The end of the year brings testing, finishing up grades, field days, assemblies, and more! Between all of this (plus exhaustion!) it can get hard to continually create engaging lesson plans. Having low-prep, meaningful end of year activities for elementary students to work on independently is SO key! Whether you are distance learning, hybrid teaching, or in person, these printable and digital activities have you covered!
Below are 5 ideas for end of year activities for elementary students. Most of them can be purchased in my TpT shop, but also include some great freebies!
1. END OF YEAR MEMORY BOOK
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 printable and digital templates include:
- Shining Moments
- My Family
- My Friends
- Teachers
- Favorites
- My Classroom
- Successes
- Trip to_____(field trip or vacation)
- Grade ___ Snapshots
- Summer Plans
- Goals for Next Year
- When I Grow Up
- Autographs
The memory book is really flexible! It can be used with any grade (1-6ish) and comes in both a printable and digital format. Use some or all of the templates included to make it your own.
A free sample of the end of year book can be found here.
2. END OF YEAR CRAFT: GLYPHS
I constantly hear from teachers about how much their students love glyphs! They are a great way to for students to learn a little bit about each other while having them create an adorable craft. Display them on a classroom bulletin board or have students take home to showcase on the fridge.
I just added digital version of the Beach Bucket Glyph and the “At the Beach” Glyph too. They lend themselves perfectly to creating individual bar graphs (or one large classroom bar graph) and analyzing authentic classroom data.
3. END OF YEAR CLASS AWARDS:
Who doesn’t love receiving an award!? I love providing students with end of year superlative rewards that are visually appealing with thoughtful verbiage. FIFTY printable and digital End of Year Awards can be snagged for FREE here.
The awards range from highlighting character education, classroom performance, student talents, and more.
The class awards come in both a printable PDF version or a Google Slides version. In the digital version, teachers can type student information right into the text boxes (to share digitally or print out).
4. FILLER & EARLY FINISHER ACTIVITIES
Having quick and fun filler and early finisher activities between assessments is so helpful. This End of Year Activities pack includes End of Year Bingo, End of Year Word Searches, a Kindness Craft, Summer Bucket List, and tons more!
The activities come in both digital and printable formats. This makes it easy to pick and choose which ones you assign digitally and which ones students complete with paper and pencil.
5. END OF YEAR WRITING JOURNAL:
With the end of the school year’s arrival comes lots of excitement in your growing writers. An end of year journal 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. With this activity students get to pick which prompt they want to use to guide their writing that day.
Click the buttons below to check out any of the resources mentioned above!