It is not a New Year's celebration without a party hat. All you need for preschool-friendly hats is paper, scissors, a stapler and elastic. Fold pieces of patterned scrapbook paper in half and help children cut slits into the paper, stopping 2 inches from the fold. Staple the ends together and twist the strips around pencils to give them a curled shape. Poke holes through the sides of the hat and tie on a piece of elastic that children use to secure their hats beneath their chins. Once each child has a hat, throw your own classroom party.
Creating colorful New Year's decorations makes your party feel festive and different from a usual school day. Children make decorations and practice their cutting skills at the same time by creating confetti. Give children pieces of construction or tissue paper to cut into small squares, then store the confetti in a box until party time. You may also trace the letters of "Happy New Year!" onto paper and help children cut the letters out. Tape them onto a long piece of string and hang the garland across a doorway.
New Year's is educational if you use it to teach children about time and numbers. Teach children about reading clocks by helping them make their own out of paper plates. Help children write the hours around the outsides of their plates and cut out black paper rectangles to create hour and minute hands. Attach the hands to the center of the plates with brass fasteners so they can move. Also, have children create calendars showing the month of December, then cross off each day leading up to the New Year.
Teaching preschoolers about resolutions helps them look back on the previous year and ahead at the coming year. Help children make resolution boxes by covering shoe boxes with magazine pictures of things they hope to experience in the new year. Once their boxes are done, ask children to draw pictures of their resolutions and tuck them into the boxes. Send these boxes home so children may revisit their resolutions on the next New Year's.