Are you counting down the days until summer break, trying to find low-prep end of the year school activities? Well, friend, you’ve come to the right place! I’m Allie, the Classroom Community Copilot, and I’m sharing my top five end-of-the-year activities that are easy for you, engaging for your students, and will still allow you to make memories. Let me know how many more days of school you have in a comment so we can count down and celebrate together!
How to Celebrate the End of the School Year
This year has been so different in so many ways. One thing, especially as upper elementary teachers, that’s taking a toll is the fact that your class is together in one room ALL DAY, right?! Usually, they switch classrooms for departmentalized instruction and specials and lunch and recess, but now you’re together all.day.every.day, and it’s a lot! It also means that you all may be just a bit too close for comfort, which comes with its own set of behavior struggles.
So, how do you finish strong and make the end of the school year memorable without putting a ton of extra work on your to-do list? I’ve got you covered here and will share my top five end of the year school activities, but if you need more help with your classroom community and want to make it even better next school year, I have a free planner just for you! My Classroom Community Planner walks you through the four C’s of Classroom Community and gives you the opportunity to learn about each one and prepare for it in your own classroom. Click here to download it.
Bittersweet Feelings at the End of the School Year
Each year, I feel ALL the feels as we close out another year. I’m excited to go on summer break, proud of my students and their progress (this is even more evident when the year starts a bit rocky), and emotional to have them leave and end the season as a class family. So I always try to come up with fun end of year school activities to celebrate our classroom community together.
How are you feeling about the end of this school year? I’m so proud of you for the hard work, long hours, and love you poured into your class this year. Even though you may not understand it now or see the fruits of your labor, you have made a HUGE difference in the lives of your students. I love this quote:
“Stand tall, knowing the mountains you have climbed to get where you are now.”
Easy & Fun End of the School Year Activities
End of the Year School Activity: Morning Meeting Choice
If you’ve done Morning Meeting all year (I hope you have!), take some time with your students to brainstorm a list of your class’s favorites on a piece of chart paper. And then try to get to as many of their favorites as possible before the end of the year! I love this because it means less planning for you, and it’ll bring back memories as they do the greetings and activities and more again! It a simple activity for the end of the school year, but it works!
If you’re struggling to find Morning Meeting ideas, go to my Instagram profile and watch my Morning Meeting May highlight! I’m sharing a Morning Meeting idea each day of May! While you’re there, follow for more Morning Meeting and Classroom Community ideas!
3 Activities to Reflect on Your Class Memories
I think it’s important to reflect on your year together before saying goodbye for summer. Even though it’s been crazy and challenging, there are good parts too! One year, I made a memory book for each student with pictures from each month of the school year. It was a LABOR OF LOVE, but they loved it! That being said, you definitely don’t have to do that. If you’re not the Memory Book type, you can still have fun celebrating the year with these end of the school year activities.
Use the website Pixton to create a comic class picture! It’s similar to Bitmoji, where you can customize your avatars and put them together to make a class picture. Look how cute this is! You can print a copy for each student and send a digital version too. Click here to make one for your class!
Look Back On Your Year Together with These Activities
My year in pictures – this end of the year activity can be as simple or complex as you’d like. Here’s a really easy version: give each student a piece of paper or cardstock (if you can get your hands on bigger papers like 11×17 size, that’s even better) and have them fold them, so there are six sections. Have them draw a memory in each section. When everyone’s done, they can take turns sharing the memories or put them up around the room to do a gallery walk.
I recommend taking some time to do Class Compliments to celebrate the end of the school year too! We did this on the whiteboard for each student, but you could do it on pieces of paper too. I had students come up and sit in front of the whiteboard one at a time, and the class would share things they love about that student and write them on the whiteboard around him/her. Then, I took a picture of the student and sent it to the family. I also printed it out for them. But you could send home the paper everyone writes on instead. If you need a template for this, click here for some free Compli-mats you can use!
One of My Favorite End of the School Year Activities for Elementary Students
If you still have a few weeks of school, I highly recommend choosing a chapter book to read aloud to the class, just for fun! For an extra fun element, choose different spots to read the book – at desks, outside, etc. I know the current school guidelines for health may be more strict, but changing it up a bit is fun. I make time for this all year after lunch every day for about 10 minutes. It’s one of all of our favorite parts of the day. No standards, no responses, just reading/listening for fun and getting lost in a book. I’ll link my list of favorite chapter book read alouds here in case you need some ideas!
The Activity of all End of the Year School Activities – Have a Yes Day
Okay, I just watched this movie on Netflix a few weeks ago and loved it so much! Jennifer Garner will always be a fave of mine (thanks 13 Going on 30), and the movie is just so fun! If you haven’t seen Yes Day yet, it’s about a couple who, when they were young, would go on these amazing adventures around the world and say YES! But then, they get bogged down with life and three kids, and the mom spends her days saying, “No.” The three kids are getting in trouble at school and are struggling. So, they get this idea from someone to have a Yes Day, meaning that the parents have to say yes to everything the kids suggest with a few ground rules in place. And you can only imagine the fun they have!
A Classroom Yes Day
Maddie Fairchild @fairchildinfifth on Instagram (one of my faves to follow, by the way) suggested doing a Yes Day for one of the last days of school, and I absolutely LOVE that idea for how to celebrate the end of the school year! She and her teammate asked their students what they want to do (anything within the established ground rules) and made a list. Then, they planned their Yes Day based on what the students wanted, and I know they will all have so much fun and love it!
So, I highly recommend doing that for your classroom too! It doesn’t have to be crazy, but give your students a choice and do what they love! Here are some simple ideas to get them started: a pajama day, pizza at lunch, extra recess, art, games, a movie, capture the flag, etc. All of these activities for the end of the school year are simple to set up and will engage your students even through the end of this crazy year!
How to End the School Year: Prepare for Next Year
Okay, this isn’t technically an end of the year activity, but it’s one of the most important things you can do to set yourself up for success next year. It’s easy to think, “Ugh, I’m so tired. I’ll just reorganize everything when I go back in August.” But, let’s be honest, we don’t have as much time as we’d like in August because of PD and meetings. So, do what you don’t want to do now, and you won’t have to worry about it later. I promise, this will be the best end of the year school activity you do, especially when you get your students involved!
Take Note of What You Did & Want to Repeat or Change
What areas of your classroom did you love? What setup worked the best for you? Did you make a bulletin board that you were proud of and want to do it again? Take pictures of what you did and want to do again. Because even if you jot something down and think you’ll remember, well, just think back to the episode of Gilmore Girls when Rory returns home, and Lorelei has a bunch of notes for her but doesn’t remember what they mean! Hahaha, morale of the story: take photos!
Along with that, do a little brainstorming on what things you want to keep the same and what you want to change for next year. Just remember to put it somewhere you’ll remember – like next year’s teacher planner if you’re on top of that already! If you want to work on your Classroom Community next year, download my free planner to help you with this!
Organize Now So You Can Jump Right In Later
Take the Marie Kondo approach to your classroom, files, and anything else, for that matter! Purge what needs to be purged. Donate anything you didn’t use or want to get rid of. Simplify and organize to set yourself up for success next year. Have the kids help you organize papers and manipulatives!
Speaking of getting the students involved, assign them tasks to clean your supplies and room and take down and organize decor. They are SO capable, and most of the time, they LOVE to help! Also, if you’re staying in the same grade, one end of the school year activity I love is having students write advice to next year’s class! It’s fun and funny to see what they write, and your students next year will love them!
An Activity for the End of the Year You Probably Don’t Want to Do
Plan for your first week of school. Yes, I said it. I promise this end of the year school activity will give you delayed gratification when the back-to-school season hits! And, even better, make your first week of school copies, so you don’t have to fight over the copier. Make sure you add these first day of school morning meeting plans to your list! They’re free and the perfect way to kick off the school year! Wouldn’t it be amazing to be ahead of the game starting a new school year instead of feeling like you have to hurry to catch up?
Even More Upper Elementary Activities for the End of the School Year
End of the Year Activities for Upper Elementary
35 End of Year Assignments and Activities for Every Grade
FREE End of the Year Activities for 4th and 5th Grade
Here’s my end of the year activities video with more details about these activities:
I know these are just a few of the many ways you can end the year on a high note, so I’d love to know what YOU’RE doing to wrap up this year in your classroom! Drop a comment below. I know our community would love more ideas. I am sending you all the love, good vibes, and energy to finish the year strong! Don’t forget to grab my free Classroom Community Planner and print it out before summer break so you can do some learning and planning when you’re feeling up to it this summer. And tag me on Instagram if you use these activities for the end of the year in your classroom!
