Scratch Art (New Year)

This lesson worked really well and the children really enjoyed it, especially as they had no idea what the finished product was going to be!

First of all, we cut an A4 page into a square (about 20cm by 20cm).

Then everyone coloured in their square using oil pastels. I encouraged them to make it as colourful as possible and to use smaller blocks of colour.

When we had this done, I told the children we were going to paint over it in black paint (this really got them wondering what I was up to!)

We let the paint dry over the weekend. The following week everyone used a lollipop stick to scrape out a New Year message with fireworks and /or scene. This could also be done around Halloween for fireworks.

A really nice lesson and quite easy really!

New Year Activities

Unfortunately, the Christmas holidays are coming to an end....they never seem long enough. Here are some of the activities I will be doing the first day back to ease the children (and myself) back into school.

New Year's Resolutions

Always a good way to get children thinking how they can make changes to their lives at school, home and in the community.  The free differentiated templates can be downloaded here.  It can also be a good activity to remind children of how to present their work (use of capital, punctuation, cursive writing etc.)

Nollaig na mBan/Women's Little Christmas (History)

If you are returning to school on the 6th of January, it is traditionally known as 'Women's Christmas'. There is a lovely powerpoint that you could show the children available on nollaigshona.ie

New Year Prayer

 I do this at the start of the school year, but usually do it in the New Year also. 

Free Writing

It is a nice way for children to recap on their holidays before sharing it with the rest of the class. I usually set a timer for 10-15 mins to give them a chance to write about their holidays.

Happy New Year everyone!