Top 10 End of Year Activities for Your Classroom
SOME CREATIVE IDEAS TO COUNTDOWN THE LAST DAYS BEFORE SUMMER BREAK!
Hey there, my fellow homeschoolers and educators! Can you believe the end of the year is already upon us? It’s time to wrap up another fantastic year of teaching and learning. And what better way to do that than by planning some fun end of year activities for your classroom or homeschool?
Read on for our top 10 favorite ideas to keep you and your students engaged, in the fun zone, and maybe even learning a few things! Most of these ideas would work in a traditional classroom, homeschool family, or homeschool group.
1. Awards Ceremony
Celebrate all the hard work and accomplishments of your students with an awards ceremony! Create personalized certificates for each student that acknowledges their individual strengths and achievements throughout the year. It’s a great way to make each student feel recognized and special.
2. Talent Show
Another idea is to have a classroom or homeschool talent show. Students can showcase their skills in singing, dancing, playing musical instruments, acting, or any other talent they possess. It’s a great way to build confidence and promote self-expression.
3. Game Day
If you’re looking for something a little more low-key, how about a game day? Students can bring in some of their favorite board games, card games, or puzzles to share and have some fun while also working on their problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
4. Fun Summer Themed Skill Sharpeners
This Summer Fun Pack contains over 35+ end of year and summer themed activities and worksheets. It’s helped us numerous times this time of year to fill in any gaps during the day with some FUN — and students don’t even realize they are sharpening those reading, handwriting, math skills, and more! These are great for morning work, early finishers, an end of year class party, or staple into books for student gifts!
5. Field Day
This is a favorite of many end of year activities for alot of traditional schools, but not something many homeschool communities may have considered. Field Days are outdoor events featuring multiple games and activities and can be a very memorable experience for students. Homeschool communities can easily recreate this experience with local homeschoolers. I’ve even seen two or more homeschool groups from neighboring communities come together to create amazing events complete with team shirts and photos! A quick Google or Pinterest search and you can find many Field Day activity and game ideas!
6. Create a Memory Keepsake
Don’t forget to take some time to reflect on the year. Have your students create scrapbooks or somehow document some of the memories from this year. It’s a great way to help your students cherish the memories they’ve made and look forward to the future.
This End of Year Fish Bowl activity will capture memories from the year and become loved keepsake! These also look so cute for Back to School Night displayed around the classroom — each student’s fish bowl will be different!
7. Classroom or Homeschool Movie Day
This is a laid back option everyone will love. You could even brainstorm, as a class, a list of movies and then vote on which movie to watch. This would be a great time for students to practice some persuasive writing and then debate skills to present their argument to the class. And, when it comes time for the final vote, don’t forget to use those tally mark and graphing skills!
8. Reflective Writing Prompts
Oh my gosh, I am SUCH a sap for these writing prompts for emerging writers. Looking back on these simple writing prompt worksheets (yet so insightful to their personalities) as my kids get older brings back such amazing memories of them at whatever age they were when they wrote it.
This May Writing Journal pack is NO prep and contains 40 leveled and themed daily handwriting practice with picture prompts and are perfect for practicing tracing and copying words to complete personalized sentences. So easy to do one each day of your last month of school and if you fall in love with them like I did, you can see the whole year of writing prompts here! You can also read more about our writing journey here.
9. Writing Letters to Future Selves
This is a really fun little exercise. Check out our blog post on the Letter to Future Self Project and be sure to grab a free lesson plan to jump start the fun! Students simply pick an age that they would like to visualize themselves as. It could be this time next year, when they graduate high school, when they are all grown up, etc. Have your students take a few moments to really visualize what they might be like at that age. What do they look like? Are there any dreams or goals have they accomplished or are working to accomplish? What sorts of things do they like doing? Students can then write a letter to themselves at that age describing what they think they will be like and also telling that future self all about who they are now and what they hope to know and remember from this past school year. This activity will create a connection between their present and future, fostering a sense of appreciation for personal growth and development over time. Okay, I might be tearing up a little on this one *sniff*!
10. Yearbook Signing
If your school is lucky enough to have a yearbook committee who pulls together these yearly books of school memories, this is a no brainer and a MUST in your long list of choices of end of year activities! Kids have so much fun writing notes to each other and you know these books will be looked at multiple times throughout their lives!
If you’re not lucky enough to have a yearbook committee already in place, creating a classroom yearbook can be fun and relatively painless with many of the online tools and services that offer easy to use templates for designing and printing your own yearbook. The only downside, is this takes some pre-planning and might be more suitable for next year if you haven’t already been doing some of the preparation. It will help to designate a sort of mini-yearbook committee of both parents and students and this group can be responsible for taking photos throughout the year and collecting quotes or memories from their fellow classmates. Don’t forget to involve your students in the creative process and let them have a say in the final product. With a little bit of teamwork and creativity, you’ll have a unique and personalized yearbook that your students will treasure for years to come.
Don’t Forget to Take It All In!
These end of year activities are a great ways to make sure you and your students celebrate their hard work this year and look forward to a well-deserved summer break. But, don’t forget to slow down once in a while and really take it all in! Each year is it’s own little time capsule of such special memories and it’s so important to recognize all the growth, change, and heartfelt moments shared together!
Hi, i'm rebecca,
nice to meet you!
I'm a former marketing director for a Fortune 100 company turned homeschool ringleader and food allergy warrior living in Texas. My favorite things include chocolate, photography, and travel!
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HI, I'M REBECCA,
nice to meet you!
I'm a former marketing director for a Fortune 100 company turned homeschool ringleader and food allergy warrior living in Texas. My favorite things include chocolate, photography, and travel!
The Full Story »
