“And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.”

Rainer Maria Rilke

This is a perfect time of year to focus on important social-emotional learning topics such as self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making skills.

I've paired some great literature selections with activities that will help your students get back into the ‘school-life’ swing of things and also encourage them to be their best version of themselves.

One Word for Kids by Jon Gordon

In this beautifully illustrated book we meet Stevie, a young boy falling asleep on the first day of school. His teacher gives the class an assignment: to find the one word that will help them have their best year ever. To discover their one word, they must look inside themselves, look up, and look out. At home, Stevie is upset because he can't find his word. After his dad offers some helpful advice, Stevie excitedly begins the quest for his word. His search helps him discover a lot about himself, what he loves, and what is important to him.

Activity: Have your students choose their own one word to help them have the best year ever. Have them create a poster or slideshow that explains why they choose their word, what it means to them, and what action steps based on their word they are planning on. You could create a bulletin board display of everyone’s one word projects or create a class slide show if you happen to be teaching remotely or just want to go the digital route.

Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution by Pat Miller

Squirrel has heard that New Year's Day is a great day for making resolutions but isn't sure what it really means. As she makes visits around the forest she learns about New Year’s resolutions and helps her friends get started on theirs. The tricky part for her is thinking of a resolution of her very own.

Activity: Have students think of their favorite character from a book they've read and come up with a New Year’s resolution for him or her. Encourage them to really use their imagination and think like the character when deciding on the resolution, focusing on something that will make the character grow as a person.

The Wish Tree by Kyo Maclear

In this story, Charles wants to find a wish tree. His brother and sister don't believe there is such a thing, but his trusty companion Boggan is ready to join Charles on a journey to find out. And along the way, they discover that wishes can come true in the most unexpected ways.

Activity: Create a Wall of Wishes in your classroom or as a Padlet. Your wall could be as simple as giving everyone a post-it note and asking them to come up with a positive wish for the new year, or you could even ask parents to collaborate with this, by having them write down wishes for each of their children. Simply stick the notes on the wall under the heading Our Wall of Wishes or, of course, create it digitally on a Padlet.

My Mouth is a Volcano by Julia Cook

In this story, Louis always interrupts! All of his thoughts are very important to him, and when he has something to say, his words rumble and grumble in his tummy, they wiggle and jiggle on his tongue and then they push on his teeth, right before he ERUPTS (or interrupts). His mouth is a volcano! But when others begin to interrupt Louis, he learns how to respectfully wait for his turn to talk. This is a great book for teaching students how to manage their thoughts and words without interrupting.

Activity: Extend the story by having students come up with a list of actions they should do first, when and if they are tempted to interrupt. The list could include taking a deep breath and breathing the words back in, biting down hard, and not letting the words come out. Also have them brainstorm times when it might be a good thing to interrupt, such as a time someone is hurt. They can then practice both occurrences by role-playing or with puppets.

Happy New Year Everywhere by Arlene Erlbach

This book shows how different people, in twenty different countries around the world, celebrate the New Year. It is full of beautifully told, colorfully illustrated tales from each place, and even includes crafts, games, and recipes from each of the different countries featured.

Activity: Have each student choose one of the countries featured, research more about it, and compare and contrast the way the New Year is celebrated there with the way they celebrate it. They can create a Venn diagram or write an essay discussing the similarities and differences and then share their projects with the class.

Freedom Soup by Tami Charles

Haitians ring in the new year by eating a special soup, a tradition dating back to the Haitian Revolution. This year, Ti Gran is teaching Belle how to make the soup — Freedom Soup — just like she was taught when she was a little girl. Together, they dance and clap as they prepare the holiday feast, and Ti Gran tells Belle about the history of the soup, the history of Belle’s family, and the history of Haiti, where Belle’s family is from.

Activity: Ask students to share their own experiences cooking with family and friends and what that time together means to them. Have them plan to share their experiences by creating a class family and friends recipe book. They could first brainstorm the different foods they remember making with someone special, and then plan on interviewing the person they were with before writing and submitting it.

Most Marshmallows by Rowboat Watkins

This is such a sweet and silly story which begins with explaining how marshmallows are born into marshmallow families, play with marshmallow friends, and go to marshmallow school where they learn to be squishy. It tells us that most marshmallows read a book before bed and then fall asleep to dream ordinary marshmallow dreams. But, then it goes on to encourage marshmallows to not be like most, but rather be yourself, be unique, and dream big dreams!

Activity: Give each child a stale marshmallow ( let them get hard by opening the package a few days before you plan on doing this) and have them use thin markers to create themselves as a marshmallow in the style of Watkins. They can also make tiny party hats by rolling a small piece of paper. Last, have them write about the biggest dream they can think of for their future and what they can do to make it come true.

P. Bear’s New Year’s Party by Paul Owen Lewis

There’s lots of learning in this one! A dapper polar bear has an elegant New Year's party and invites all of his animal friends: one whale, two horses, three cows, and so on…until midnight. As each party animal arrives, children learn to count and tell time!

Activity: Depending on the level of your students, the mathematical possibilities are endless with this book. One simple extension would be to have students work cooperatively to figure out how many animals there were all together at the party. Another great idea is to have students make clocks on party hats to practice with, as seen here on this post. I always love when math is integrated into literature. In my book, Educate the Heart, one of the 12 chapters discusses important protocols and systems for guiding cooperative work when integrating math, with 15 examples of books and screen-free activities.

Every Month is a New Year by Marilyn Singer

This is a really exciting poetry collection that highlights sixteen wonderful celebrations in a unique calendar type format. Children will learn, through poetry and gorgeous collage style illustrations, that in every month of the year, somewhere in the world people celebrate their own unique New Year’s celebration.

Activity: Give each child a paper plate and help them to divide it into 12 sections and label it with each of the 12 months of the year. Have them come up with one thing that is special to them about each month and then create a poem about the things they will look forward to in the coming year, based on what they choose.

Shanté Keys and the New Year's Peas by
Gail Piernas-Davenport

In this book, Shanté Keys loves New Year's Day! But while Grandma fixed chitlins, baked ham, greens, and cornbread, she forgot the black-eyed peas! She worries it'll be bad luck without them! So Shanté sets out to borrow some from the neighbors. This story celebrates both community and diversity.

Activity: Give students dried peas, toilet paper rolls, popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, egg cartons, plastic spoons, paper, and various basic STEM supplies, such as tape, glue, and writing utensils. Challenge each student to create a noisemaker, giving them a time restraint appropriate for their developmental level, and encouraging them to use the design process which is explained in detail in Educate the Heart with 15 challenges, but also here, on this link, for your convenience.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit the blog today.

I hope you found this post worthwhile and that it inspires you to celebrate the new year with your students in a brand new way!

Yours truly,

Jennifer