We haven't done a New Year theme before. I wasn't planning on it this year. I had planned a couple activities for the kids to do on New Year's Eve and once we'd done them I thought, might as well make this into a theme. We had a lot of fun with it and I kept thinking of ways we could really expand it for years to come.
Listed below are the objectives I am focusing on for the themed weeks. I have revised our objectives to really hone in and focus on specific skills Carter will need to master before kindergarten and are appropriate to his age and development right now. I plan to continue to implement activities to practice and reinforce our previous objectives while putting more emphasis on our new objectives. Some of them won't necessarily be targeted with specific activities during our weeks, but I wanted to list them to help me remember to practice them continually. I have added working on his name as his teachers at school have asked us to work on it at home and I want to remember to include working on it in some form during each of our learning themes. I'm also adding in a section for Elise now that she is a year old. I don't considers her bullet points objectives, they are experiences I want to make sure to expose her to frequently. Her experiences are listed below Carter as bullet points rather than numbers.
The highlighted objectives below are ones Carter received exposure to during our theme this week:
- Begin to organize and focus on writing. (Dictate stories, plan out a story, draw pictures and scribbles to create a book).
- Understand same and different.
- Accurately tell stories as well as retell the story from a book.
- Use age appropriate scissors. (I'm moving on to looking for a thumb and forefinger grasp with writing tools and holding scissors appropriately)
- Develop a better understanding of time (for example, be able to describe when things happen using morning, afternoon, night)
- Group objects based on a category (sort by defining feature).
- Count with one-to-one correspondence, begin to identify numerals, being to use ordinal numbers (first, second, last).
- Recognize the letters in name, arrange them to spell name, begin to write name.
- Play make believe/Imitate the behaviors of others (adults and children).
- Know the names of and be able to point out body parts.
- Groups things together by size or color/matches like objects, understands hard and soft.
- Names common objects and is able to point them out.
- Begin to hold writing tools and scribble spontaneously. Can draw a line. Differentiates between a circle and square.
- Follows simple instructions (focusing on words such as in, on, beside, under).
- Others: counts to two, refers to self by name. These I want to start to expose her to, but she isn't quite ready to master then yet.
- I wrote our theme, New Year, on a sentence strip. I had Carter count to see how many words were written on the strip. Then I pointed out how many capital letters were on the strip. Next I had Carter count how many lower case letters were written on the strip. He had fun having me segment the words so he could blend the sounds together.
- On New Year's Eve we had a little party to celebrate. Carter thinks you can't have a party without balloons so we played with some balloons. He picked out some weird long ones that were really hard to blow up but with Ty's help we got it done. The kids had so much fun playing with the balloons and pretending they were different things. Carter liked pretending his was an ouchie on his head. Of course they were also swords at some point.
- I put together a sensory bin using the gold confetti that came in my champagne glass award at the Race Into the New Year as the base. Then I put in some scoops that came with our Christmas popcorn, beads, a couple of New Year hats, and cookie cutters to make the number 2017. Carter's favorite thing to do was put the confetti into the big hat and then dump it back into the bin. Sometimes he'd use his hands, other times he'd use the scoops. Elise enjoyed the beads the most and was always running around while wearing them.
- I told Carter how people count down to midnight and the new year and then the ball drops in New York City. We then practiced counting down from 10 so we could have a little celebration. Carter liked attempting it but had a hard time counting down. I wrote the numbers out on paper and pointed to them as I counted slowly so he could do it with me. He kept trying it on his own but had a hard time with it since he isn't as familiar with the numbers above 6. Once he got to 6, he rocked it! We happened to have checked out the book, Ten Sleepy Sheep by Phyllis Root, and in the book they count down from 10. We used the book to help us practice. Carter loved that he was able to tell me what number would come next as we got toward the end of the book.
Reading a book where they counted down from 10. - We talked a bit about morning, noon, and night. Then at the end of the day on New Year's I asked Carter to share what we did that day, sharing the morning, noon, and night of the day. He said we woke up, went to the Polar Bear Plunge, and then ate fondue. We used that information to help us a little as we talked about traditions around the world as well.
- I put the letters of Carter's name on different party hats. Then I showed him the hats and he put the letters in order to make his name. We counted the hats and then looked at the colors to see if there was a pattern. Carter told me what color would come next to continue the pattern.
Carter putting the party hats in order to spell his name. 
Counting the hats. I switched the r's around after we counted so we could determine a pattern. - We also used the party hats to play a hide and seek game. I would hide the hats in a room and Carter would go in and find them. Then he would hide them for me. I had Elise help me hide the hats. I'd tell her to put the hat on, in, beside, or under certain objects and then let her do it. When Carter was searching and found a hat I'd point out where it was using those words with Elise.
- I told Carter that many people come up with resolutions for the coming year at the beginning of the year. I told him that meant they come up with goals or things they want to do in the coming year. I asked Carter what he wants to do in the coming year. He told me, "Stay home and play in the backyard." I think he was more focused on what he wanted to do that afternoon than what he wanted to accomplish during the year and it cracked me up!
- I wrote 2016 and 2017 on a piece of paper and then cut the paper so each number was on it's own little piece of paper. I showed Carter the number 2016 and told him that was the number that represented what year it was last year. I asked him to identify the numerals that made up 2016 and he did. Then I told him this year is 2017 and had him put the numbers in order to make 2017. When he was finished I asked him how the numbers looked the same, he said the 2, 0, and 1 in the numbers were the same. Then I asked them how they were different and he said one had a 6 at the end and one had a 7. I asked him what he thinks will be at the end of the number next year. He wasn't sure so I pointed out the 6 and then the 7 and he said 8.
Carter putting the numbers in order to make 2017. - I had a couple of Scholastic News magazines about Chinese New Year. We read them and completed the chart on the back of one and the graph on the back of the other. While we read we talked about how we celebrate the same as they do and how we celebrate differently. I also checked out a couple of books about New Year's traditions around the world. As we read we discussed what traditions are the same for us and which ones were different. Carter also picked out some traditions we don't do that sounded like fun to him.
The kids looking at a Scholastic News.
- On January 1st Carter helped me change our calendar over to January. We talked about how January is the first month of the year so a new year starts on January 1st. I showed him the upcoming months and had him find the month that starts with the /j/ sound. He immediately chose January. We put it up along with the picture of him and Elise on New Year's last year and a picture of New Year's hats. I didn't get a very good picture of him doing it, so I'm not adding it.
- We talked a little bit about all the months that make up a year. Then I told Carter some of my favorite memories from 2016. I then picked one and planned out my stories sharing with him what happened first, next, and last. I chose our trip to Skyzone Trampoline Park to tell. I asked Carter what his favorite memory was and he couldn't think of anything. I ended up telling him multiple different ones and having him help me plan them out. It will be fun when he gets older to have him write his favorite memory from the year down.
- Elise played with the New Year hat. I asked her to put the hat on different parts of her body as practice. She looked at me like I was crazy so I showed her it on my body. She preferred telling me what body part I had placed the hat on on my body and then putting it only on her head.
Elise putting the hat on her head.
- I wrote 2017 in big block numbers on a piece of paper for Elise to color in. I cut the numbers 2017 out of construction paper for Carter. I had him find the numbers and arrange them to make 2017. Then he glued them on his paper. He wanted to color in 2017 like Elise so I also drew the block letters on his paper for him to color when he was done gluing.
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| A picture my mom took of us on New Year's Eve as they were working. |
Special Snack:
- We had a special dinner of cheese fondue on New Year's day. Elise had a blast saying cheers and clinking her glass. It was so cute to see her do it while remembering Carter doing the same thing just a few years ago. Carter really enjoyed getting to use a fondue fork and being able to dip his food into the cheese all on his own.
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| Group shot before eating fondue. |
Make Believe:
- We pretended it was New Year's Eve at midnight. We counted down to midnight and then would either throw balloons in the air or dump out confetti to celebrate. Carter absolutely loved it. His favorite was dumping out confetti, obviously since that would be the messiest!
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| Thomas got involved and enjoyed dumping the confetti on Carter's head for him which Carter loved! |
- We listened to "Auld Lange Syne" and then danced to it really slowly. I told Carter it is a song many people listen to at the beginning of the year and especially on New Year's Eve.
- I made up a little song for the kids. I'm not sure what the tune was that I sang it to, but these are the words:
Elise is one in 2017,
What a year
it will be!
Carter is 4 in 2017!
What a wonderful
year it will be!
- Carter played this calendar game on Starfall. He enjoyed getting to pick the picture behind the calendar the most.
- We went out for doughnuts for a special playdate to celebrate the new year on January 2nd. Our favorite local doughnut shop does free kids' meals on Mondays which means a free doughnut and drink for each kid. We had fun eating our doughnuts and telling our friends Happy New Year!
- Just in Time for New Year's! A Harry & Emily Adventure
- It's Chinese New Year!
- Squirrel's New Year's Resolution
- New Clothes for New Year's Day
- New Year's Day by Mari C. Schuh
- Happy New Year!
- Bringing in the New Year
- The Next New Year by Janet S. Wong
- My First Chinese New Year by Karen Katz
- Winter by Cath Senker
- New Year Traditions Around the World by Anna Malapina
- Ten Sleepy Sheep by Phyllis Root
- Chinese New Year by Lola M. Schaefer
- New Year's Day by David F. Marx
- New Year's Day by Dana Meachen Rau
- This Next New Year by Janet S. Wong
- Celebrate Chinese New Year by Caroline Otto
- A New Year's Resolution by Liquong Yu
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