Vania Hasegawa Jan 12, 20231 min read

How to engage your students in the new year

Translation generated by an AI translation service

After the holidays, it is time to return to school and begin the new year. Some children may find it difficult to return to their normal routine and may feel overwhelmed. So now is the time to listen to them and allow them talk about whatever they want. It's also a nice time to focus on academic goals since we're halfway through the school year.

To help ease them into the new year, here are 5 activities to engage and motivate children to make new plans and habits.

1. LEARN NEW YEAR’S TRADITIONS AROUND THE WORLD

You can travel the world without leaving the classroom. Increase students' curiosity and understanding by asking them to explore how different countries spend their holidays and ring in the new year.

It’s always fun to learn about different traditions and local dishes.

2. SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE MEMORY ABOUT THE HOLIDAYS

three children smiling, outside in the snow

Holidays are a special time to make memories with family and friends.
Ask students to write about the most fun or interesting thing they did over the holidays.

3. WRITE NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

two girls, one of them is writing on paper

Setting objectives for the new year is always useful to students, regardless of age. It's time to create new goals, such as reading more books or developing new habits.
Remind students that a new year can bring many new opportunities!

4. SELF-REFLECTION WORKSHEET

Make a self-reflection worksheet to help students reflect on how the previous year went, and to help them reach their goals.

The worksheet could include sentences like:

I feel good about…
The most important goal that I achieved last year is...
I used to …. but now I…
2 things that inspire me are...
A strategy that really helped me learn better is…
New skills that I learned are...
One thing I will remember to do in the future is…
I am grateful for…
And so on.

5. MAKE A TIME CAPSULE

Making a time capsule is a lot of fun! Ask your pupils to add a letter to their future selves, and some everyday objects. Open the capsule at the end of the year, or in a few years, and have a great time remembering how things were.

Here’s a video to inspire you.