Happy Getting Closer to New Year’s Eve!

I realized that some classroom teachers may feel that they cannot stop for a New Year’s celebration with their students because the activities might not align with the frameworks. So today I am going to suggest some ways you can celebrate the New Year and stay within your curriculum guidelines.

Last night I told you that when I was in the classroom we toasted the New Year with hot chocolate. We actually made our hot chocolate from scratch and it was a math lesson because the children were measuring the ingredients, but I realize that may take more time than you have so we will pass right over that idea. Buy some packets of hot cocoa mix that can just be poured into the cup. Also purchase some mini marshmallows (colored ones are more fun than just white ones) and some whipped cream.

Have your students put the hot cocoa mix in their own cups. You can add some hot water to their mix and then they can choose to keep their hot chocolate plain or add marshmallows or whipped cream.

After you have toasted the New Year and your students have finished their hot chocolate give each of them a mug cutout (link is at end of this blog) and ask them to decorate it. Then ask them to draw some hot chocolate in the mug. If they left their real hot chocolate plain, they should leave the hot chocolate in their picture plain. If they put marshmallows in their hot chocolate, have them glue a couple of small pompoms to their picture. If they put whipped cream on their real hot chocolate have them add some cotton batting to their picture.

Cut along the side of a grocery bag until you reach the bottom of the bag. Continue cutting around the bottom of the bag until you have cut off the bottom of the bag. You should now have one long strip of kraft paper. Hold the paper the long way. Write the graphing question, "How do you like your hot chocolate?" on a sentence strip and glue the strip across the top of your kraft paper.

I have created some labels for this graph for you. Print the labels out and glue them along the left side of the kraft paper. Have your students glue their mugs in the appropriate rows on your graph.

Ask questions such as "How many students in this class like plain hot chocolate? Do more students prefer whipped cream or marshmallows in their hot chocolate?

Which choice had the most? the least? How many students don’t like hot chocolate?

See how easy it was to turn your New Year’s toast into a math lesson! Please let me know if you have been using any of my templates so I will know if I should continue to create them.

And once again....Happy New Year from The Learning Tree Store! Oh, and here are the links to the hot chocolate activity.