As the end of the school year quickly approaches, it is important to have fun, meaningful, and reflective crafts and writing activities ready to go for your students. Between testing, report cards, field trips/field days, and more, the end of the year can sneak up on you quicker than you imagined. My first year of teaching I waited until the last week or so of school to do end of year activities. I quickly realized how meaningful end of year activities could be for student reflection (personal, social, and academic). They encourage students to really focus on areas they have grown and on goal setting in areas they still need to work on. After that first year, I always left at least 3-4 weeks to work on a memory book during writing, and then the last week could be for other fun end of year crafts and activities.
Below are a bunch of end of the year activities, crafts, and writing that work great to foster student reflection in a meaningful, fun way.
Full disclosure: They are resources that can be found for $4-5 in my store, but I have also included a great freebie!
1. END OF YEAR GLYPHS:
Students love glyphs! They are a no prep, fun way for students to get creative while learning about each other. They also always make a great end of year bulletin board or wall display. The end of year glyphs pack contains 5 glyphs that include a graduation kid, beach bucket, sun, fish, and beach scene.
Also included are bar graphs for each glyph that allow students to analyze the data that comes from all of their classmates’ glyphs!
2. END OF YEAR MEMORY BOOK (free or paid versions):
After years of completing an end of year memory book with my students, I really can’t imagine not doing one! This memory book includes all of the templates I ever wanted to use with my students in a full page or half page format for mini books.
The prompts included are:
-My Shining Moments (free)
-My Friends (free)
-My Classroom (free)
-My Favorites
-My Family
-My Successes
-Trip to_____(field trip or vacation)
-Grade ___ Snapshots
-Summer Plans
-Goals for Next Year
-When I Grow Up
-Autographs
Along with the templates, I also provide blank writing pages for students to free write about an event/memory, place, or person. They can also use the included “remarkable writer” checklist while they are writing.
3. END OF YEAR BACKPACK BOOK:
This backpack memory book is different from the book above in that although it does include memory writing and how they have grown as people, there is more of a focus on their growth and goals in each academic area. There are pages for students to write about memories and describe themselves as learners in each of content areas (Science, Math, Reading, Writing, and Social Studies). You can see the End of Year Backpack Book in more detail in this blog post.
4. SUMMER BUCKET LIST:
This summer bucket list is a fun, visual way for students to get excited in thinking up their summer plans. Included are a blank bucket for students to draw pictures of things they would like to do this summer, or an option with numbers 1-10 along the side for students write 10 things they would like to do.
5. “HOW I HAVE GROWN” LIFT THE FLAP:
This simple “How I have Grown” lift the flap is a quick reflective writing activity that has students think about how they have grown at home, at school, with their family, and with their friends.
6. END OF YEAR “FIND SOMEONE WHO…” BINGO:
This activity is a great way to get your kids up and moving around. Students find classmates that fit the criteria for each square on their Bingo boards.
7. END OF YEAR WRITING PROMPTS/JOURNAL:
With the end of the school year and summer approaching comes lots of excitement in your growing writers. This is a great way to motivate them with prompts that are applicable to what is currently happening around them. These writing prompts come in different formats, but my favorite is the cut and paste journal option. Student choice is another way to encourage them to write, so with this activity students get to pick which prompt they want to use to guide their writing that day.
These resources can all be found by clicking on the covers below:
