Coming back from Winter Break is a great time to set new goals for your upper elementary students! You are (almost) halfway through the school year, and I found it to be the perfect time to review classroom manners, procedures and set new goals.
Here are some suggestions for what to do when you come back from Winter Break
- Make and Design New Year’s Resolution Banners
- Create a One Pager with New Year’s Resolutions and Goals
- Find One Word that will define this coming New Year and design a banner
- Get moving and reviewing content with a Scavenger Hunt
- Review Classroom behaviors and procedures
Create Some Fun New Year’s Resolution Banners
New Year’s Resolution Banners are a simple craft I love to do in the afternoon of the first day back. We chat about New Year’s Resolutions, what they are and how to set them.
We then spend the afternoon coloring these cute banners. By the end of that first day back, I can take down my holiday decorations and immediately have adorable New Year’s Decoration up on my walls.
Simple One Pagers for the New Year
My students love One-Pagers and are very familiar with using them.
One-Pagers are more open-ended and imaginative than the banners above, so some years I use these instead. Before beginning, we talk about New Year’s Resolutions, goals for the new year, and what they may have done over Winter Break. Students can cover these subjects on their New Year One Pager, along with anything else they find important to them.
The best part about One-Pagers is that they are easy to make and even easier to assign!
Find One Word That Will Define This New Year
I LOVE this lesson! I find One Word activities powerful and an excellent lesson that students can take well beyond the one year I spend with them.
We work our way through the entire lesson over a few days. We learn how our thoughts and attitudes determine our success. We discover together different words that have meaning for each of us individually.
Then, we choose a word that we want to focus on and reflect on for the rest of the year.
Everyone, including myself, makes a banner that highlights our One Word. They are then prominently displayed in the room throughout the year. (Personally, I love to hang them above their desks.)
This New Year’s activity is not only fun but also powerful!
Get Moving with a Scavenger Hunt
Yes, I love Scavenger Hunts!
They are much more engaging than a worksheet, and they get students up and moving. They are perfect for collaborative learning opportunities, small-group center activities and can also be used as a take to your seat work for fast finishers.
Scavenger hunts are a great way to review behavior expectations and content before diving into the busy school year.
Here’s a winter Scavenger Hunt for fifth graders that focuses on division, homophones, and some fun winter science.
Want to try a New Year’s Scavenger Hunt for FREE? I made this one to review fifth-grade math with a New Year’s Theme.
Review the Old and Teach New Classroom Procedures and Behaviors
By now, you know your students, so it is the perfect time to reinforce behaviors and procedures that are working and revamp some that are not working.
Upper elementary students love to be included in this dialogue, so I make this a whole-class activity. After a brief discussion, I put my students into groups of three or four. I give each group an example of a respectful behavior and a piece of chart paper, and they collaborate to write and illustrate how it will appear in our classroom.
Have a Happy New Year!
