Right now, you and your students are probably counting down the days to winter break, but in a few weeks, they’ll also be counting down the seconds before we start a brand new calendar year! Whether you’re adding seasonal content to your lessons early or are planning ahead to make your return to school start more smoothly, try some of our New Year’s activities for students to keep them engaged in their cross-curricular lessons:

• Dig into growth and learning in ELA
• Build background knowledge on New Year’s customs in social studies
• Try fun experiments for when the clock strikes 12 in science

[Dig into growth and learning in ELA](id-ela)

Help students start the new year with a good attitude and strategies for growth with these ELA lessons: 

Practice organizational skills for the new year

The new year is a great time to reset and practice organization and prioritization. Teach students how they can become more organized in the new calendar year with articles that look at topics like:

• How long it takes to form a habit.
• How to be on time.
• How to become an organized student.

Set goals and resolutions for the new year

Setting a New Year’s resolution can feel intimidating, but you can make it more fun for students by turning it into an interactive activity. Have students create a great goals blog to teach others how to set a New Year’s resolution using their goals as a guide. To write their blogs, students can read and reference content on topics like:  

• How to set goals and keep goals for the new year.
• Inspirational stories about students who set and achieved big goals.
• Two Formative interactive activities to help students create a plan for reaching their own goals.

Explore poetry about dreams and new beginnings

Poetry can be an inspirational way to better understand our feelings and ideas around abstract topics, like our dreams and goal setting. Help students explore poetry on these topics with selections like:

• “New Year’s Eve” by Cindy Breedlove
• “Instructions on Not Giving Up” by Ada Limón
• “The Conditional” by Ada Limón
• “In Praise of Dreams” by Gary Soto

Dive into fiction about personal journeys

The first day of a new calendar year is the first step into a new 12-month journey. Students can explore the themes of personal journeys in fiction with selections like:

• “Around the World in Eighty Days: Chapter 1” by Jules Verne
• “The Spectacular Ride” by Drollene P. Brown
• “The Hare and the Tortoise” by Aesop
• “Blackbeard’s Ghost” by Jed Alexander
• “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: Chapter 3” by L. Frank Baum

Refresh students on healthy study habits

Treat instructional time after winter break as a mini back-to-school experience by refreshing students on healthy classroom habits. Use interactive videos to help them explore:

• How to have a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset.
• The best tips for taking notes in class.
• Strategies for how to say no to peer pressure.

[Build background knowledge on New Year’s customs in social studies](id-ss)

Like other winter holidays, how people celebrate New Year’s often has a lot to do with where they live and their cultural backgrounds. Use these social studies activities to help students explore New Year’s customs worldwide.

Teach students about New Year’s traditions

Each student in your class may celebrate the new year a little differently. Help them explore traditions for this holiday from across the country and the globe with articles on topics like:

• The history of popular New Year’s traditions, like the Times Square Ball Drop.
• The origins of setting New Year’s resolutions.
• How the Chinese New Year celebration differs from American New Year’s.

Get inspired to set new goals for the upcoming year

Picking a good resolution you can stick to all year long is tricky. Use stories about other young people setting and achieving their goals to inspire your students. 

• Read about students participating in Maker Faires to learn more about how things work.
• Discover how students around the globe are leading climate change protests to make a difference.
• See how a group of Kansas teens are making an effort to celebrate National No One Eats Alone Day in their school cafeteria.

[Try fun experiments for when the clock strikes 12 in science](id-sci)

Encourage students to think creatively about their New Year’s plans and try fun science experiments to celebrate!

Create a confetti popper

How do the celebratory tools we use on New Year’s—like horns, fireworks, and confetti poppers—work? Use this seasonal STEAM lesson to teach students:

• How Newton’s laws of motion work.
• What happens when energy transfers and transforms during everyday activities.
• To test forces and laws of motion for themselves by creating confetti poppers out of balloons and paper towel rolls.

Make fireworks with magic milk

Not all fireworks light up the sky! Try this explosion-free fireworks activity with students:

• Read an article about the decline of cow’s milk consumption in the United States.
• Discover how reindeer milk is a popular baking ingredient in Mongolia.
• Create your own milky fireworks using food coloring and dish soap.

The fun doesn’t have to stop at midnight!

Use Newsela’s knowledge and skill-building products to create timely, engaging lessons for every holiday, event, and state mandate all year. If you’re not a Newsela customer yet, sign up for Newsela Lite and get a 45-day free trial of all our premium and differentiated content and activities to help you plan more exciting activities in the new year and beyond.

‍