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Veteran teachers know well the difficulties of school's final
weeks. Students' minds are on vacation, grades have been earned
and recorded, the summer heat distracts, books must be collected,
and supplies ordered. Adding to those problems is the fact
many schools want you packed and ready to vacate your room
for cleaning or moving. Plus, attending retirement parties
and looking for summer employment create a high level of stress.
To ease this, Alan Haskvitz recommends the sites below for
end-of-the- year activities. In addition, visit his selected
employment
sites for job opportunities oversees or around the United
States.
Remembering closure is a learning experience, so consider
having students organize their notes and review what they've
learned in the form of a play or scrapbook. In addition, have
them predict their future and place their prediction in a
self-addressed envelope. Mail it to them a few years later.
Some students may have moved, but many find the letters a
great way to rekindle memories and motivate themselves.
Although some of the following ideas may be young for high
school, they can be modified by adjusting the materials. For
example, a high school English student could write a poem
about their future in the style of an individual studied.
A history student could write a fictional account of a future
leader based on character traits of those studied. Even physical
education classes could find the students developing futuristic
dances for a planet with limited gravity. In other words,
if students are motivated, the end of the year can be a large,
organized and relaxed time.
Other ideas include:
- Create a summer safety poster.
- Make autograph books.
- Write an ode to the classroom.
- Write a letter to next year's class.
- Make a memory or scrapbook to use next year.
- Create a words-of-wisdom poster for next year's students.
- Write a letter to next year's teacher.
- Have students use a large sheet of butcher paper or bulletin
board paper to create a timeline listing what they learned
this year.
- Create a play that tells the story of the year.
Finally, make sure you use all that student energy to help
you clean and prepare the classroom for next year.
Activities to keep students
interested
ABC
Books Aren't for Babies!
Create best-of books by having students compile lists such
as most endangered animals, fastest runners, largest people
. . .
End-of-the-School-Year
Poster
Field
day lesson plans
Guinness
World Records
Create a Guinness Book of Records based on the past year.
Student can write about what they learned in terms of records
such as longest research project, most talkative student,
best math student, most pencils sharpened...
Puzzlemaker
Make puzzles about students' names.
Reading
Activities for Read-In! Day
Use these 12 ideas to keep them reading.
Summer
Food Safety Quiz
Time
Capsule
Make a time capsule about what the students learned this year.
You might even consider making it an individual time capsule.
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End-of-year resources
End of Year Planning
Graduation
Resources Online
More primary school ideas
General list of ideas
Learning
Up to the Very Last Minute
Includes ideas to take learning outside
Making
the Most of the Dreaded End-of-School Days
Primary end of the year ideas
The
Teacher's Corner
We
Are Moving on Up
You must view this - it's filled with exceptional activities.
Wind
Up Learning as the Year Winds Down
Get ideas you can use to motivate students.
[ Top of page ]
Information for teachers
Certificates
& Memories
Download and print certificates for students.
Dealing
with End-of-the-year Stress
It's
the end of the year as we know it.
Spend some time on yourself while finishing up and planning
for next year.
Look
Forward by Looking Back: End-of-the-Year Assessment
Seven steps to end-of-the-year assessments
Snapshots
of the Year
Get end-of-the-year bulletin board ideas.
You
don't need to change how you teach to improve assessment scores
See our huge list of assessment helpers that includes rubrics,
sample report card comments and teacher evaluation help.
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