New Year’s Reading Passage & Comprehension Activities – History of the New Year

Happy New Year! Learn about the history of New Year’s Day, the calendar, and New Year celebrations around the world! This resource includes everything you need to teach your students about this holiday. Your students will love exploring the long history behind why we celebrate a new year and all the different customs from different cultures. It’s perfect for a cross-curricular unit or a celebration of cultures.

You get two reading passages that explain the origins of New Year’s Day, the modern calendar, and how different cultures celebrate the holiday. These passages have been designed for maximum engagement for students. You also get vocabulary cards with keywords and definitions and links to additional websites and videos. Finally, you get reading comprehension pages to assess or review the new learning

Your students will be active participants in close reading activities, building vocabulary, and discovering how different countries say goodbye to one year and hello to another!

This reading passage and comprehension activities are also a great way to combine reading, writing, and social studies.

Included are:

• Vocabulary Cards with key terms from the reading passage
• Poster that defines the day
• TWO Reading Passages
• QR Codes for additional research for each passage
• Graphic Organizers for note-taking for each passage
• Short Answer Comprehension Questions for each passage
• Comprehension Activities for Main Idea & Details and Cause & Effect
• Fact Sort where students can categorize the key events and attributes for each passage
• Discussion Questions
• Writing Page
• Answer Key