New Year’s Celebrations in the Classroom

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope you and your students have had a great start to the school year and are ready for new things in 2020! Today’s blog post is all about New Year’s Celebrations in the classroom. I hope you find some good ideas to help you and your students bring in the new year.

If you are looking for general tips about holidays in the classroom, check out an old post HERE. For other January ideas visit my January category on my blog! For other seasonal activities, consider January Binder Tasks, January Directed Drawing, or January Vocabulary Activities.

* This post may contain affiliate links. This means that if you click and end up purchasing, you pay no extra cost, but I earn a small fee for referring you.

What Is New Year’s?

New Year’s is one of those holidays that ALWAYS takes place outside of school. Most schools are on holiday break and students return to school sometime in January. Just because this holiday takes place over a school break, it doesn’t mean we can’t teach kiddos about it! You can read this social story before vacation. You can also print the one pager version (included in this social story) and send it home for families to review!

How To Manage Behaviors On

Again, New Year’s takes place outside of normal school days/hours. However, behaviors can still occur. Many families choose to celebrate the new year in a big way. Help families celebrate by addressing behaviors ahead of time. Are you planning on having a New Year’s Celebration in the classroom in January? If so, teach kiddos the basics of behavior ahead of time!

School Celebrations: This lesson is kind of a given if your school celebrates holidays. If you are having a celebration or performance the routine is going to be different. Review expectations before the celebrations begin!
Keeping my hands and feet to myself: This lesson will come in handy for all of the crowded celebrations this holiday. Often times families celebrate in the form of a family party which means it can be crowded! Remind students to keep their hands and feet to themselves during all activities!
I Won’t Hurt Myself: This lesson is an important reminder for students who resort to self injuries behaviors when overwhelmed or stressed. Holidays can be overwhelming, and we must teach them the importance of taking care of themself!
Waiting Patiently: This lesson is an important reminder for students to wait patiently if they are staying up to the midnight countdown!
I will be accountable for myself: This is a great lesson to review while introducing the concept of resolutions. This can help teach students the importance of a resolution for the new year!

New Year’s Picture Books

Surprise, surprise, I am sharing some new holiday picture books! I just love children’s books so much. Here are a few books that you can put on display in your classroom library this January.

The New Year’s Eve Sleepover from the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler
Happy New Year, Spot by Eric Hill
Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution by Pat Piller
The Night Before New Year’s by Natasha Wing

Communication on New Year’s

NEW YEAR = MORE TALKING!

Here are some communication aides to build communication during the New Year’s Holidays.

New Year’s Videos and Songs

Videos can make learning about holidays SO fun! Here are three cute videos you can play during morning meeting or calendar to introduce these new themes. You can play them all month or all at once!

New Year’s Goodies

Celebrating holidays in the classroom is so fun for kids and helps to create memories with their peers. Here are a few goodies to help with New Year’s celebrations in the classroom this year:

New Year’s Crafts and Sensory Activities

Below are some fun ideas for the holiday that I wanted to share with you! Click on each image to be taken to the original author for more information!

This confetti slime is PERFECT for New Year’s Eve celebrations in the classroom. Check out how to make this from Mess for Less.

Check out this adorable New Year’s Sensory Bottle from The Chaos and the Clutter! She has instructions for how to do this on her blog!

Of course, you can’t skip art this New Year’s. Check out this super simple craft idea below. This craft idea from Pencils to Pigtails is perfect. It has a little bit of sensory art included, a craft, and a kindness resolution template!

Holidays can be a blast in the classroom if planned out ahead of time. I know this blog post is full of all sorts of goodies, and I completely understand if you can’t incorporate all of these ideas every year. I do hope you found some of these tips and tricks helpful for this holiday season. If you plan on discussing more holidays this year, check out my Holiday social stories discounted bundle!