new year
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Fun Stuff for a New Year Celebration
I know that New Year’s Eve has come and gone, but I love to welcome the children back to school after the holidays with a small New Year celebration. It’s hard to come back to school after a break, especially since the last week of school before we left was all about celebrating the holidays. Coming back to the regular routine can be a little boring. This is my way of helping make that transition a little more fun. Here are some of the things that I’ve come up with over the years to put out for the first week to ensure that we have something new to explore while…
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What is a New Year?
This whole idea of a new year can be pretty confusing to a preschooler. Nothing feels majorly different – they went to bed one night (probably later than usual) and when they woke up in the morning they were told it was a new year. That can be pretty confusing when you don’t really understand what a year is to begin with. Helping young children understand what a year is has a lot to do with making sure that they understand the calendar, and even smaller unites of time. These are incredibly abstract concepts, and with the exception of smaller units of time (seconds and minutes) they can’t really be…
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One Word Resolution
For the last few years I have found a focus for the year in just one word. The idea is that instead of a traditional resulution, you choose one word that will help you focus your efforts for the year. In 2016 my word was care, and in 2015 my word was celebrate. This year my word is: The last two years have been all about my professional life – new business, new job, and really finding the place that I want to be career-wise. This year my personal life is going to get a little more of the focus because we are welcoming our first baby in June! I…
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Friday Freebie – Ring in the New Year
Happy Friday! It’s the end of another week, and almost the end of the year. I’m trying to squeeze in as much as I can before I have to go back to work, so I’m sure my weekend will fly by way to fast. Today’s freebie is a cute little New Year questionnaire from Carol Miller that could become an annual tradition. Whether you use this with your students or your own children their answers will be cherished! Have a wonderful weekend!
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New Year’s Eve Round Up
I’ve been scrambling to figure out my New Year’s Eve plans, so if you’re doing the same, and your plans include little ones, I’ve rounded up all of my previous New Year’s posts to give you some more ideas. Take a couple of minutes to check these out! Friday Freebie – New Year’s Countdown Explaining Units of Time to Preschooler New Year’s Activities for Preschoolers Friday Freebie – New Year’s Sequencing For even more ideas take a look at my Preschool Holidays pin board, and have a wonderful rest of the holidays!
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Friday Freebie – New Year Countdown
Happy Friday! We are officially into December and I couldn’t be happier about it – I don’t know if I’m more ready for the Holiday, or just for a break. Yesterday I posted some ideas for counting down to Christmas, today’s Freebie is a countdown to the New Year. If you’re planning ahead for your own festivities make sure to add this to your repertoire!
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One word resolution
For the last few years I’ve been practicing what I call a one word resolution. The idea is that you select one word that sums up what you want to work towards for the year (here’s my word from last year). This year, my resolution is simply to care. This sounds really easy right? You might be thinking that that’s not really a resolution. It’s true, I think of myself as a naturally empathetic person, but this is about more than just being caring. When I say that I’m going to care, it covers so many parts of my life. Professionally, I want to make sure that I care…
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Explaining units of time to a preschooler
When we think about time as far as preschool standards are considered, we generally want to make sure that children can sequence daily events (i.e. breakfast comes first, then lunch, then dinner) and understand their own personal histories (“I’m four years old, but my birthday is tomorrow and then I’ll be five”). Because preschoolers don’t have a grat understanding of specific time concepts, explaining the idea of a new year can be really difficult. In the past I just kind of blew over it, not wanting to confuse them, but it felt wrong not to use a common holiday as a teachable moment, so last year I created this What…
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New Year’s Activities for Preschoolers
I always love to share New year’s activities, for a couple of reasons. First, the Christmas let-down is a real thing, kiddos are bummed about the fact that they’ve looked forward to that big day and now it’s over. Planning special activities for New Year’s Eve or New Year’s day is a great way to help them look forward to something else, and realize that just because Christmas is over the fun doesn’t have to end. Second, the idea of a new year is a really abstract concept, celebrating the begining of the new year can help children attach a very real memory to what could otherwise be a vague…
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5 most popular posts of 2015
It’s time to look back and the past year and think about all we’ve done, and what we would like to accomplish next year. I thought I’d take a minute to share the 5 most popular posts of 2015 here at Preschool Ponderings to give you a little inspiration: Get to know me better in September Currently Learn how to make covers for your pinboards in A Pinterest Tip for Teachers Check out some great Stores that offer teacher discounts Explore ideas for Informal Assessments in Preschool Start planning with my First week of Preschool Lesson Plans I always think it’s interesting to look back and see which posts you all…
