This New Year’s Eve countdown activity is fun for kids to create and use. You could use it to the countdown on New Year’s Eve along with this New Year’s Eve customs sheet or use it in centers at the beginning of the New Year. I know that most countdowns start with ten, but I decided we should start with twelve. Twelve is a number tied into New Year’s Eve so much. It just made sense to count up or countdown to twelve.
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Putting the Countdown Ball Together
Our New Year’s Eve countdown ball used only a few supplies. You will need sparkly stickers ( I found ours at a dollar store.) and a small white paper plate. You could have your children uses magic markers, crayons (I think Crayola Glitter Crayons would be great!), or glitter glue pens too. They would add more color and texture to your countdown ball.
Two small slits were cut into the middle of the paper plate prior to decorating it. The number countdown slide would need to be slipped through it. We decided it would be easier to cut before stickers were put in place. It would also make it easier to know where to avoid putting stickers.
You may want to tie a lesson on symmetry to this New Year’s Eve Countdown Activity. We talked about it as we worked on our countdown balls. It was easy at the beginning to try to mirror the stickers from one side onto the other. As the paper plate filled up with stickers, it was much harder.
All the supplies you wanted to have available to your children could be put out all with paper plates and they could just create. You will probably end up with some New Year’s Eve countdown balls filled to their plate edges with decorations and others may be sparsely decorated. What fun it will be to see how each one turns out!
When the plate is completely finished, you can have your children create a countdown strip of their own or you can have some already made. We found that it was easier to write the numbers on the strip when the strip was in the window. We just pulled the strip up a little to write the next number counting down. That way we knew the whole number would fit in the window.
Ways to Use the New Year’s Eve Countdown Ball
There are so many ways to tie the New Year’s Eve countdown ball into learning. I have listed a few below. I bet you can come up with more ways.
Basic Countdown
Slide the number strip down one number at a time to countdown by twelve.
Counting Up
Children can slide the strip up and count up to twelve one number at a time.
Adding Up
Children place a number in the sliding window. Then they can call out a number or roll a die to get a number. They will then move the slide up that number of times to find the sum of the two numbers.
If you like this idea, but want to have your children create a simpler version of it I have one for you. This printable coloring activity may be just what you are looking for.
Here are some other New Year’s Eve Countdown ideas:
How to Make Noise Maker Shakers
New Year’s Drink for Kids- Firecracker Sparkler
How does your family celebrate New Year’s Eve?
how awesome! My kids have been such a big part of New Year’s eve in the last few years. We usually make a very kid friendly party with the same few families every year.
That sounds like great fun!
This is a really fun idea. We never do anything much for New Years.
We started celebrating after we participated in our local children’s museums noon countdown.
Love the simplicity of this and how pretty it turned out!
I am so glad you like it. I wanted this idea to be easy enough for young kids!