Welcome to my blog!
I love exclamation marks and overusing them ! ! !
I also love all things literacy and bringing our learning to life.
So today’s post is near and dear ! ! ! ( !!!!!! )
I am going to share one of my favorite classroom activities! ! ! ! !
Are you ready for this ? ? ?
It’s called Noon Year’s Eve !
I saw this on Katie M’s Instagram account and knew I had to try it!
So I did try it and LOVED it !!!!
Let me tell you it was easy and a blast!
I created some activities to make it rigorous and give me both Social Studies and Writing content for my first week back in January.
Now, I want to share it all with you!
Let’s start with the food!
Any party needs good food!
So we toast the “Noon” Year with some bubbly lime soda.
Our appetizers? Why cookies of course!
Decorations were kept at a minimum except for one large mystery hanging from the ceiling!
On Monday, I put up a black plastic table cloth, and hung a sign that said “Happy Noon Year”. The kids were full of questions!
1. What is that?
2. Is it a HUGE trash bag?
3. What’s a “Noon” Year?
4. Is there anything in it?
My answer was, “Let’s learn about NEW Year’s and I sure hope you are at school on Friday so you can see what 'Noon Year’s’ is all about!!!”
Then I handed out this little book that perfectly explains:
1. What a calendar does.
2. When the year’s number changes.
3. Why people make resolutions.
4. How to make a goal.
5. Why people celebrate the New Year.
They loved how easy this book was to understand and I like how much they learned! If you have used any of my books before you know that I make them to be interactive- where the kids write in the little book itself.
Here are the interactive skills covered in the little book:
1. Writing this year and last year’s number (i.e. 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026).
2. Capitalizing calendar words.
3. “I am looking forward to _____________ in the New Year” sentence frame.
4. Writing a smart goal – What they want to do, who can help them make it happen, and what steps they need to take.
The goal writing page is really amazing.
I loved that the kids got to go beyond an academic goal and do a home and talent goal.
I like hearing that my kids want to learn how to make cookies or score more soccer goals!
Once we had read our little book and done the activities over a few days, we took our goal from the little book and wrote it on these pennants!
There are a TON of little faces to choose from.
I also provided lots of star options for you.
I saved my scraps from the sides of the pennants to use as confetti for the party.
Keep your scraps.
Seriously, why buy confetti and the larger art scraps are easier to pick up?
Your custodian will thank you!!!
I wanted to let the parents know about the magic I am planning, so I sent home this note! The party is so easy and inexpensive that I did not collect money or get volunteers. I just wanted the families to know all about our amazing party!
I also grab my shopping list, and head to the Dollar Store. You can do the whole party for about 10-15 dollars!!!! Although at the Dollar Store, I will end up spending another $90 on other things too! (Shhhhh don't tell my husband.)
For my 1st week back I ease into math. The kids have been on 2 week brain-break filled with Santa, video games, candy, and cousins. Easing in is better than jumping in and drowning- at least I think so. I like to come back and begin to practice counting backwards so that we know what to do at the upcoming Noon Year’s Eve Party. I am always shocked who cannot count backwards.... Actually, I am never shocked, but still it's a lot of kids who need practice. I use this count back from 20 sheet (see below!):
I know… I know…
You only count back from 10 at a party.
BUT I want them to count back from 20 because this is an essential subtraction skill.
Did you see what I did there?
I was so sneaky and I got in a subtraction skill-drill and they were none-the-wiser!
They think they are doing party prep… (Que mad scientist laughter)
This activity is spring board off this Common Core math question from our math book.
32 kids need juice at a party.
Juice is sold in boxes of 10.
How many boxes do we need?
THEY ALL SHOUT “3 BOXES! We need 3 boxes”
They say this because they don’t want to overbuy and they know 40 is too many.
But then I point out that if we buy 3 boxes then 2 friends won’t get juice.
I created this sheet because it’s a fun 40 minute math lesson that hits the Common Core standard and fits the party theme of the week.
OK !!!! Let’s PARTY!
1. Lay out a table cloth, sprinkle your confetti scraps onto it, and put out your food.
2. Fill the hanging table cloth with confetti scraps and balloons. I did black and gold.
3. Practice counting backwards a little and then bring them to the floor under the balloon drop area. Hand out noise makers (As if kids NEED noise makers!).
4. I did this with 2 classes and each teacher pulled down the tablecloth at the end of the countdown. P.S. decide who should let go of the tablecloth. I think we both almost pulled each other down last year! You can pull it down solo though too.
5. The kids loved counting down so much we let them collect confetti and balloons 5 or 6 times and we did the countdown over and over again so they could throw stuff, catch stuff, and shout “Happy New Year!” They did not fuss about cleaning up because they had already collected so many times.
6. Then we ate some treats!!!!
7. Once we had the shared experience of a the “Noon” Year’s Eve party, we did this little graphing page. They asked 10 friends what they liked best about the party.
8. We went to our desks to graph our tally results from asking 10 friends.
9. We wore off the sugar high by writing what we saw in our graph and getting up and showing our graphs and sentences to our friends.
For “Noon” Year’s freebies click (here) or the “Noon” Year graphic below.
To get the New Year’s little book, craft, and math sheets click the graphic below or you can click (HERE) to go to Teachers Pay Teachers
I’m sending you love, and I am wishing you Happy Teaching in New Year!
Special joy and thanks to Katie M from Little Warriors:
She is a joy! Read her blog, see her at a conference if you can, and follow her Instagram for a daily dose of Warrior JOY! Big LOVE to you Katie. This party idea of yours is THE best way to start the year!