The one about new year’s virtual activities

Winter break is the longest break from school, so our return to school is always momentous and filled with anticipation in seeing each other again.

Being virtual this year, our New Year’s activities will be a little different. UPDATE: Dec. 2021- These virtual activities still fit, even when we’re in person! This is what I’m planning on doing to help my class do some much-needed goal setting and get back into our classroom routine.

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Here are a couple ways we’ll celebrate the New Year and jump back into our virtual routine:

Jamboard to Share: You know your students will be bursting to talk and share about what they did, even if it was just playing video games the entire break. My class always does a weekend share on Monday mornings and this time, we’ll do a share from over the break. Jamboard is perfect because each student can create a sticky note and the rest of the class can read them. This provides a quick catch up at the beginning of the day.
Review our Google Meet Norms: As a reminder, we’ll go over the shoulds & should nots of virtual meetings. This is just a discussion, but I’ll take notes on a Jamboard to share together. In person, we would review our procedures, transitions, rules, etc. Being virtual is no different. Yes, my class should know, but a reminder is always helpful!
Awesome Year Challenge by Kid President: You can never go wrong with Kid President! He has ideas for making the new year great. This is a fun brain break from our regular lessons. We’re going to watch this to prep us for our next activity…
Reflection and Goal Setting: This 2021 Google Slides activity will allow my kiddos to reflect on last year and set smart goals for this year. We’ll reflect on a couple positives from 2020, and then we’ll make goals for the upcoming year. We’ll make goals we can achieve, looking at Kid President’s examples and reading Salt in His Shoes. Salt in His Shoes is a great picture book about Michael Jordan and how he worked hard for his goal.