Lessons and Teacher Resources for the New Years
including Chinese New Year and Groundhog Day Activities

New Year’s Lesson Plans | Additional Resources

Introduction:

New Year’s Eve or Old Year’s Night is on December 31, the final day of the Gregorian year, and the day before New Year’s Day. New Year’s Eve is a separate observance from the observance of New Year’s Day. In modern Western practice, New Year’s Eve is celebrated with parties and social gatherings spanning the transition of the year at midnight. Many cultures use fireworks and other forms of noise making as part of the celebration. New Year’s marks the end of a period of remembrance of a particular passing year, especially on radio, television, and in newspapers…. It is also customary to make New Year’s resolutions, which individuals hope to fulfil in the coming year. – Wikipedia

New Year’s Lesson Plans:

• Here are some great New Year’s resolution lesson ideas (2-4)
• Here students complete a mobile of events that were important to them during the year (2-6)
• Here’s an idea for establishing academic New Year’s reflections and resolves (3-6)
• Here’s a lesson for the new millenium! This one involves making millenium mobiles for people (or events) of the 20th century (4-6)

• Students learn how to create the drop cap on the first letter of a paragraph here while reflecting on New Year’s resolutions and goals (5-6)
• This idea involves research, writing and creating a time capsule covering the 20th Century (6-8)
• Middle Schoolers anonymously share their New Year’s resolutions on a bulletin board and in a five-paragraph essay in this lesson (7-8)
  
• Here students write a parody of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” covering the previous year or decade (7-12)
• This is an advanced, well-developed lesson plan on US Foreign Policy in the 1970s and at the turn of the new millennium (9-12)
• This lesson idea is on Ben Franklin’s Virtues, and coming up with virtues for the 21st Century (9-12)
• Not many here yet! If you have any New Year’s lesson plans to share, please add them to our site!

Chinese New Year Lesson Plans:

Chinese New Year Spring Festival, or Lunar New Year is “the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays…. The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first month in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival. [...Traditionally, every family cleans house to sweep away ill-fortune and windows and doors will be decorated with red paper-cuts and couplets with happiness, wealth and longevity themes.] On the Eve of Chinese New Year, supper is a feast with families…. The family will end the night with firecrackers. Early the next morning, children will greet their parents by wishing them a healthy and happy new year, and receive money in red paper envelopes.” – Wikipedia
• Click here to celebrate Chinese New Year with music and lanterns
• This Chinese New Year lesson features an outstanding skit and art projects
• Not many here yet. More lessons on chinese culture can be found on our Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month page and in the resource links below. If you have any Chinese New Year lesson plans to share, please add them to our site!

Groundhog Day Lesson Plans:

Groundhog Day is an annual holiday celebrated on February 2 in the United States and Canada. According to folklore, if a groundhog emerging from its burrow on this day fails to see its shadow, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter will soon end. If on the other hand, the groundhog sees its shadow, the groundhog will supposedly retreat into its burrow, and winter will continue for six more weeks…. [The holiday has its origins in ancient European weather lore, the medieval Catholic Candlemas, and Pagan Imbolc festivals.] The largest Groundhog Day celebration is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where crowds as high as 40,000 have gathered to celebrate the holiday since at least 1886. – Wikipedia

• Children put small, medium, and large groundhogs in order by size in this math lesson (P-K)
• The movie “Groundhog’s Day” is used as a classroom behavior modification tool here (10)
• We need more Groundhog Day lessons! Please add your lessons now! See more resources below.

Additional Resources:

• Search for New Year’s videos, audio files, and activity resources at Hotchalk.com
• Go to EdHelper.com for New Year’s and Groundhog Day Math and Vocabulary Worksheets
• Here are 21 Healthy New Year’s Resolutions for kids
• These are great resolutions for high school students
• Read popular New Year’s resolutions and ways to keep them at USA.gov
• Do you know how New Year’s is celebrated around the World? Here are some additional in-depth country by country commentaries
• This is an article on Time Magazine’s Person of the Year
• Here is the world’s first 3D webcast of the Time’s Square New Year’s celebration
• Learn about the Chinese New Year and the Chinese Calendar here
• Watch videos and learn the history and customs of Chinese New Year at History.com
• Get ready for Chinese New Year with Sagwa at this interactive PBS Kids game site
• Have Groundhog Day questions? Ask Punxsutawney Phil! Or got to this site for more Groundhog Day history.
• Here is an interactive groundhog photo and fact site and a learn-to-read Groundhog Day e-book
• These are great groundhog pictures in the wild and great groundhog facts suitable for older students