New Year Activities for Elementary Students

It’s that time of year again – the New Year! It’s a fresh start for everyone, a time to make new resolutions and set new goals. If you’re a teacher, this is also a great time to come up with new ideas for your classroom. Here are some fun New Year activities for elementary students that will help them celebrate and get ready for a successful year ahead.

These New Year Activities are short, easy fillers that provide just the right about

Included in the New Year Activities Resource

This New Year resource has a variety of fun activities, including:

• Word Search
• Making Words (2 formats)
• Kindness BINGO
• Find Someone Who
• New Year Goals (2 formats)
• Plan of Action
• Top 10 (for 2019 through 2023)
• Color by Code (add and subtraction below 200 & parts of speech)

Here are some more photos and details.

Word Search

The word search has 20 new year words arranged in a variety of directions. Students can color or circle the words they find.

Making Words

The Making Words activity is available in two formats. One format has six words. Students can repeat the activity with each word or phrase. The second format is a longer phrase and divided into sections of word length.

Kindness BINGO

The Kindness BINGO is a fun activity that can take place over the course of the first few weeks back at school. Students train themselves to be on the lookout for ways they can be kind to others. As students do an act of kindness color in a box. Students can work toward a row or column or a blackout BINGO. The Kindness BINGO can be used as a class board or an individual student board.

Find Someone Who

This Find Someone Who activity is all about the holiday break. Students walk around the room and find someone who did one of the things on the board. Items range from traveling and gifts to reading a book. The first student to complete the board wins!

New Year Goals

There are three goal setting worksheets included. One is open-ended and has students write down four goals. You can ask students to be as specific as you want them to, or allow them to be more generic.

The second goal setting sheet has students set goals for school and for home. Students can create a bulleted list or more of a narrative in each column.

Plan of Action

Along with goal setting, students can zoom in and create a plan of action for their goals. In this section, students write a goal for each of the six areas, then tell their action plan to accomplish the goal. Students can write one action step or several action steps.

Top 10 for 2022

This Top 10 list is available for several years, up to 2025! It’s a fun way to reflect on the previous year and even includes a “choose your own” top 10 list.

While the below photo shows an image from 2019, the resource has many years included in it, so you don’t need to download it again each year.

Color by Code

This color-by-code is designed for second and third-grade students who can add numbers under 200 and know basic parts of speech. It includes adding one-digit and two-digit numbers, identifying odd and even, and identifying nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Where to Find the New Year Activities

The New Year Activities are available on Teachers Pay Teachers.

While it may not be the first day of school, you will want to reestablish routines after the long holiday break!

Are you Looking for MORE New Year Activities?

Check out the New Year Flap Book. This is also updated for the current year and future years.

Or take a look at this blog post for some winter ideas for the first week back!