!) and share New Year's activities with you. Please check out my New Year's unit if you are interested!

Our first week back we talked about how we were in a new year, 2013! We learned what a resolution was and that sometimes people make goals for themselves at the beginning of a new year. I had the kids brainstorm ideas for resolutions which they drew or wrote about in their balloons.

 

Next I had them choose one resolution, illustrate it and write it down:

 

(help my little sister learn to read)              (being a nice friend, that's my resolution) 

 

                  (take more care of my fish)                              (exercise)

 Later in the week, the kids worked on a craft where they illustrated their face and decorated a party hat. Below their face, they wrote one new year's resolution. It made a super cute bulletin board!

 

 

 

 For our last activity, I had the kids think about a resolution they wanted to make just for school. We came up with different ideas and then I let the kids choose one to illustrate. They wrote their goal and how they would reach their goal.

  

            (listening; listen to the teacher)                              (reading; practice)

(reading my spelling words; practice)

If you liked these activities, please check out my New Year's unit by clicking on the picture below! 

New Year's Unit

We began the year 2012 by talking about New Year's! We used my own New Year's unit and we had tons of fun!

We started by talking about traditions we do at New Year's and the kids enjoyed telling me all about what they did that night. Many of them were proud to tell me they stayed up until midnight! :) We also talked about counting down from ten, watching the ball drop in NYC, shooting off fireworks and going to a party.

We then filled out and illustrated a New Year's book:

My unit also includes some math problems with a New Year's theme. I took out the numbers in the problems and added blanks to include more number sets to increase the challenge.

The next day we talked about what a resolution is (a goal we want to achieve in the new year) and what resolutions we would make for school. It was funny to see what they wanted to work on. A few kids who are always quiet and do what they are told put I want to work on being quiet....seriously?? :)

We also talked about memories from last year and what we hope to do this year.

On Friday we chose a resolution that could be either about anything we want to do. The kids wrote down their resolution and decorated a face to look like themselves. (I just used a circle and triangle for the face and hat). It made an adorable bulletin board!

The kids wrote about their resolutions on a paper from The First Grade Parade's free new year's unit! (I love Cara Carroll!!)

I'm so proud of what all my kids have done this year so far....and I know they have a lot more to achieve! :)

If you are interested in my New Year's unit, check it out on TpT and Teacher's Notebook.

Holiday Units

Need some holiday ideas? Go check out my winter holiday unit on TpT! Click the picture below!

2012 is just around the corner! I also have a New Year's unit with tons of fun activities to use when you return to school in January!