It’s the end of the school year and you’re looking for activities to contain the excitement and finish out the year strong. I asked some other teachers to share with you some of their brightest activities and products that keep the brains going right up until the last day.
Updated May 2, 2023.
This post includes some free and some paid resources and activities. Believe me when I say they’re all top notch activities and resources. As you go through this post, I’ll put the word “Free” after the title of the resource or activity, so you’ll know at a glance if it’s free or low cost.
Word Games for the End of the Year or Anytime
Have you played the popular T.V. game with a big wheel and a glamorous woman in beautiful clothes turning the letters? Yes, that one!
I love idioms, and this game is a perfect way to practice idioms in a fun way. You could use it for famous quotes. It’s a great game for other material you want to review in which the answer can be a sentence or phrase.
Wheel of Wealth Free
Mathy Techy has a free version you can play with your classes. It’s so fun that my family and I played it together and had an afternoon of fun. The best part was when my DH was ready to solve for the answer and he went bankrupt!
This game is quick to download and set up. Plus, Mathy Techy includes detailed instructions and video.
It’s called Wheel of Wealth and you can check it out by clicking on the image above.
LEARNle
This game is similar to the word guessing game that’s so popular right now. You have six tries to figure out a five letter word by putting letters in the spaces. Mathy Techy created LEARNle for you to have fun reviewing vocabulary, science or math terms, or just random words.
Don’t tell the publishers of the other game, but LEARNle is more fun for the classroom. As the teacher, you can create differentiated lists that give your students just the right amount of difficulty for their age and level. It also allows you to choose the length of the words.
You can watch a video of how the game works before you decide to buy it. The video link is in the product description.
End of the Year Letter Writing
I’m all about writing friendly letters. How about you?
Students worry about who their next year’s teacher will be. They would often ask me if I knew. So I decided to let them introduce themselves and put their best writing in a letter to next year’s teacher.
Letter to Next Year’s Teacher Free
This friendly letter writing activity lets your students tell the teacher anything they want him or her to know. They might include something they’re proud of, information about hobbies, or even their hopes for the next school year. When you’re back in the fall, you can pass the letters on to their current teacher. It’s a fun way to close out the year, and it’s free.
Friendly Letter to Next Year’s Students
Students love to give advice to the ones coming up, don’t they? So why not let them do it in writing? The Friendly Letter to Next Year’s Students resource lets them tell the most important things to do in your class. It might be to remember to raise your hand, or it might be to always participate in groups, or it might simply be to relax and have fun.
This packet has several different styles of writing paper for first grade through fifth grade. You can customize it to your class.
Poetry Writing for the End of the School Year
Writing poetry can be a calming activity after field day or end of the year assemblies. Here are two free poetry activities from Angela at Vibrant Teaching.
I love the first one because it helps students gather words and descriptions for the five senses. Doing this before they begin writing will put them in a frame of mind for descriptive writing. By the way, you can use this chart all year long or at the beginning of any poetry unit.
5 Senses Charts Free
After some brainstorming and thinking time, students can create an end of the year poem relating their favorite memories and experiences from the school year, using some of their sensory related words and phrases. I’ve created poetry books by copying and binding the poems and giving them to the students before the last day of school. It’s fun to get autographs from the other class poets, too!
End of Year Poem Free
This end of school year poem is ideal for teachers to give to students. Choose from 3 different designs in both color and black and white. Then print and give to your students or save as an image and send electronically. Below are some additional ways to use this poem.
You could include it in a memory book, roll it up like a diploma and put a ribbon around it, attach it to a gift, or laminate it for posterity.
If your students have written odes, the next two resources from The Problem Solving Teacher are for you!
Ode to School
In this end of the school year poetry students will write an ode that celebrates the best parts of their school year. Odes are meant to exalt and glorify something special and this ode helps students exalt and reflect on the school year in a not-so-average way.
Students can write an “Ode to Summer Vacation” to conceptualize all the things they hope for over the long summer break.
Ode to Summer Vacation
It’s one way to celebrate and glorify every kids’ favorite time of year. Ode to Summer is a great chance for students to reflect on their summer vacation or share how excited they are that summer is coming with summer vacation poetry.
Food Activities for the End of the School Year
Did somebody mention ice cream? All you have to do is say the words, “ice cream” or “hamburger” and your students will be all over the activity!
It Was A Sweet Year Free
It Was a Sweet Year is a super cute ice cream shape book to record the year’s best memories. Once it’s cut out, colored, and stapled together, your students will have a tasty souvenir from this school year. Did I mention it’s free?
How Our Year Stacked Up
How Our Year Stacked Up is an original way to incorporate hamburgers into learning. Students can cut out and color the parts, and then create their hamburger of favorites. You can always count on Happy Hive Homeschooling to add some extras in their products. The extras in this one are bulletin board letters, and hamburger parts to print in color. What a fantastic bulletin board for the end of the year this will make!
End of the Year Awards Ceremonies
What school year would be complete without an awards ceremony? I love doing this activity. It’s a good way to reflect on students’ personalities, strengths, and how much you enjoyed having them in your class. Here are forty editable awards from Vibrant Teaching. Forty are in vibrant color, forty are ink savers, and all are editable.
End of the Year Awards
You can use them year after year. Just input the students’ names, the date, and your name. You can give them out digitally if you’re distance learning, or print them and hand them out in an in person ceremony.
More End of the School Year Activities for Free
I have two more blog posts full of free activities for you to do with your students.
End of Year Activities That Don’t Cost a Dime
End of the School Year Activities That Are Free and Fun
Teacher Break Time
Now that you’ve made it through another school year, I hope you’ll take some time to rest and rejuvenate! It’s time for beaching, not teaching.
You’ll have plenty of time for Professional Development and planning for next year soon enough. For now, I hope you can enjoy a few days for yourself.
Because every teacher deserves time to relax.
Thanks for reading this far! I appreciate you!
