As a teacher, I could never decide whether I liked the month of January. So I’ve decided to start a “January Happy List for Teachers.” In other words, instead of focusing on the unlikable parts of January, I’ll focus on the likeable parts! I sure hope you’ll help me by adding to my list!
Smiles,
Diane
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January Happy List for Teachers |
snowpals
snowflakes
Arctic animals
penguins
mittens
hibernation (animals, not teachers!)
hot cocoa
hot soup
snow days
sweaters
fuzzy socks
Super Bowl with snacks
basketball
we have a pj party one day – everyone wears their pjs to school – it is great fun — I do nursery rhymes that week too.
100th Day falls in January in Georgia!!
Pj day with crazy slippers is always fun.
I do a auto show since we live in the Detroit area. The kids make a car from a box as a family project. We run a movie have popcorn as in at the drivein at the end of the day the Parents return and we show each car and give out medals. We spend the whole week on transportation.
WE red The Mitten and then reenact the story using a huge mitten made out of sheets that 12 children can actually fit inside….super fun!
Items I would add to my January Happy List:
partner teachers who share their chocolate stash, doing read-alouds with all my Tacky the Penguin books, teaching students how to cut snowflakes, and chicken noodle soup/grilled cheese sandwich day in the lunchroom.
Martin Luther King Day (even though I live in Canada where we don’t celebrate it, what a wonderful message to teach to children), fresh calendars, the excitement of seeing all the kids again after the holidays and noticing how they’ve changed, blankets, snow ice cream, “beach party” fun (turn up the heat, have everyone change into shorts and sunglasses, dance to summer themed music, bowl with coconuts etc.)
Having students make their own New Years Resolutions and teaching the importance of making goals. love January!
Y’all are the best! Your suggestions for our January Happy list make me, well HAPPY! Thanks for sharing!
We read Going on a Bear Hunt story / song and actual bear hunt in the classroom.
we make dens for our furry friends (stuffed animal or teddy bears) that student bring in and snuggle up in pj’s that day. Great Fun!
I love teaching in January! We learn all about polar bears, make our dome climber into a brown bear’s den, freeze ice in plastic tubs for arctic animal play, explore Chinese New Year, make white goop for the sensory table, and schedule an all-school Winter Carnival at night. The whole family is invited and we decorate, do face painting, waxed paper ice skating, read wintry books, make snowmen and snowflakes and drink hot chocolate with ice cream sundaes! This month offers so many fun, wintry, learning experiences between Christmas and Valentine’s Day!
In Pre-K, we study winter weather in January. We live in the Middle East, so we have to make our own winter-weather fun. Around the middle of the month, we go on a “virtual” field trip to the North Pole. I set up the classroom with chairs to look like the seats on an airplane. I hand out boarding passes when the children enter the classroom and then they find their seat numbers. I project an airplane take-off and landing and then spend the day with the A/C on full. The children are all dressed in coats, hats, gloves, etc (the first time many have worn them). We then rotate through fun activities such as playing with artificial snow, skating with wax paper, building igloos out of sugar cubes, ice painting, listening to winter stories at the Listening center and an ice and water table with plastic arctic animals. We then wrap up the day by having a snowball fight with recycled paper and drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows in front of a “virtual” fireplace. An exhausting but exhilarating day!