5 End-of-Year Activities for Your Elementary Students

Friday, April 30, 2021

As the school year winds down, your students are antsier than ever. It’s hard to keep the attention of a bunch of wiggly ones with the weather getting nicer and summer break getting closer. But, there are a few sneaky ways you can weave in some reflection, forecasting, and fun into the end of the school year (even if you're virtual)! Here are a few ideas to get you started.

1. Make time for reflection

The end of the school year brings about reflection, so be sure to spend some time looking back at all the fun (and learning) that happened over the year. There are plenty of ways to make reflection fun – you can have your students journal, play charades or Pictionary to reminisce their favorite memories, or create a “look how I’ve grown” flower for a fun take-home project. Bonus: if there’s a lesson or activity that went over really well with your students during the year, consider reteaching that lesson again for a fun refresher.

2. Lead a field trip to the next grade

Many elementary students don’t realize that the next grade level could be very different from the one they’re in, so organize a field trip to the next grade to help calm their nerves. Coordinate with a teacher from the next grade level, and take a walk down to where the next-grade classrooms might be found so that students can scope them out. If your school participates in looping, prepare an introduction to the exciting things you’ll go over in next year’s class. See what kind of predictions students come up with about what the next grade is like, and spend time answering any questions they may have.

3. Recruit students for classroom demolition

You already have to deconstruct your classroom at the end of the year, so why not have your students help? Children always get a kick out of helping take apart the classroom, so utilize your little helpers, and check this task off your own to-do list. You could use deconstruction tasks to encourage good behavior, such as creating an assembly line of students to pass supplies down the line and organizing a hunt to collect different items and box them up. Consider even using some of your existing supplies as little rewards for students to take home.

4. Take the learning outdoors

This time of year, your students are eager to get outside and play, so take the learning outdoors for a few hours! Create a scavenger hunt for students to look for different shapes or colors, measure things on the playground, or study plant life to help burn off some energy after eating lunch. Learning and taking advantage of the fresh air outside? Sounds like a win-win situation!

5. Set summer learning goals

Talk with your students about how summer is the perfect time to set a learning goal for themselves, and have them pick out a skill or subject that interest them and that they might want to explore on their own. Maybe they want to learn more about volcanoes, maybe they want to learn all their multiplication tables, or maybe they want to read four chapter books before school starts again. Whatever that goal may be, help your students figure out a set of actionable steps to achieve it. If you’re a user of Edmentum programs, be sure to find out how your students can use them all summer long, and send out parent letters to make sure that everyone is on the same page.

Just because the school year is ending doesn’t mean that the hard work you’ve put into teaching all year long has to stop. Check out our FREE downloadable worksheet bundles to send home with your students for extra practice!