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
• End-of-year resources
• Information for teachers

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

End of the School Year Activities

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.

[ Top of page ]

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.