A 3rd grader stands in front of a wall of pennants and points to one that says Brave. "I picked Brave," she says, "because I want to raise my hand even when I am not sure of the answer." It is a good reason. It is also the whole point of the kit. A resolution is a list, and a list gets forgotten by February. A word is a direction, and a direction can be remembered in March, in June, in October. The child who picked Brave will still be Brave in May, because the word is on the wall and the tracker is in the folder and the word is hers.
That is what one word does that a list of resolutions cannot. A list is ten things, and ten things are too many to keep. A word is one thing, and one thing is something a child can carry. The pennant makes the word visible. The writing makes the word thought through. The tracker makes the word last. The three together are the kit, and the New Year Goal Setting is built for grades 1 to 8, so the same pennant fits a 1st grader and an 8th grader.
What Is One Word?
One word is a goal a child can actually remember. Not a list of things to do, not a paragraph about self-improvement — one word. The word is a direction for the year: the thing the child wants to get better at, or the way the child wants to be. Brave is a direction. Kind is a direction. Focus is a direction. The word does not say what the child will do. It says who the child wants to be, and the doing follows from that.
Teach the choosing before the writing. A word is not a wish, and it is not a decoration. Ask the class: "What do you want to get better at this year?" Then ask: "What is one word for that?" A child who wants to be braver picks Brave. A child who wants to read more picks Focus. A child who wants to be kinder picks Kind. A child who wants to try new things picks Try. The word answers a real question, and a word that answers a real question is a word the child will keep.
Then ask the harder question: "What will you do with your word?" A word without a plan is a poster. A word with a plan is a goal. The child who picked Brave has to say what Brave looks like: raising a hand, trying a hard problem, speaking up when something is wrong. The plan is the writing, and the writing is the next section.
The Twelve Words
The New Year Goal Setting has twelve My One Word 2027 pennants, and the twelve words are worth knowing before the lesson: Brave, Kind, Focus, Joy, Grow, Calm, Lead, Shine, Hope, Try, Dream, Learn. Twelve words, and each one is a direction a child might need. Brave is for the child who holds back. Kind is for the child who wants to be a better friend. Focus is for the child who gets distracted. Joy is for the child who wants to enjoy school more. Grow is for the child who wants to get better at something hard. Calm is for the child who gets upset easily. Lead is for the child who wants to help others. Shine is for the child who wants to be seen. Hope is for the child who needs something to look forward to. Try is for the child who gives up too fast. Dream is for the child with big plans. Learn is for the child who wants to know more.
Ten decorate-only pennants are also included, for the children who want to decorate without writing, or for the class display. And MY ONE WORD and 2027 letter pennants let the class build a full display: the words on the wall, the letters above them, and the year spelled out for everyone to see.
Let each child choose their word, or let the class choose together. A class with twelve different words on the wall is a more interesting display than a class with thirty identical ones, and the writing will be more interesting too, because the children are writing about different directions. A child who picks a word their friend picked is a child who has not thought about their own year, and the choosing is the thinking. Ask the question, wait for the answer, and let the child pick.
The Three Writing Levels
The writing is the work, not the decoration, and it comes in three levels. Level 1 gives a drawing box and four rows of three-line paper with traced sentence starters. Level 2 gives a sentence starter and eight lines. Level 3 gives twelve lines and two prompts. Three prompts in total carry the writing, and the levels mean the same pennant fits a 1st grader and an 8th grader.
At Level 1, the child draws a picture of their word and writes or traces a few sentences. "I picked Brave. Brave means I raise my hand." The traced sentence starters are the frame, and the frame is what lets a young child do a hard thing. A child who cannot yet write a sentence can trace one, and the tracing is the writing.
At Level 2, the child writes with a sentence starter and eight lines. "My word is Brave. I picked Brave because..." The starter is the beginning, and the eight lines are the space to finish the thought. A child who writes eight lines about their word has thought about it, and the thinking is the goal-setting.
At Level 3, the child writes twelve lines with two prompts. The prompts ask the child to explain the word and to plan what they will do with it. A child who can explain their word and plan around it has set a real goal, and the twelve lines are the evidence.
Keep the levels invisible. The pennants share the same design at all three levels, so a Level 1 pennant and a Level 3 pennant look the same from across the room. Hand them out by table or by name without announcing which is which. Children notice everything, and a child who knows they have the easy pennant will decide they are the easy child.
The Word Bank and the Word Searches
The 60-word bank is the page for the child who cannot think of a word. Sixty words on one page, and the child reads through them until one fits. Teach the bank as a tool, not a test: read the words, circle the ones that feel right, and pick one. A child who cannot think of a word is not a child without a direction. A child who cannot think of a word is a child who needs to see the options, and the bank is the options.
The bank is also the page for the child who picked a word too fast. A child who picked Brave because their friend picked Brave can read the bank and find a word that is actually theirs. Ask the question again: "What do you want to get better at?" Then let the child look at the bank. The second choice is often the real one.
The two word searches are the quiet pages in the kit. They come with an answer key on one page, and they work as an early-finisher activity or a calm page for a loud afternoon. The listing's Highlights section has no Answer Key row, but the contents include a word-search answer key, as listed in the contents. A child who finishes their pennant early can take a word search, and the searching is a calm activity that still practices words.
The Trackers: Keeping the Word Alive
The trackers are the pages that make the word last, and they are the pages most teachers will forget about by February. Do not forget them. The kit has four tracker pages: a monthly tracker for all twelve months, with one to five stars, and a three-level tracker. The monthly tracker is the one to use: each month, the child gives themselves one to five stars for how well they lived their word.
Teach the tracker on the day the pennants go up. Show the class the monthly tracker, and explain the stars. One star means "I forgot my word this month." Five stars means "I lived my word every day." Three stars means "I tried, and sometimes I did it." The stars are not a grade. They are a record, and a record is a promise to look back.
Check the tracker at the end of each month. Five minutes, once a month, is enough. "How many stars did your word get this month? What did you do that earned them?" The child who can say what they did has lived the word. The child who cannot say has forgotten it, and the forgetting is the chance to teach it again: "What will you do with your word next month?"
The three-level tracker is the one to use for the class as a whole. It lets a teacher track three levels of progress — beginning, growing, strong — and see at a glance which children are living their words and which ones need help. Use it at the end of each term, and the pattern will show: the children who picked words that fit are the ones whose stars climb, and the children who picked words that did not fit are the ones whose stars stay flat.
The Bulletin Board
The finished pennants go on a bulletin board, and the board is the audience. Put the MY ONE WORD and 2027 letter pennants above the children's pennants, and let the wall spell out the year. A board of words is a board of goals, and the class will see those words every day for the rest of the year. That is the point of the board: the word is not a January activity. The word is a year.
Put the board up in the first week back, and leave it up. A board that stays up is a board parents see at pickup, and a parent who sees the pennants will ask about them. "What is your word? What does it mean?" is a better question than "What did you do at school today?" and it will get a better answer.
Use the decorate-only pennants to fill the board. Ten pennants, decorated by the children who finished early or by the class as a group, fill the gaps between the word pennants and make the board look complete. A board that looks complete is a board the class is proud of, and a class that is proud of its board will keep its words alive.
What Goes Wrong
The first thing that goes wrong is the word. A child picks a word because their friend picked it, or because it sounds good, and the word means nothing to them. The fix is the question: "What do you want to get better at?" A word that answers a real question is a word the child will keep. A word that answers a friend's choice will be forgotten by February.
The second thing that goes wrong is the plan. A child picks a word and never says what they will do with it. The fix is the writing: the prompts ask the child to explain the word and to plan around it, and the plan is the goal. A word without a plan is a poster. A word with a plan is a goal.
The third thing that goes wrong is the tracker. The pennants go up in January, and the tracker stays in a folder, and nobody looks at it again. The fix is the routine: check the tracker at the end of each month, for five minutes, and talk about the words. A word that gets talked about is a word that stays alive. A word that is only on the wall is wallpaper.
The fourth thing that goes wrong is the level. A child gets a writing level that is too hard, stalls on the first line, and stops. The fix is the map: check the level, move the child down, and let them succeed. A child who finishes a pennant at the right level will ask for another. A child who stalls on a pennant that is too hard will decide the kit is not for them.
Families and the Year
Send one pennant home with a note about what the child picked. "This year your child picked the word Brave. Ask them what Brave means to them, and what they will do with it." A parent who asks about the word gets a conversation about the year, and the child gets to be the expert on their own goal.
The kit is also a good choice for the first week back, as a first-week-back activity that sets the tone for the year. A class that starts the year by picking a word has started the year with a purpose, and the purpose will carry through the spring. The word is the first lesson of the year, and it is a lesson about who the child wants to be.
The two writing pages — My Word for 2027 and My One Word — are the ones to send home. A child who writes about their word at school and talks about it at home has told the story twice, and the telling twice is the remembering. A parent who reads the writing will know what the year is supposed to be about, and the knowing is the support.
Frequently Asked Questions
What grades is the New Year goal setting kit for?
It is written for grades 1 to 8. The pennant writing comes in three levels, so the same pennant fits a 1st grader and an 8th grader. Level 1 has a drawing box and traced sentence starters, Level 2 has a sentence starter and eight lines, and Level 3 has twelve lines and two prompts.
How many pages are included, and what is on them?
The kit has 41 pages: 12 My One Word 2027 pennants, 10 decorate-only pennants and MY ONE WORD and 2027 letter pennants, 3 writing levels, a 60-word bank, 2 word searches with an answer key, 2 writing pages and 4 tracker pages, plus 2 teacher pages and 4 student pages.
What are the twelve My One Word pennants?
The twelve pennant words are Brave, Kind, Focus, Joy, Grow, Calm, Lead, Shine, Hope, Try, Dream and Learn. Ten decorate-only pennants are also included, for children who want to decorate without writing or for the class display.
How does the tracker work?
The kit has four tracker pages: a monthly tracker for all twelve months, with one to five stars, and a three-level tracker. Each month, the child gives themselves one to five stars for how well they lived their word, and the class checks the tracker together at the end of each month.
Is there an answer key?
The contents include two word searches with an answer key on one page. The listing's Highlights section has no Answer Key row, but the word-search answer key is included in the contents as listed.
Can I use the kit with the whole school at different levels?
Yes. The pennants share the same design at all three writing levels, so a Level 1 pennant and a Level 3 pennant look the same from across the room. Hand out the level that fits each child's writing, without announcing which is which, and the whole school can pick a word together.
How do I keep the word alive all year?
Check the tracker at the end of each month, for five minutes, and talk about the words. "How many stars did your word get this month? What did you do that earned them?" A word that gets talked about is a word that stays alive. A word that is only on the wall is wallpaper.
