New Year Craft and Goal Setting Flap Book Craft: January Bulletin Board Display

This New Year Goal Setting Flap Book is a great activity to use during the first week back from holiday break to reflect on the previous year and set goals for the new year.  It can be difficult to get students back into the routine of school after a long break and this new year craftivity is a great way to ease them into the New Year.  Plus, it makes a great bulletin board display for January!

Both whole class and individual goal setting is an important skill that students need to develop to be successful.  It’s not something that should happen once a year.

I mean, how often have you set goals?  Every day when you make a list of tasks you want to complete!  That’s a small example and only one component of goal setting.  But, I bet you didn’t get to where you are today without some goal setting!

This New Year Goal Setting Flap Book is one more way you revisit goal setting in your classroom.  It compliments my Goal Setting and Data Portfolios as well as the Goal Setting Craftivity.

What is included in the New Year Goal Setting Flap Book?

Included in the New Year Craftivity Goal Setting Flap Book are pages that include a variety of versions for both boys and girls.

The New Year Craftivity has been recently updated to include a Spanish version for bilingual and dual immersion classrooms.

Included are pages for three years in the future so that you don’t have to download it again each year.

In our classroom, we complete a page each day during the first week back at school after the holiday break.  We brainstorm a list of ideas for the day’s page and create an anchor chart for them.  Students can use the anchor chart to help with spelling and generate their own ideas.

The flap book has pages four pages for students to fill out and “flair” they can add to the end of the fourth page.  I created the New Year Flap Book in 2014, so those are the dates with some of the sample images, but I’ve included pages up through 2027 and I update it each year extending the dates even further.

The best part of 20 . . . something

This page asks students to reflect on the previous year.  What was the best thing about it?

In this particular example, students reflect on what was the best part of 2021.  Sometimes it’s a trip, sometimes a special time with a parent.

Favorite memory from 2013: I volunteer at an animal shelter.

Favorite memory from 2013: I got an Xbox for Christmas.

More Options for Reflecting on Last Year

The New Year Flap Book has been updated to include even more options for reflecting on the previous year. In addition to telling about the best part of the previous year, students can tell about something they are thankful for, their proudest moment and the hardest thing they did.

Something I want to Stop

This section has students reflect on something they would like to stop doing or work on improving.  For some, maybe it’s to stop eating so much sugar.  For others, it may be to stop saying unkind words.

This is a great way for students to set a goal for improvement, but it is focused on removing something from their lives.  In order to move forward, we often need to reflect and recognize that there is a problem in the first place.

Guide this section with grace as you help students brainstorm ideas and construct their responses.  We don’t want students to beat up on themselves, but we do want them to see that there is room for improvement.

More Options for this Tab

We have added more options to this tab as well. Students can now write about a family goal, a friendship goal, and a healthy habit they want to start in the new year!

Personal New Year Goal Setting

The “2” page is all about personal goals.  There isn’t a set number on this page.  Students can write a list or in sentences.  What do they want to accomplish personally this year?  Maybe it’s to save money toward a new bike.  Or maybe it’s to make it onto a certain soccer team.

Brainstorming a list is definitely helpful to spark ideas.

This page comes with both a “boy” and a “girl” version as well as a blank page with no clipart.

School New Year Goal Setting

The last page is all about school goals.  In our class, we set goals all year long, so students are familiar with the process of goal setting.  If you’re new to goal setting, this blog post about Student Goal Setting will be helpful to ease students into this process.

One of the best things for a smaller project like this is to create a huge list of possible goals and then have students pick four goals.  Leave blank spaces in the goals so that students don’t feel confined to them.  For instance, Read _____ books, with no exact number in the space.

If you want to take it one step further, you can list the goals on the anchor chart by subject area. Students could pick one goal per subject area if you want to guide the activity a bit more.

A Video of the Flap Book Assembly

Here is a quick video of the New Year Craftivity assembly:

We do one page a day over the week, going in-depth with brainstorming about each component.  By the end of the week, students are ready to assemble their flap books and have a complete idea of what they want to work on for the new year.  It’s also a good way for us to revisit SMART goals and set realistic goals.

Here’s one more video of the current year’s components:

How to Purchase the New Year Goal Setting Flap Book

If you’re interested in the New Year’s Flap Book, you can purchase it on my website or on Teachers Pay Teachers.

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One more craftivity that might interest you is my Goal Setting Craftivity. It can be used at any time during the year to help students create and monitor school and personal goals. Click here to find out more.