The end of the school year can be such a whirl! It always seems like from spring break on, I am running the 400m sprint and it’s definitely not a relay. One thing we loved to do was make the last 24-26 days fun and exciting! We created an ABC End of Year Countdown that helped things stay new, and exciting, with a little bit of an academic focus around each theme for the day.
Each day we focused on something different, but we didn’t make that the focus for the WHOLE day. Sure, there were a few days that were silly, but the academic ones were not an all-day thing by any means. This was also a great incentive for the students to work toward at the end of the day and look forward to! As we all know, behavior can be tricky during the last few weeks.
First, we used the FREE ABC Countdown list to count down the last 24-26 days of school. I have a range listed because, depending on our schedule, sometimes we would combine some days. I tried to pick some activities that were fun and (somewhat) academic.
You can use my countdown list or create your own countdown list! My advice would be to think about what things you typically do at the end of the year or what events you school holds. If you can work those into your days it’s a total win! Less planning for you and fun for the kids!
I have seen some teachers place the daily ideas in envelopes to be opened each day, balloons to be popped each day, or you can do what I did! I simply made paper copies and sent it home so families knew if they needed to do anything special.
We also took some time either at the end of each day or first thing the next morning to write about that day’s activity. This was a great time of reflection for the students while also still practicing writing. You can easily make almost any activity academic by integrating writing. It can also serve as a memory book for your students to document their end of year activities.
Snag this FREE ABC Countdown Writing Journal HERE.
Help students document their school year with this memory book of pictures. They can draw selfie pictures of their favorite school activities from throughout the year! Kick them off by brainstorming a big list of everyone’s favorites from the year. You can work on this memory book by doing on page each day, placing it in a center, or all together!
The End of the Year Flip Up Book is the perfect little activity for your students to be engaged as they finish out the year! This activity easily integrates writing as they reflect on the school year. They get to document their favorites, reflect on how they grew, and even think about goals for the next year!
The Pineapple End of Year Writing Craft is perfect for your students to do a writing reflection activity all while self-assessing their own writing! For each writing convention, the students earn a part of their pineapple. It’s the perfect way to integrate some meaningful writing and be purposeful with an adorable craft at the end of the year!
I hope these freebies and end of year activities will help you keep students engaged, encourage learning through the last day, and make it easy to manage all of your students while they’re super excited!
If you’re looking for more end of the year activities and ideas, check out my post 10 End of Year Activities to Save Your Sanity (With FREEBIES)!
I’m a K-1 teacher who is passionate about making lessons your students love and that are easy to implement for teachers. Helping teachers like you navigate their way through their literacy block brings me great joy. I am a lifelong learner who loves staying on top of current literacy learning and practices. Here, you’ll find the tools you need to move your K-2 students forward!
4 Responses
I love all ideas for ABC’s and site words, colors and songs but I couldn’t get them to download!
Hi Janet! I’m not sure exactly what you couldn’t download. Let me know and I’ll make sure that you get the freebies! 🙂
great ideas
love your ideas