Wondering What To Do In Winter? Planning Part 1 - January

It’s cold, and snow days are on the horizon! I love using January as a reset on routines and expectations. I keep my routines the same with no big changes. Students know expectations, but often need a little refresher when returning from Winter Break. Something else I prioritize to start the New Year off right is goal setting! It’s important to me that my students know their goals and help track them. Check out our post below to grab some freebies and planning tips for January. Welcome to Part 2 of our 3 part series for Winter.

January Activity Planning:

The first few days after returning from Winter Break, I like to do a little “Behavior Bootcamp”. During this time, I really focus on our routines and expectations. Essentially, I treat the first week back as I would that first week of school. We practice, practice, practice until things are second nature for them once again. Those two weeks off from school are a long time for little minds and bodies.

Routines we practice:

Lining up, pushing in chairs, walking feet
Sitting at the carpet in our spot for Morning Meeting (or any other time of day)
Transitions from one subject to another – books/materials away where they belong, volume expectations, what to do when you’re ready before your neighbor
Walking in the hallway
Recess and lunch expectations
What to do when you need a pencil, tissue, extra crayon, new dry erase marker, etc.
Early Finisher routines
Tattling/telling
Small group and center expectations (see our Must Do/May Do blog post for this!)

We cover these and so many more! Should I do a separate post on routines and establishing expectations? Let me know!

Wondering What To Do In Winter? Planning Part 1 - January 2

Weekly Activity Ideas:

Monday: Math Monday (graphing, always)

Tuesday: Trace It Tuesday (symmetry)

Wednesday: Write About It Wednesday (directed draw and write)

Thursday: Think Hard Thursday (an activity from our MLK Jr. Bundle)

Friday: Fun Friday (Winter solve by code spelling)

Goal Setting: Start The Year Off Right!

When you look out at the smiling faces in your classroom, you probably can name the goals that you need to target for each student.

Jack needs to work on fluency.
Alisha is working on sight words.
Rasheen is working on comprehension.
And Kylie is working on staying in her seat.

Every child has between 1-3 goals to work on at any given time. And each one is different.

Read more on Goal Setting and grab a FREEBIE in the post below.

Wondering What To Do In Winter? Planning Part 1 - January 3

goal setting blog post 🙂

Celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

In my classroom, we spend the entire month of January celebrating and learning about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I teach my first graders the Freedom, Freedom song, along with a complete unit of activities on the life of Dr. King. See link below.

Wondering What To Do In Winter? Planning Part 1 - January 4

Throughout January, we sing that song when lining up, moving to the carpet, and before and after recess. Students sometimes even break out in song at random times throughout the day. They love this song!

Visit my mlk blog for more + a Freebie

Bingo: Fun Friday, Winter Party, Indoor Recess, etc.

Wondering What To Do In Winter? Planning Part 1 - January 5

My students really, really enjoy playing Bingo! We played Halloween Bingo, Thanksgiving Bingo, Christmas Bingo, so I needed a Bingo for January. We have so much fun while practicing inference and listening skills by playing Winter BINGO!

There are descriptions on the calling cards that I read, and students must listen carefully to determine which Winter picture matches the description.