End of Year Activities For Elementary Students

Reporting is done. Everything set in the curriculum has been taught – well almost… and there’s a spirit of carefreeness in the air. It’s perhaps nearing the End of the Year or School Term, and you’re looking forward to the much-needed school break.

Some common questions teachers may have during this time are:

• What should I do with my class at the end of the year?
• What are some good closure activities?
• How do you celebrate the end of the year?
• What are the activities for end of the year party?

There are many fun End of Year activities that incorporate thoughtful reflection in addition to promoting subtle learning. In this blog post, I’ll outline three fun activities.

End of Year Activities – A Scavenger Hunt

The end of the year is also a time for students to reflect on the academic year.

What could be more fun than an End of Year Scavenger Hunt?

In this Scavenger Hunt, students find the question cards to answer them.

I hide the cards in the most difficult of places in the classroom. In fact, the harder to find – the better – as students get so excited just looking for them. Best of all, the questions are short, sweet, and to the point which makes writing all the more fun!

And if you are not teaching face-to-face, then the digital Google Slides version comes in handy. Students will type in their responses to the 20 self-reflecting questions on the school year.

One advantage of this digital version is that there is no printing and no prep time. I simply assign the activity to my students using the link via Google Classroom.

End of Year Activities – A Memory Book

An End of Year Memory Book is a valuable keepsake.

Best of all, if the Memory Book is a flipbook, that makes the writing process more interactive and fun.

This Memory Book records information for the current year.

There are three sheets featuring prompts that require students to write about themselves and memorable moments of the current year.

My students love filling in the Autographs Sheet. They have messages from their best friends to treasure and reflect upon the year.

The last sheet in this Memory Book requires students to write about next year too. It gives them a chance to reflect on what they would do differently the next school year.

No doubt, this is a good reminder to keep students focused on their goals for the next school year.

End of Year Activities – A Summer Assignment

Helping students beat the summer slide should be factored into the curriculum too.

Other than reading and number sense activities to prevent the loss of learning, students must be given fun crafts and other end of year activities to take home and work on over the summer or school break.

The Summer Wheels craft activity is a self-reflecting writing activity. Students write on the following prompts:

• Name and age
• The best place I visited this summer.
• The best book I read this summer.
• The best movie I saw this summer.
• The best game I played this summer.
• A memorable moment.
• A family fun day.
• If I could start summer again.

These wheels not only make an interesting summery bulletin board display but are a great ‘Show and Tell’ activity on students’ first day back to school. It’s fun for students to turn the wheel, read, and share about what they’ve written.

To sum up, these end of year activities not only enable students to reflect on the school year but also provide the teacher with an overview of the effectiveness of teaching and learning that took place throughout the year.

Free End of Year Activity

Out of the three End of Year activities mentioned in this blog post, my favorite is the Scavenger Hunt! I love to read what students have written in response to the 20 self-reflecting questions.

Perhaps, you would like to use this fun end of year scavenger hunt activity with your students too!

Shop the Post

Who said that all teaching and learning in the classroom has to be strictly aligned to the set curriculum? Incorporating the theme of major celebrations can be an effective teaching and learning medium.

This bundle of 20 celebration-themed scavenger hunts targets reading and writing activities. Besides students are informed about the history, culture and tradition of fun celebrations.

There’s one scavenger hunt for almost every month of the year.

That’s added learning fun, and you could say – a breather from the prescribed curriculum – and aligned to it!

Need further reading? Read how to ban the boring and teach writing that’s interesting!