During this cozy month, I want to show you how to re-energize your students! Believe it or not, but National Days are the star of the show. I select certain national days in January and create morning meeting questions around the holiday and choose a picture book to complement the day.

January 3rd is National Straw Day, a playful celebration perfect for engaging students back into school mode. Start the day by reading Straw by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, a delightful story about embracing patience and teamwork. Spark discussions with morning meeting questions like, “Do you like drinking out of a straw?” or “What shape would make for your straw invention?” You could even have a straw tower challenge to really make it a thematic day. If you are like me you would probably stop at the book and morning meeting questions. 🙂 Last thing, sometimes really good national days are on weekends. Guess what, I will still celebrate during the week. The kids will never know. 🙂 

Here is a list of my fav NATIONAL DAYS for January!

January 3rd : National Straw Day : Straw 

January 4th : National Spaghetti Day: Spaghetti and a Hot Dog Bun

January 5th: National Bird Day: Ruby’s Birds

January 6th: National Technology Day : Nerdy Birdy Tweets

January 11th: National Milk Day: Milk Goes to School

January 13th: Korean American Day: The Name Jar

January 17th: Martin Luther King Jr. Day : My Daddy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

January 18th: Thesaurus Day: Boris Ate a Thesaurus

January 19th: National Popcorn Day : Lets Pop, Pop, Popcorn

January 20th: National Cherry Pie Day: How to Make a Cherry Pie and see the USA

January 24th: Peanut Butter Day: Big Brother and Peanut Butter

January 31st: National Backwards Day : Brunhilda’s Backwards Day

Want to share with other teachers and parents? Here is a pdf of the book list. 

Besides National Days in January, we focus on the picture book Blizzard by John Rocco. Here in California, we do not know about snow storms. Blizzard is a heartwarming picture book based on the author’s childhood experience during the historic Blizzard of 1978. The story follows a young boy who, after days of being snowed in, takes it upon himself to journey through the deep snow with homemade snowshoes to bring food and supplies to his neighbors. 

If you want more lists, you can visit my amazon store and search January National Days and the book list will pop up! 

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