Who doesn’t love a good party? Who doesn’t love to stay up until midnight ringing in the new year? I mean…we all love a good New Year’s party! OK…honestly…who can barely make it to midnight to celebrate?! The new year is a time for new beginnings and a perfect time to party with your class. Each year, we have a Class New Year’s party on our first day back to celebrate the new year and our return to school! Our New Year’s party includes balloons, hats, confetti, noisemakers, and a toast to ring in the new year!
Now, I know there’s this idea of doing a “noon year’s party” where we celebrate at noon, but here’s why we don’t: noon is in the middle of the day. And after we do a countdown, a balloon drop, and a toast, the kids are…LIT. WILD. So, we do our party at the end of the day. Then we make our snack, eat, and go home. Party. Sugar. Home. Trust me. Kindergarten New Year’s party is an end-of-the-day event.
We order our decorations and supplies from Amazon and Oriental Trading!
We toast the new year with sparkling grape juice!
We watch the Times Square Ball Drop and do our own countdown to the new year!
Class New Year’s Party: Snack
No New Year’s party is complete without food. If we didn’t have food, Martha Stewart would be so sad. So, of course, we make a Happy New Year snack to recreate the big ball drop! We use a cupcake, a coffee stirrer, and doughnut holes. Sometimes, you get lucky, and the “ball” even slides down like the real ball drop!
Kindergarten New Year’s Party: Adjective Lesson
We do an adjective lesson. Each student comes to the SmartBoard, and the class describes their friends! I write the adjectives on the board and snap a picture. Each child gets a picture to take home. This is a great way to start the second half of the year by boosting everyone’s confidence and strengthening the bond of your class. It is a great community-building activity!
And finally, we made our class promise. We share everything we promise to do to make the new year awesome. At the end, we all sign our names and display our class promise as a reminder of how awesome we are and can be!
Class New Year’s Party: Green Screen Idea
We love creating green screen pictures in our classroom! Here’s our idea for the new year! We have a blog post linked at the end of this post with directions on how to do this!
Class New Year’s Party: Art Projects
This is the perfect art project for your class’s new year’s party. Torn paper disco balls. I traced a paper plate to make the circle. The kids tear gray construction paper to fill in their circles and then tear the white paper to make the string. Just add glitter, and you have a disco ball! You also have them tear and glue aluminum foil!
Class New Year’s Party: Resolutions and Reading Comprehension Lessons
Not only do we party hard for the new year, but we also work hard as we celebrate! We use our Read It Up: Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution creation to learn about resolutions, come up with our own resolutions, and write about our resolutions!
We start by making predictions about the story based on the front cover and title! And then we do a story map!
Next, we share all of our resolutions for the new year!
Finally, the students decide on a resolution and write and illustrate their New Year’s Resolutions!
Kindergarten New Year’s Party: Sensory Play Ideas
Check out our Happy New Year creation for graphic organizers, writing, craftivities, and math and literacy centers in blackline and color!
Grab these resources to celebrate the new year in your classroom!
FREEBIES
For more ideas and resources, check out these blog posts:
