New Year’s Activities for Teens

Are you looking for New Year’s activities for teens or your middle school students after the holiday break? Hopefully you relaxed and enjoyed a much needed, much deserved winter break! Now, it’s time to start thinking about what you will conquer when students return in January. Are you sick of “New year, new me?” I hear you! Here are a couple of fresh New Year’s activities and ideas to do with your middle school ELA students. Start 2022 off right!

New Year’s Activities for the New Year

First, capture your students’ attention the second they walk in the door to your classroom with these eye-catching morning and afternoon slides:

Secondly, rather than having students write resolutions for the new year, have them write positive goals for themselves. For example, instead of them saying, “I won’t have any failing grades this year,” they can say, “I will try my hardest to complete all of my academic work to the best of my ability.” Students should strive to write goals that reflect positive attributes they will try to add to their lives. This is better than writing what they won’t do or what they will stop doing.

Some students may not feel comfortable sharing their goals with their peers and maybe not even with you. Consider leaving their goals ungraded and instead, have them write goals or resolutions as though they are a favorite character from a novel! Students will enjoy pretending they are a favorite character. You can easily grade this assignment without making anyone feel uncomfortable.

Third, students (and teachers) will return to school out of sync. They will probably need to ease back into routines after such a long break. Their stamina will also most likely be low and they will struggle to stay concentrated for long periods of time. Check out this engaging New Year’s Celebration Digital Escape Room. This New Year’s activity is sure to keep your students interested while they are learning:

Lastly, provide students with one of these KWL charts: New Year’s Ball Drop KWL Chart or a General K-W-L chart. Use these charts as they watch this short clip explaining the history of the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball drop:

Hopefully these ideas will help you have a successful first month back in the classroom. Do you have any other favorite classroom activities to kick off the new year with your kiddos? Be sure to let me know what they are so I can add them to the list! Best of luck to you and yours in 2022!