New Year's: One Word

Over the weekend, I blogged about my New Year's Resolution.  After hearing about my dad talk about this book...

I decided I had to try it.  And so far, I'M LOVING THIS!  It gives me a great focus for my year and it's easy to remember!  And since I've shared my word and resolution, I've had several people tell me ways they do this with their families, teenagers, etc, and I just can't believe I didn't know about this sooner!!  {Gonna steal my teammate's family's idea of displaying each family member's word on the mantle for next year!}

So, all of this got me to thinking that surely first graders could do this too! ....so they did!!

We beefed up our ole' New Year's writing this year to focus on one word.

First, we talked about New Year's traditions.  We talked about resolutions and I shared how I chose one word for this year.

Then we brainstormed a list of words they would like to choose as goals for 2015.

After that, I model wrote how I would write about my word: ENCOURAGE.  "In 2015, I will encourage..." and then I did a think aloud to model how I would write ways I could be encouraging: writing nice notes to others, giving compliments....  We also brainstormed ideas for some of the other words they came up with.  Lots of focus on sticking to ONE WORD...because these are six year olds after all! :)

I thought they would do okay, but actually I was *floored* at how seriously they took this project.  Their ticket to their desk was to tell me their word.  Kid after kid, the word was just perfect for what they needed!  I was amazed!  While they started writing, I went around and counted out pennants for them to write their word on.  They got to choose whether to do rainbow colors like me or a pattern.  I made my pennants to wide so they could only be used for 5 letter words max....so here are directions for how I made the pennants with adjusted widths!
     *Cut 1x2" rectangles in whatever color construction paper you want to use
     *Cut the flag part out of the bottom, cutting halfway from each corner.

When I cut the flag part out, I just grabbed a stack of 10-12 and cut at the same time.  It sounds tedious, but it really didn't take very long at all!

Once they had their pennants I had them arrange them on their paper first and then write their word with crayon.

For the kazoos...they are made from construction paper:
     *cut one inch strips of construction paper
     *curl half of the strip with a pencil
     *fold the straight end in half and tape together
     *glue to mouth

I was so happy with how this project turned out!  If you want to see me make the 2 versions offered for this craft, check out this video!




Since this went so well, I decided I needed a way to help them remember their word even after we sent the projects home.  I made pennant labels with their words to stick on their nametags.  The font I used was KG A Little Swag {and it's FREE!!}.  I hope this will be the perfect reminder for 2015!

This was such a fun way to kick off the new semester and I think this *ONE WORD* thing is really going to stick with them better this year!  Find this new year's craftivity HERE.

1 comment

  1. I nominated you for the One Lovely Blog Award!! Congrats!! Here is the link
    http://jazzyhally12.blogspot.com/2015/01/one-lovely-award.html

    Congrats
    Jasmine

    ReplyDelete

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