New Year, New Goals Foldable

New Year Foldable Activity

I seriously love using this with
fourth and fifth grade during guidance lessons. I start by asking them “what is
a new year’s resolution?” I have found in all the classes I’ve taught this in
that I get such a wide range of answers!  I would have thought that this age group would
have no issues answering this, to my surprise some really struggled.

Once we defined a resolution and
make the connection between a resolution and a goal, we talk about the #1 goal
in America…losing weight. We talk about how people set the goal of no sugar,
no carbs, no junk food, no fast food just lettuce and water for them! Then a week
later they’re shoving face with something delicious. Why doesn’t this goal
work? It’s because it isn’t realistic to think that you are only going to eat
rabbit food and keep everything tasty off your plate. It really makes the fifth
graders understand that goals need to be realistic and obtainable.

As a table, they then talk about
some realistic and obtainable goals that a fifth grader may set for themselves. 

After a few minutes, I pass out the foldable activity. They pick up the piece of paper,
fold it in half with “Goals, 2017” facing outward. They then cut four slits on the dotted lines on the paper making five flaps.

We go through each flap one by one as
a group making sure that everyone understands what is being asked and how to
respond. The activity calls for them to set three goals. I told them the goals
could be anything from academics, school, home, personal or life goals. We talked
about a wide variety of examples and then students were able to set goals for
themselves.

I was surprised by how few students
knew what the word “accountable” meant.  I
like to explain to them that setting goals is great. However if there aren’t actions
and the accountability to follow through with those goals, then it’s not really
a goal it’s just a dream. Dreams are great too but they don’t get you very far
unless you work hard to achieve them.

Not only are the students learning
to set goals for the year, they were learning some new vocab and how to hold
themselves accountable to those goals. I love giving students the opportunity to
make new learning connections and grow their knowledge base.

After we were done and all students
had set three goals, I asked for volunteers to put their foldable on the School
Counseling bulletin board. The rest of the students put this somewhere safe
where they could refer back to their goals whenever they felt necessary.

Here is the start of my bulletin
board, I’ll be adding more as I finish this lesson with more classes.

I warms my heart seeing teachers and
students stop by to read about the awesome goals in fifth grade.