A new calendar year is a great time to reflect on what your students have learned so far and then set goals for the months ahead. After returning from winter break, you can use this New Year Writing Activity and Craft to motivate students to set goals for themselves. Whether students are focusing on goals for school or for their personal lives, they will enjoy this engaging writing activity for the new year.
The Benefits of Writing and Craft Activities
Multi-purpose crafts are such a great learning tool for the kindergarten classroom. Here are just a few benefits of mixing writing and crafting into one activity:
- Increase Motivation and Engagement: Some students might not love writing as a standalone activity, but are more motivated when the activity is combined with a craft.
- Create a Simple Bulletin Board Display: Combining a writing and craft activity creates an adorable final product that can dress up your bulletin boards with minimal prep time!
- Publish Student Writing: Creating a craft to go with a writing assignment is a fun and creative way for students to publish their writing. They are always so excited to share the final product with their families or point it out to their friends when they pass it in the hallway.
- Additional Fine Motor Practice: I’m always a fan of activities that give students multiple ways to practice their fine motor skills and increase their hand strength. Combining writing with a craft is a great way to do just that!
This New Year writing activity is an easy-to-assemble winter craft that your students will love to work on after they return from the long winter break. It’s a perfect way to ease back into the classroom routine, while getting students excited about all of the things they will be learning during the rest of the school year.
New Year Writing and Craft Activity
If this New Year writing activity sounds like something you’d like to do with your students, here are some tips for putting together this craft in your classroom.
Step One: Review What They Have Learned
Since January is just about the halfway point of the school year, it’s a great opportunity to celebrate everything students have already learned. They’re always so excited to think about all of the things they have already mastered as kindergarteners!
Step Two: Discuss Goals
Once students have had a chance to reflect on what they’ve already learned, it’s time to look to the future. With a brand new calendar year in front of you, it’s a great time to discuss goals! In fact, this word might be new to some of your students (or at least a word they need to review). Once students understand what a goal is, they can talk about some of the things they would like to learn in the new year.
Step Three: Write
Then it’s time for students to complete the writing portion of the new year craft activity! They can complete the writing prompt: “This year, I want to learn…” It is so fun to hear about what students want to learn; their responses can give you a glimpse into their individual personalities. Some students might want to learn how to do multiplication, some might want to learn to ride a bike without training wheels, and others might want to learn to fly rocket ships!
Step Four: Assemble
After completing the writing activity, students can glue it down onto a large piece of construction paper. The rest of the craft can be assembled around the writing to make it look like they are holding their own papers. The students can then cut out the craft templates and follow the step-by-step instructions to assemble their new year craft.
You can provide a variety of paper colors so they can create a craft that they feel best represents them, including skin tone as well as hat color. After gluing all the pieces down, students can add their own detail and personality to the craft.
This activity can also be spread out throughout the week if you are short on time. You can have students brainstorm their goals on the first day, complete the writing portion the next day, and assemble the craft on another day. Whatever works best for your students and your classroom schedule!
Printable New Year Writing Activity
This fun writing activity and craft is a great way to celebrate the New Year as a class! Students get a chance to reflect on what they learned in the past year and brainstorm goals for the new year. Plus, it makes an adorable bulletin board decoration in your classroom or in the hallway. This project is also a sweet keepsake to tuck into a kindergarten memory book!
If you want to try this easy-to-prep activity with your students this year, just click below to find it in my shop. You’ll find the printable templates along with detailed, step-by-step directions to help you guide your students in assembling this New Year craft. The best part is that this craft is updated each year, so you can use it again and again!
More Kindergarten Activities for January
If you’re looking for even more engaging activities to use in your classroom in January, check out this bundle! It is full of some of my favorite activities to use with kindergarten students after the long winter break.
In addition to the New Year craft I shared in this post, you’ll also find winter-themed centers, Boom cards, no-prep printables, seasonal morning work, and CVC word practice. The January Activity Bundle is an easy way to keep your students engaged and learning all month long. You can incorporate these activities throughout your daily routine as your students get back into the swing of things!
Save This New Year Writing Activity
Be sure to save this post if you’d like to come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite teaching board on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly and easily find this New Year writing activity and craft when you’re ready to put together your January lesson plans.
