- Help kindergarten students see New Year as a time of looking forward by having them begin a journal. Printing their names and the date inside will help their writing skills. Ask them to draw pictures of things they look forward to in the coming year, or have them cut out pictures from magazines of scenes that remind them of the past year to make a collage page. Use the journal for homework projects, drawing, or writing practice. The book will be a keepsake they can look back on not only next New Year but also years from now.
- Since winter continues after New Year and many places have snow for a few more months, create winter scenes in the classroom to celebrate the season. Cover a wall with a mural of children sledding, ice skating, and making snowmen. Have children draw their ideas of winter fun or trace images with stencils. Decorate windows with paper snowmen and snowflakes made from folded paper with cutout designs to brighten the view outside. Use vivid colors to help ward off the winter doldrums.
- Help children prepare to celebrate New Year's Eve by making hats from paper twisted into a point and cut with a rounded bottom edge so the hat will fit properly. Punch holes on either side and tie elastic thread to secure the hat under the chin. Stretch a banner across a classroom wall saying "Welcome, New Year." Attach school photographs and drawings showing activities in which students have participated over the past year or events in their lives such as having a new sibling. Begin a dialogue on the good things from the past year and things they look forward to next year.
- Study New Year traditions from other lands and have children draw scenes to represent what they've learned. Citizens of many countries take part in rituals designed to invite luck in on the first of January, with many performing ceremonies relating to food. Hoping for a long life, the Japanese typically consume long, thin soba noodles while trying not to break them. Those celebrating the Spanish New Year eat a grape for each stroke of the bells of midnight. Residents of Brazil who believe lentils represent prosperity eat lentil soup or lentils with rice on New Year's Day. Learning about cultural traditions in foreign lands helps children understand what the holiday means to people around the globe.
