Start the new year strong with our FREE January activity downloads! These thoughtful resources blend skill-building with meaningful activities to support kids’ mental health. Whether you’re at home or in the classroom, they’re perfect for inspiring connection, growth, and fresh beginnings. Download now and set the tone for a positive and purposeful 2025!

Here is what's included:

1. X Marks The Goal: A Free Goal Setting Activity

Setting goals and making a plan to reach those goals can help students build a growth mindset, learn how to be resilient and develop decision-making skills. In this lesson, students will learn how to not only set individual goals but also group goals. It is important for students to understand that there are different types of goals and that some goals require a group effort. 

This lesson, X Marks the Goal, can be adapted to fit any elementary or middle school classroom. Age it up or down with your choice of books and vocabulary!

2. A Good Friend Is

Entering into a new year is a great time for children to take time to appreciate their friends and reflect on what it means to be a good friend. To help with this, we’ve come up with a craft that allows children to think about the different traits they believe make up a good friend.

3. Four Favorites

We all know that it’s easier to think of happy things when we’re actually feeling happy. When we’re frustrated, sad, anxious, or angry, it’s much harder to conjure up those things that help us feel happy. But of course, that’s the most important time to access those thoughts!

During a calm time, help children identify what they need to help them feel happy. Encourage them to come up with a list of the top four things that can turn their mood around. If they’re stuck, suggest things like drawing, running, music, dancing, or friends.

A child who has an arsenal of tools to help control his feelings will be better off the next time he’s feeling upset. Just pull out the top five list!

Pssst… you might want to make your own top five list while you’re at it! We all can use help getting out of our slumps from time to time.

4. Friendly Wishes

An important element of social emotional health is kindness. In each interaction, we have the choice to be kind or unkind. Kindness is an outward expression of so many of the social emotional health qualities, such as empathy, optimism, gratitude, compassion, and perspective taking. Even small acts of kindness can ripple and make significant impacts in the world. Research has shown that kindness is contagious; doing good, feels good.

Allow the child to think about friendly wishes for themself, their family, their classroom, their school, their community, their country, and the world. This exercise engenders a sense of connectedness and the power of one to impact the many.