We’ve almost reached the end friends, and I am proud of us for making it through another school year. The end of the year can be such a fun time with your students, as long as you are well-prepared. Here are 10 fun end of year activities that will keep you and your students busy as we await the summer.
1. End of Year Memory Wall
Clear up a bulletin board and create a memory wall in the classroom where students can share their favorite moments from the school year. Encourage them to write or draw their memories and post them on the wall for everyone to see. If you’ve taken any photos of your class, you could print them and post them here as well. This is such a fun way to reflect on the year and end off on a positive note.
2. Awards Ceremony
Organize a class awards ceremony to celebrate each student in your class. I’ve found that shockingly, even the older grades get a kick out of something like this. If you teach middle school, you could always have them brainstorm some award ideas & nominate others to increase engagement. When I am teaching younger grades, I use my Classroom End of Year Awards because the students LOVE the anticipation of the drumroll and confetti pop when the name comes on the screen. I like to have them guess who the award is going to be before I reveal it.
3. Classroom Olympics
Plan a fun day of competitions and outdoor games. You can divide the class into teams (countries or names they choose) and have games like races, water balloon toss, or any other games your class loves to play. As a middle school teacher, I would take the planning off my shoulders and have the students come up with 1 game to run and organize in their teams that everyone else can compete in. That way, you don’t have to do as much work!
4. Talent Show
Give students the opportunity to show off some of their talents and interests by doing a class talent show. If your close with your grade team, you could do it across the grade or division as well. Students can sing, dance, tell jokes, act, or do anything else they feel their classmates would love to see. This is one of the end of year activities that you should plan in advance so the students have time to prepare!
5. Movie Day
The classic movie day never fails to disappoint. If you tell the students in advance, you can have them bring their own snacks in or provide some popcorn and treats for them to make it one of their favourite end of year activities.
6. Outdoor Scavenger Hunt
This is one of the end of year activities that gets your students outside and engaged with the spaces around them. Create a scavenger hunt around the school, playground or a space outdoors nearby. Provide a list of items the students must find and let them explore and work in teams to complete the challenge. If you want to up the competition, provide some prizes for the first 3 teams to find everything on the list.
7. Play a Game of Win, Lose or Draw
This game comes from my camp counselor days and every class I have introduced it to has LOVED it! It’s also super quick to set up and can be played anywhere. I prefer a larger space outside but a classroom works fine too. It is essentially a game of Pictionary but the students play in small teams at the same time. The objective of the game is to be the team to get to the bottom of the list of words first – meaning, once your team correctly guesses, that player would RUN to the teacher, tell you the word they just guessed and then you give them the next word on the list.
To get set up, you’ll want to have a list of words in front of you – the longer the list, the longer the game! I like to start with easy words and make them get progressively harder toward the end (e.g., sparkle or {your name} doing the hokey pokey 💀). Give each team a piece of large paper and a marker. They should all spread out while you sit in the middle, an equal-ish distance away from them all. To start the game, each team sends one player up to you to get the first word they will be drawing. Then, they will run back to their team and use only the marker/paper (no talking/acting) to get their team to guess the word. As mentioned before, first team to get to the bottom of the list wins!
8. Class Memory Book
This is one of the end of year activities I have done with every grade I’ve taught (3rd to 8th). And believe it or not, even the eighth graders LOVED it. My memory book resource gives them the opportunity to reflect on a variety of different aspects of the year. If you’d like to get involved, I found that they really cherished the “letter from my teacher” page.
9. Classroom Clean Up
Okay, I know this sounds self-serving and very boring for the kids but hear me out. Put a list of cleaning/organization tasks on the board and have students pair up and sign up for something they’d like to be responsible for. Once everyone has a task, put on a fun, upbeat playlist and let them get to work. Once the period or day is over, I would surprise the kids with popsicles or a fun treat they can eat outside to reward their hard work. This can also include jobs for themselves like locker/desk clean out. Examples of tasks you can have your students do:
- Cross-reference the books in your classroom library to the list of books you SHOULD have. Highlight any that are missing and create a list for the students to keep an eye out for.
- Organize the computer cords/charging station
- Organize math manipulatives
- Check all markers & dispose of any that are no longer working
- Reorganize supply station/caddies
- Wipe down and clean mini-whiteboards
- Count the number of materials you have for next year (e.g., leftover duotangs, workbooks, etc.)
- Number/label computers or tech for next year
- Take down bulletin boards
- Hand back work that hasn’t been returned yet
- Wipe down desks
- Sweep corners of the room
- Wipe down shelves
10. STEM Challenges
STEM challenges are perfect for including in your science plans toward the end of the year. Give students activities like building the tallest tower using only marshmallows and toothpicks or creating a paper airplane that flies the farthest. You can include prizes or just do these for fun!
Hopefully these end of year activities gave you some inspiration and ideas to get through the last couple weeks of teaching! If you are looking for something more rooted in curriculum and academics, check out this blog post on projects you can do at the end of the year instead.
