As the winter holiday season approaches, it can be tricky to find engaging seasonal activities for your older students. In addition, not all students celebrate each holiday…
That’s why I’m sharing my top 3 ideas for using a New Year’s theme with your middle school students!
The 3 lessons below will allow you to target these skills with your “big kids”:
- Inferencing
- Tier 2 Vocabulary
- Executive Functioning
- Problem-Solving
- Semantic Webbing
Now let’s dig in to December!
1. NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
SKILLS TARGETED: Tier 2 vocabulary, executive functioning, problem-solving, semantic webbing
WHAT TO DO:
- Define and discuss what resolutions are and why they’re valuable.
- Share a goal you have for the New Year. Then ask your students to: (1) write a resolution for you, and (2) choose a word for the year that sums it up.
- Example: “I want to get in better shape.”
- Resolution: “I will exercise 3 times per week for the entire year.”
- Word: “Perseverance”
- Discuss word meanings and a build a web to similar words (e.g. “perseverance, determination, dedication”)
- Ask students to anticipate potential roadblocks that can occur during the year and list potential solutions. (“Anticipate” is a great Tier 2 word!)
- Next, ask students to do go through the entire process with their own resolutions!
2. NEW YEAR’S CLUES
SKILLS TARGETED: Inferencing, cause-and-effect reasoning
WHAT TO DO:
- Generate a list of resolutions and words.
- Create fictional characters with various problems.
- Ask students to infer which resolutions fit each character.
- They must provide evidence and reasoned verbal explanations for their matches.
If you don’t feel like coming up with your own list, grab my no-prep bundle of Infer & Explain Special New Year’s Edition!
(This includes printable and digital versions!)
Alternatively, if you want to just focus on winter more generally, I created a similar activity in which winter travelers lose their suitcases!
Students must infer who owns each suitcase so they can continue on their winter travels! You can check out my Infer & Explain Winter Travel Trouble resource here!
3. RESOLUTION CONTEXT CLUES
SKILLS TARGETED: Vocabulary, deriving meaning from context
WHAT TO DO:
- Write a list of New Year’s Resolutions.
- Insert unfamiliar vocabulary.
- Ask students to guess what the words mean based on the clues from the resolutions.
E.g. “I will persevere as I try to achieve my math goals, even when it’s hard.” What does persevere mean?
Check out how I do it HERE!
(Also, I know I only planned on sharing 3 activities, but if you have articulation students, you might find these 50 Silly Articulation Resolutions fun!)
If you found all of these ideas helpful, check out my bundle of No-Prep New Year’s Resources for Mixed Groups!
I hope this post left you feeling inspired to use this winter theme with your older students! Please share with any friends who might find these ideas helpful!
