The New Year is an excellent holiday to be talked about and
celebrated in the classroom because it is a secular, neutral holiday that
people of all beliefs can gather around. This is especially practical if you
teach in a particularly multicultural environment.
There are so many symbols and actions related to the New
Year that are fun to explore in a classroom setting.
Here are five fun activities in tune with the New Year
celebration that you could try out in your own classroom.
Word games
Word games are always a good exercise for the brain and are
especially fun and competitive in groups. For example, children can compete by
creating words out of all of the letters in "Happy New Year". The
winner is a student (or a team) who is the quickest to remember and write down
all the words - and spell them right, of course. Spelling can make quite a
difference in who will win the word game competition since
spelling errors can easily occur in a hurry!
For older children you can make the game more challenging by limiting subjects
(e.g. only names of animal species).
Reflecting on the old year artistically
Students can reflect on the passing year in various creative
ways. There is ofcourse creative writing they could explore using experiences they have had in the past year, painting the year that was, or talking to a buddy about their year and then sharing their own experiences to compare and contrast the year that was. For extra
fun, ask your students to draw a storyboard or a comic about significant things that
happened to them that year.
New Year resolutions
New Year resolutions never get old. Although resolutions
are a real New Year stereotype, they are always engaging. This is especially
true for slightly older students, whose minds are always busy with hopes,
dreams, and plans for the future.
Have your students write both personal resolutions and
school-related resolutions. If you decide to share them in a class, give your
students an option to skip the personal resolutions if they're really private.
New Year paper hats
Get creative and bright by creating these,
or similar New Year hats for the New Year's Eve celebration. Lots of bright
colours are there as a symbol of hope for a joyous and cheerful 2019.
New Year all around the world
Take your students on an imagined journey around the world
and explore how the New Year is celebrated in various corners of the Earth.
From New York's big public countdown by up to million people to Sydney's
impressive fireworks, to dragon-dominated Chinese New Year which falls on a
different date every year, all of the world's countries have some specific and unique ways
of celebrating. Showing children different faces of the same celebration makes
them aware of the diversity that our world offers.
May the upcoming year be a joyful one!
