TeachersFirst's New Year's Resources
Other TeachersFirst Special Topics Collections

The New Year is a wonderful time for setting goals, reflecting, looking ahead, and making some resolutions! This collection of reviewed resources offers ideas to incorporate New Year's activities in the regular curriculum. Whether you focus on a specific activity or simply share these for enrichment outside of class, your students will find some refreshing new ideas.
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Twitter Chat: Getting Ready for Back-to-School - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): back to school (62), professional development (164), twitterchatarchive (38)
In the Classroom
Get ready for the school year with these resources and tools. Find organization tools and more. Share this archived chat with your fellow colleagues who are preparing for the new year. Get off to a Great Start!You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Twitter Chat: Preparing for the School-Year: Setting Goals and Getting Organized - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): back to school (62), classroom management (159), twitterchatarchive (38)
In the Classroom
Get ready for the school year with these resources and tools. Find organization tools and more. Share this archived chat with your fellow colleagues who are preparing for the new year. Get ready for a great start!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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OK2Ask'''®: New Years - New Ideas! Professional Resources to Make Your Life Easier, Communica - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12As a result of this session and through individual follow-up, teachers will: Explore the various Professional Resources available at TeachersFirst: differentiating, rubrics, online tools, working with parents, wikis, blogs, and more! Browse and explore the various ready to go lesson plans and units created by TeachersFirst. Explore to find materials relevant to his/her classroom needs. (Follow-up) Plan and implement a student-centered, curriculum-related use of the resource(s) of choice as part of an upcoming teaching unit or for professional purposes. Applicable NETS-T standards (2008)*: 1a, b, c; 2a, b, c, d; 3b, c, d; 4c. ISTE's standards page.
In the Classroom
Find new strategies and techniques for the New Year to organize your classroom, challenge your students, and explore professional resources! Explore the various tools shared. Share some of your favorite sites on your class wiki or website. Take a look at the resource page full of GREAT ideas for the New Year! Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Celebrating the Holidays with a Kid's Heart - Roxie Carroll - A Kids Heart
Grades
K to 4This site includes advertising.
tag(s): christmas (55), earth day (105), fall festival (4), fathers day (10), hanukkah (14), holidays (142), july 4th (7), martin luther king (36), mothers day (12), new years (11), preK (288), rosh hashanah (7), st patricks day (13), thanksgiving (33), valentines day (14), yom kippur (7)
In the Classroom
Need to find quick activities for a special holiday in your class? Find ready-made activities to use during center time, class celebrations, or special reward time on your interactive whiteboard. After school programs can easily use activities for all different interests during holiday times.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Asian Art Museum Educator Resources - Asian Art Museum
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): art history (77), artists (77), asia (72), china (63), chinese new year (3), cross cultural understanding (123), japan (60), korea (18)
In the Classroom
Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard (or projector). Allow students to explore on their own or in collaborative groups. Have students or groups collect ideas and findings using Padlet, reviewed here. The Padlet application creates free online sticky note boards. Bookmark and use this site to find resources for Chinese New Year activities. Have students create online posters individually or together as a class using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard, reviewed here, or PicLits, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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101 Things You Can Do in the First Three Weeks of Class - Joyce Povlacs Lunde
Grades
K to 12tag(s): back to school (62), newbies (15), professional development (164)
In the Classroom
Use ideas from this site during back to school staff meetings to motivate teachers as they begin a new year. Share it with your student teacher before he.she gets started. Challenge yourself and other department members to check off as many items on the list as you can. Keep this list up on your computer as a reminder through the day. Revisit this site each year as a reminder of starting each school year on the right foot! Why not bookmark this site (or save in your favorites), so it is easy to find each year.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The China Game - Asia Society
Grades
1 to 8tag(s): china (63)
In the Classroom
The China Game would make a great addition to classroom centers as part of your Chinese New Year celebration or study of countries and cultures. Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. If individual computers are available, have pairs of students explore on their own. Have students create an annotated image of China including text boxes and related links using a tool such as Thinglink, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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CalorieKing - CalorieKing Wellness Solutions, Inc.
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use this site in any health, nutrition, Family and Consumer Science, or biology class when discussing biomolecules and needed nutrients. Place this link on your site or bookmark on a class computer for easy reference. When discussing the food pyramid, or nutrients needed by the body, have students keep a 3 day food diary to compare with the food pyramid. This is also a great site to share as students make New Year's resolutions about eating healthy!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Make and Do Games - Kent County Council
Grades
K to 3tag(s): africa (168), animals (322), back to school (62), christmas (55), colors (80), communities (37), dinosaurs (55), easter (12), firstday (25), halloween (38), insects (72), matter (60), nursery rhymes (16), oceans (165), plants (174), ponds (8), preK (288)
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site for use throughout the year. Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use activities on your interactive whiteboard for time fillers, story starters, and center time. Use the "Me Maker" for students to introduce themselves at the beginning of the school year or for use with your Student of the Week. Several activities include printables to print and use for centers and homework. Use the "Help Me ID Cards" as an excellent resource for your community helpers unit. Be sure to check out the many seasonal activities.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Yong's China Quest - Lotherton Hall, Leeds Museums and Galleries
Grades
K to 7tag(s): china (63), cross cultural understanding (123), cultures (109), game based learning (138)
In the Classroom
Use the activity in a center as part of your Chinese New Year lesson activities. Allow students to try the quest on your interactive whiteboard as a center activity. Keep a list of items found while solving puzzles, and have students research more information on them.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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MailFreezr - Duncan McLaud
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): new years (11), organizational skills (125), writing prompts (93)
In the Classroom
A good use for this would be for emails to yourself with reminders for annual events, not for personal use. Send an email to yourself at the end of a unit with information on resources that worked, classroom tips, where to find additional information, etc. Set up emails when you receive your annual schedule with reminders before each event. Use this tool as a writing prompt. Ask students to write an email to themselves as a high school senior or even to themselves at the end of the next year to see if they have met personal goals such as New Years resolutions. Have your entire "graduating" elementary class write a class time capsule about what was important to them in the year 20XX and "send" it to themselves, set to deliver at the end of middle or high school.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Accompl.sh - Accomplsh, LLC
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): new years (11)
In the Classroom
Identify the goals needed to become a better student, be more organized, or other life or study skills that students would find useful. This is a great "tracking" system to help students in class and at home. Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector, so families can make group goals together. Promote solid study skills and project planning using this tool.Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
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Five Sentences - Five Sentences
Grades
K to 12tag(s): writing (365)
In the Classroom
Adopt this idea in your professional life as you correspond with parents (or suggest it to your administrator). Try adopting Five Sentences as your New Year's resolution. Though students today rarely USE email, share emails with them -- and the Five Sentences limit -- as writing prompts for a five sentence response to teach concise, purposeful writing and 'netiquette. (Note that this review, not including this aside, is 5 sentences!)Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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DLTK's Custom Chore Chart - DLTK
Grades
K to 6tag(s): behavior (46), charts and graphs (197), preK (288)
In the Classroom
Create charts for a variety of needs. Charts always come in handy for students who struggle to stay on task or to complete assignments. Charts are a fun and tactile way for students to monitor their success and stay on target with responsibilities. Use a chart system to teach organization and self monitoring for things such as homework, chores or daily jobs, morning or end of day tasks and behavior, backpack organization, reading books, math skills, and whatever else you or your students can "chart." Use this tool in the beginning of a new school year to help with expectations or recording. Special ed and gifted teachers will want to have students create their own charts to take ownership for individual goals. This is also a great tool for students to use to record their success for specific New Year's resolutions. This is definitely a link you want to list on your class website for parents to use at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Decade That Was - New York Times
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): news (262)
In the Classroom
Use this website as an activity for small groups of students working on laptops, or use the interactive whiteboard or projector to complete parts in large group instruction. Complete in the style of a Know/Want to Learn/Learned activity. As a class, have students fill in the blanks that they already know. Divide up the remaining questions between pairs of students. Have students click through the links to find the answers. Then, to conclude have the student pairs share their answers with their classmates. Since the questions are numbered, it would be simple to divide up the questions. Observe students carefully and advise them NOT to click on the answer link! Assign students a partner (or let them choose) and have the groups do further investigation about the specific question or questions they were assigned. Challenge the groups to create news reports about the events and share them using a site such as Teachers.TV reviewed here. Consider creating a similar 50 image review of your school year's curriculum using images taken throughout the year (or found on copyright-safe web sources), having student groups select the images from your collection and write the accompanying questions. A wiki would be a terrific place to create such a "Year in Review."Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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New Year's Resolutions - Myvocabulary.com
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): new years (11)
In the Classroom
Share the puzzles on your interactive whiteboard or projector or make them available as links on your teacher public page. Have students write a blog entry about their New Year's Resolution using 6-10 of the words from this theme. Use Telegra.ph, reviewed here. With Telegra.ph a unique URL is provided, and you just click on an icon to upload images from your computer, add a YouTube or Vimeo, or Twitter links. If you'd like to make this a bit more challenging, encourage students (or groups) to create their own illustrated dictionaries of terms using a tool such as Book Creator, reviewed here, or Bookemon, reviewed here. As you add more vocabulary lists during the year, have them select their favorite 6-10 terms from each list to add to their "book."Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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nrgBalance - Penn State Hershey
Grades
K to 12tag(s): obesity (18)
In the Classroom
Share the webcasts in your health and physical education classes using an interactive whiteboard or projector. Try some of the contests as a class. Challenge students to make one of the five suggested changes in the 1-2-3-4-5 project. Why not try one of the changes each month from January through May? Have students create a class wiki to keep track of their successes (and failures) during the challenge. At New Year's, this is a great site to share for resolutions!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Six Calendars of Special Days and Festivals - Woodlands Junior School( Project Britain)
Grades
K to 8tag(s): calendars (47), christmas (55), easter (12), holidays (142), st patricks day (13), valentines day (14)
In the Classroom
As you study other cultures, be sure to include this resource for students to research the celebrations there. Or include the link on your teacher web page with the title "Every Day is a Holiday?" asking students to use the holiday calendar to become more be aware of different cultures. Instead of reporting on a current event from the newspaper, give them the option of reporting on a holiday that occurred this week in another part of the world.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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New Years Resolutions - developingteachers.com
Grades
3 to 8tag(s): holidays (142), listening (87), new years (11), vocabulary (321)
In the Classroom
Students can improve listening skills while learning about American holiday customs. Use this lesson as an opportunity for the class to find out about New Year customs in other cultures.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Chinese New Year
Grades
5 to 8tag(s): china (63), chinese (50), chinese new year (3)
In the Classroom
Share the "what's special about..." section with your students on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students judge which year was the most special and write journal entries or blogs about WHY.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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