It’s hard to believe it’s already time to break out my favorite end of year activities, but here it is! This is always a bittersweet time of year for me. I’m beyond excited for summer vacation. But, we form a little family during the year, and it can be hard to let them go. In this post, I’ve compiled a large collection of my personal favorite end of year activities!
End Of Year Countdown
You can make your end of year countdown part of your daily routine. This countdown starts at 20 days left of school and goes down to one day of school. The questions require creative thinking, and you’ll need to encourage students to slow down and put some thought into their responses. There are two questions on a piece of paper, and you can easily cut them half to use as task cards. They would make an incredibly fun morning work or center activity! The questions could also be placed on a document camera to help save paper and copies! You can click here for a link to the pack in my TpT store.
End of the Year Student Gift
As I begin to prep for the end of the school year, I like to send home a little momento of our school year with students. A fun end of year activity is to create compliment pictures with word clouds. This is an incredibly cheap and easy way to create something students will cherish for years to come. I give everyone a sheet of paper with our class roster on it. Students must write ONE positive character trait for each child in the class. Once students finish, I like to check over the list for any negative comments and spelling errors. After that, students are able to create their own word cloud. You could always surprise students and make their word cloud for them, but they really enjoy the process.
End of Year Escape
Let students complete one last (or their first) escape activity before the end of the school year with this Escape the School activity. In the first challenge, students solve eight rebus or word picture puzzles. Students are given a recording sheet and use the directions on the recording sheet to form the combination to open the first lock (physical or digital).
Once students complete the first challenge, they are able to begin the second activity in the packet, where they help the P.E. coach give ribbons for Field Day. In this activity, students complete a logic puzzle with two different parts. In the logic puzzle, students must determine which classes participated in which event in the school’s Field Day. Students must also discover what place each class was in on Field Day.
In Clue 3, students must turn in their overdue library books. To find the books, students must identify the book’s title from the quote on the library card. I have provided more than five library cards for this activity. This will allow you to select the best quotes for your students. There are also blank library cards included so you can add a quote from the book of your choice.
In the final clue, students match the school supply icons to clean out their desk/locker/cubby. This is a challenging activity that will certain require students to demonstrate their growth mindset. Once students solve the puzzle, they will decipher the code to escape the school. You can see the activity here!
End of Year Lapbook
This end of the year lapbook is the perfect activity to wind down the school year! It’s low prep and lots of fun, and it’s a special keepsake students can keep for years.
You can use a file folder to make the lapbooks. Fold the right and left side of the file folder so the two edges meet in the center of the folder and make a sharp crease. This way the middle section is large and the sides fold in like flaps.
I love a top-ten list, so I included a top-ten list for students to write their ten favorite things about the school year. I had students glue the list on the left-inside flap. On the right-inside flap students glued three “Polaroid” pictures. I printed those on white paper and had students cut the squares out. In each frame, students drew a picture to reflect a special moment from the school year. Students can also write a hashtag or caption at the bottom of the picture.
In the center section students wrote about what they learned in different subjects. I had students cut out the square and fold the flaps on the solid line. Underneath each subject area, students wrote something they learned during the year. Underneath the square, students added three mini booklets. In the booklets, students complete the sentence stems written on the outside each of the booklets.
The advice letter is my favorite part of the lapbook! There are two options for the advice letter. One option is a shorter template (shown on the picture). Students should complete the advice letter using the included sentence stems. Students will glue this on the outside-left flap. I prefer the longer option (not shown) and have students glue half on the outside-left flap and the other half on the outside-right flap.
Just a little printing allows your students to create such a precious memory book (with a twist)!
End of Year Awards
Students love this End of Year Awards Literacy Activity. This end of year activity is a great way for students to practice making inferences and supporting their thoughts with evidence from the text. Students must give an end of the year award to ten different students. To determine which award each child gets, students must use the text evidence from each of the reading passages.
Option 1
There are two versions to this resource. On one version students cut-out and glue the certificates on the indicated space. The small certificates are adorable, but if you want to save ink, just print the certificate on colored paper and select the grayscale print option.
Option 2
In the second option students design their own end of the year award for each student. This makes the activity a bit more challenging since students aren’t choosing from a set of given awards. You may want to brainstorm possible awards before having students determine the awards used. Plus, you may also want to discuss awards you don’t want to see. Students who are in a hurry to finish choose the easiest and fastest option, without putting any real thought into the task.
In either version, students must use text evidence to justify the award give to each student. You can set the expectation for how much students must write for each of the awards. As an extension, you can assign awards and have students write the passages for the award. The link to the digital version is in the PDF, which you can find here.
End of Year Summer Camp
This Summer Camp Math Project is one of my favorite ways to end the school year. Each of the activities has a summer camp theme. While it’s certainly not necessary for students to have read Holes to enjoy this resource, the ones who are familiar with the book will definitely catch several references.
You have several options within this resource. You can print all pages together as a booklet, or you can print full size pages. Another choice is to assign the entire project at one time and let students work at their own pace. Another option is to assign one page at a time. You can use the tasks for early finishers, as an extension project, or as your primary math lesson. Feel free to skip around and use only the pages you want your students to complete. The choice is yours! The pictures below are just a small sample of what’s included.
There is a digital option for each of the activities, so this can be used for distance learning as well as face-to-face instruction. It’s a perfect way to wind down the school year while maintaining an academic focus. You can find the resource here.
End of Year Activities
In this end of the year pack, there are 15 activities that are truly different from the same old things I’ve been doing for years. The great news is that only three of the 15 activities require extra preparation: Summer Fun task cards, Top Five List, and the ABC Book, and that prep is minimal!
In one activity, students fill out a report card. The catch is that they’re the evaluator, and they get to grade the teacher and/or their school. I obviously didn’t want students just writing down grades in 15 seconds, so they will have to explain why they gave the grades they selected.
I love reading the advice letter students write, which is a classic end of the year activity. There is one blank template and one template with several sentence starters. I’ve found that the sentence starters help keep my students’ letters on track. Otherwise, they can become fairly random.
The summer word search is always a hit, and my students LOVE playing guess the word. It’s perfect for when you have a couple extra minutes, and your students are restless. Summer song synonyms is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE activity in this pack. I use during our last day of school party, and I let parents help their children. It’s always a hoot!
The top five list is a great end of the year activity! It definitely encourages reflective thinking, and it creates a nice keepsake for students.
Another fun end of year activity, are end of year task cards. These are truly SO MUCH FUN! These task cards are sure to be a hit with your students!!
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