It really is hard to believe that the end of the school year has arrived. The end of the year always brings a lot of excitement. Students are looking forward to their breaks, and many projects are coming to a close. It is also a great time to break from the routine. Here are some tips to make your last weeks of school successful. Many of these links are affiliate, so if you click on them I may receive a small payment at no additional cost to you.
Keep Your Students Busy
I make sure that my students have fun and engaging projects to keep them busy up until the last minute. My students love incorporating art into their learning, so they love making pop up books about our studies. We usually end the year reading Tall Tales, which they love and they get to make pop up books of them. You can find the complete unit along with the pop up book templates in my tall tales bundle.
Stick to Your Routines
It’s so tempting to throw your routines out the window for the last week or so of school. It’s hard to imagine students being anything but thrilled that the school year is coming to an end, but there will be many who are not looking forward to leaving the warm environment you’ve created for them. I try to limit the in class reminders that the school year is almost over. In the primary grades it’s harder for students to express their emotions sometimes, and it really is better for many of them to keep the same routines. Even though you may be studying different topics, stick to the same general blocks – reading lesson, centers, etc. The center activities can be different, but the routines themselves remain the same.
Memory books are always a fun way to continue with writing activities, and there are many great free memory books online – resources like Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers are filled with them. In addition, games can be a great end of the year review for your math and literacy lessons – everything from versions of bingo (addition bingo, antonym bingo, etc), around the world, and I have who has games are sure to keep students engaged during these last few weeks.
Any lessons that can be moved outdoors are always nice too. Science lessons exploring insects or reviewing clouds are nice, along with a nice read aloud underneath the shade of a tree.
For more tips view my post on how to end the school year strong,
Enjoy!
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