Happy New Year

Happy New Year!! It's truly hard to believe another year (and break) flew by. I was able to get some much needed R&R, while also catching up with friends and family. I said this in a recent post, but having this time off is much needed for my soul. I feel refreshed, and sort of, kinda, not really ready to finish off this school year. I literally did NO work this break and it feels GLORIOUS. However, since I'm headed back tomorrow, I did need to take some time today to put together activities for the week. 

If you haven't noticed, I've been riding the theme train this year. It has REALLY helped make planning SO much easier. I know it seems harder with older students, but I think I've been able to make it work. I also have been sticking to one activity for multiple groups. I just make sure everything I find comes in different levels  or easy to modify (not always possible, but I try). Here is what I found for this week. Hopefully you can make it work for you!

1. NewsELA:

I love me a good NewsELA article! The best part is that you can chose which grade level you need based on your students skills. I found this article on resolutions and will be using it with various groups. You can totally target any goal with this. My students mostly have comprehension, vocab, and writing goals so that's where my focus will be. 

Other articles: History of New Years Traditions  OR Origin of Resolutions

2. Creating Resolutions:

In conjunction with the NewsELA article, I wanted to do a resolution writing activity. This is perfect for students up through high school! I also feel like this activity touches on points made in the article (setting specific goals, how you will meet them, time frames, etc..). I love making real life connections! Both trackers look great, so it depends which you prefer. The first one is from Create Teach Share and the second one is from Ashley Rossi (Sweet Southern Speech).

Other Activities: Writing Resolutions and Goals

3. Analyzing Quotes:

I do a variation of these activities each year. For older students who can handle a bit of a challenge (7th gr. +), I created this free quote analysis activity. Students can choose a quote, discuss it, apply it to their own life, etc... If you want, students can also do an included writing activity. 

Some of my students struggled with the higher level quotes I chose for the original activity. so I found some simple quotes and added them to this google slide. I basically found them all on google images, so feel free to find your own! I provided students with sentence starters/strips such as "This quote means..." and "I can apply this quote to my life because...."  

4. Craft:

I mean, who doesn't love a good craft? You can do crafts with older students too! I've done this New Year mobile literally every year since 2012 and the kids love it. Sometimes they take it home, sometimes we use it to decorate my therapy room.  There's some good prompts there too, so not only is it a craft, but you can work on writing too.

There you have it!! I think these can all easily take you at least 2-4 sessions depending on what you choose to do. Personally, I prefer stretching to four ;)

Let me know how it goes for you!