Around the Kampfire

Elementary Teaching Blog

  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • My Classroom
  • Shop
  • Contact

10 Favorite End of the Year Activities That Quickly Become Traditions!

May 8 By Linda Kamp 9 Comments

Find 10 of my favorite end of the year activities that will quickly become classroom traditions plus lots of free resources in this post.

Toward the end of the year I start thinking about fun ways to celebrate the last days of school with my students that will also keep them engaged. I want to make the most of that time and give them a send-off they won’t soon forget! These favorite end of the year activities and ideas will make your last week of school memorable and meaningful, but most of all fun! In fact, your students will love them so much you’ll want to turn them into yearly traditions!

I’ve included lots of fun freebies for you in this post so be sure to read to the end!

Start a Summer Break Countdown

Counting down the days until break is one of the most fun things I’ve ever done with my class. (We do this before Christmas Break too!) Make the last 5 days before summer break extra special by surprising your students each day!  Here’s how it works: Roll down an anchor chart to reveal a clever daily gift.

End of the year countdown classroom anchor chart telling daily student gifts for the last week of school

Surprise your students with simple daily treats and matching activity pages. Students use the treats to do the tasks!

Last week of school student gifts

Source: Summer Break Countdowns for Grades K-4

All of the treats are from the dollar store!

End of the year activity page with student gift of cookies

Source: Summer Break Countdowns for Grades K-4

Students save all the pages until the last day of school then staple them together into a book. Inside, they even have game boards that are perfect for a game day.

End of the year activity page with student gift of gummy worms

Source: Summer Break Countdowns for Grades K-4

 

On the last day of school grant your students official “next grade level” status!

End of the year countdown classroom anchor chart telling daily student gifts for the last week of school

Source: Summer Break Countdowns for Grades K-4

I’ve created countdown kits with all the chart parts, activity pages and gift tags done for you! See the kits in versions for Kindergarten,  First Grade,  Second Grade  and  Third Grade

Make Print or Digital Memory Books

picture of end of the year memory book for students with a digital version on a tablet

Source: Print & Digital Memory Book

The half page memory books do double duty! Use the digital version and add photos to create an end of the year scrapbook. Use the printable version as a memory book!

end of the year digital memory book

Source: Print & Digital Memory Book

Make “I’ll Miss You!” Mailboxes

The smiles are always priceless as students read special notes form their classmates telling them why they will be missed! These FREE Mailboxes can be made with empty tissue boxes (but who ever has enough of those!) or by folding a sheet of construction paper in half and stapling the sides.

End of the year classroom mailbox craft for kids to make the last week of school

Download the FREE Miss You Mailbox at the end of this post.

Some years we’ve made these fun superhero themed mailboxes for students to write kind notes and place them in their classmates’ cities.

Child sitting at desk holding notes.

Source: Superhero Mailbox Templates

Celebrate With An Award Ceremony

Celebrate your students and acknowledge their accomplishments with an end of the year awards ceremony. Roll out the red carpet with fabric or butcher paper and make your students feel famous! It means a lot to our students to receive an award from their teacher and presenting class awards to each child ends the year on a positive note and makes them all feel special.

Overhead view of colorful superlative awards to give students

 Source: Editable Student Awards

This set is completely editable and includes diverse and differently-abled children to guarantee you have an award for every child. I’ve even included 20 blank templates for you to make your own!

Pass Out Staff Awards

School staff end of year awards in a superhero theme

 Source: Superhero Staff Awards 

These unique awards are a huge hit with with every year! With lots of different awards to choose from there is sure to be one for all the superheroes on your school staff!

Plan End of the Year Theme Days

Plan a movie day for your students with fun, movie related activities to do!  The FREE Movie Day Menus at the end of this post are a fun way for student to review working with money and to get them thinking and writing about the movie they just watched.

Activity menus for movie day with popcorn

Last week of school theme days are a lot of fun and they help keeps students engaged and behavior at a minimum. Plan a theme for each day during the last week of school and let parents know ahead of time so they can send in the things you might need. We’ve done themes like move day, game day, memory book Monday and photo booth day. I’ve also done a superhero themed week with a super fun award ceremony!

Grab these FREE Movie Day Menus at the end of this post. Find more fun ideas for making movie day educational and more movie day math activities to do with your popcorn!

 Knight Your Students At the End of the Year

Start a yearly tradition the last week of school by inducting your students into the Knighthood of Kindness. Kindness is a pillar of our classroom culture. As teachers, we spend a lot of time building community and teaching our students to be kind and inclusive. I wanted my students to carry this with them as they moved out of my classroom and on to the next grade.

Kindness knights classroom ceremony

Source: Kindness Knights

I do a superhero theme at the end of the year so I tied this ceremony into our theme and it’s been a pretty powerful community building experience. You can tie in any theme you wish and do this ceremony at any time during the year.

During our ceremony a kindness oath is read as each student is “knighted” with a dollar store foam sword. Students promise to be kind in all they say and do. They receive medals and certificates and create a Kindness Knights handbook describing how they Know words are powerful, ways they can Include others, Never forget they have a choice, and to Demonstrate kindness in their words and deeds. KIND.

Kindness Knights castle shaped booklet next to colored pencils.

Click here to see the Kindness Knights Kit.

Set Up A Photo Booth

Kids love to take pictures, especially with their friends. Set up an end of the year photo booth and get photos of your students to send home as keepsake cards.

10 Fun Things To Do The Last Week of School with a Superhero Theme -End of the year activities and ideas to make the last week of school with your students meaningful, memorable, and FUN! Superhero last day of school photo booth.

Source: End of the year photo booth

Parents will treasure these and so appreciate you sending them home. Write a personal note inside for each student to make them extra special.

10 Fun Things To Do The Last Week of School with a Superhero Theme -End of the year activities and ideas to make the last week of school meaningful, memorable, and FUN!

Write Letters To Next Year’s Class

During the last week of school, ask your students to write welcome letters to next year’s class.  Have them describe all the things they will learn and get to do in your classroom. Students can include their favorite things about being in your class to welcome your incoming students. Save all the letters to give you your new class next year!

Stationary to write welcome welcome letters to next year's class

Make End of Year Desk Cleaning Fun

Add desk cleaning to your end of the year activities by making it fun! Turn desk cleaning into a game by graphing the contents inside. You never know what you’ll find and the results are often hilarious! Have students tally the number of each item in their desks and make a bar graph, tally chart, or a line plot depending on your grade. Pick several items as categories and make a class graph on chart paper.

Cleaning your desktops with shaving cream makes a fun game too. Have students draw shapes and name their attributes, draw arrays, and write spelling words before scrubbing the tops of their desks. Shaving cream works wonders for removing name tags and sticky glue residue from your students desks.

Packing up after student leave on the last day can be a daunting task. There are lots of little jobs that students can help with so have your class help where they can. I’ve put together some tips for packing your classroom that make setting up next year so much easier! Be sure to download the free end of  the year teacher checklist in the post.

10 Tips for Packing Up Your Classroom- Smart ideas for end of the year classroom organization and packing that will make set up next year so much easier!

Plan A Memory Book Monday

Set aside Monday during the last week of school and give students memory books they can work on all week. Giving students the chance to chat with their friends as they remember and write about all they have done gives them a sense of closure and a memento from their year with you as their teacher.

Superhero themed end of the year memory book.

Source: Superhero memory books for Grades K-3

I especially like these graphic novel style memory books because students not only write about their school year but about the power of their words, the power of kindness, friendship and respect.

Have A Hashtag Hop

This is such a fun thing to do at the end of the year and YOU end up with a memory book of your own! Create a teacher memory book by having your students do a hashtag hop! Print out pictures you’ve taken during the year and place them on tables around the room. Students then hop to each spot and write a hashtag under the picture.

Students writing hashtags under classroom pictures

Get your class up and moving as they think of fun hashtags to add!

Class memory book for teachers to keep using a hashtag theme.

Source: Class Hashtag Memory Book

Bind or staple the pages together so you have your own teacher memory book. Add a class photo on the cover with your favorite hashtag!

Would you like the free end of year activities shown in this post? I’d be happy to send them to you!

Collage of free end of the year teaching activities

Pop in your email address below and I’ll send them your way! I highly recommend using your personal email rather than a school email address as schools often block outside emails with attachments or images.

I hope you’ve found some end of the year ideas to make your last week of school meaningful and memorable but most of all FUN! Be sure to pin it for later so you have it when you plan!

End of year countdown class anchor chart

Check out these related posts for more end of the year activities and ideas! Click on the pictures to read the posts.

End of the School Year Award Ceremony- Ideas for teachers with a Superhero theme and end of the year activities to make the last week of school meaningful and memorable, but most of all fun! Ideal for elementary kids in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and even 4th grade.

Classroom movie day ideas for first, second, and third grade kids that are both fun and educational. Your students will love the FREE movie day math and reading menus in this post as they use the movie they are watching to review important skills. The movie related activities are ideal for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade teachers to keep students engaged and still learning long after the movie is over!

Avoid these end of the year classroom management mistakes that tired teachers can easily make. These easy ideas for teachers show what you can do instead to keep your students engaged and your classroom running smoothly until the end of the year.

Happy teaching friends!

  • Related Posts:

    • 10 Holiday Classroom Traditions to Start This Year!
      10 Holiday Classroom Traditions to Start This Year!
    • December Activities Even Students That Don't Celebrate Holidays Can Do
      December Activities Even Students That Don't Celebrate…
    • 15 Winter Holidays Around the World Activities
      15 Winter Holidays Around the World Activities

    Share this:

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest

    Filed Under: End of Year Activities, Freebies Tagged With: end of the year activities, last week of school, summer break countdown

    Comments

    1. Jos says

      May 27 at 1:17 am

      How can I get the link to the letter?

      Reply
      • Linda says

        May 29 at 3:23 pm

        Yes, you can find the link to the letters at the bottom of the post.

        Reply
    2. Mandy says

      May 28 at 12:46 pm

      Wonderful ideas! Thank you for the free bundle. I love having the students write letters to the students that will be coming to the class the following year. I look forward to creating the superhero awards!

      Reply
      • Linda says

        May 29 at 3:22 pm

        You’re welcome, Mandy!

        Reply
    3. Stef says

      May 19 at 8:37 pm

      I have tried a couple of time to get the bundle and i can get it to work…

      Reply
      • Linda says

        May 20 at 6:00 am

        Hi Steph,
        I just did a test and the form is working. Are you by chance using a school email address? If so that may be why the bundle isn’t reaching you. I recommend using a personal email address as schools often block outside emails with attachments for security reasons. If that’s not the case, be sure to check your spam and any other folders for the email with the link to the download.

        Reply
    4. emily says

      May 26 at 11:08 am

      How do I get the bundle? I have tried multiple times to get the bundle and its not in my email?

      Reply
      • Linda says

        May 26 at 3:46 pm

        Hi Emily,
        Be sure to check your spam, social, and promotions folders in Gmail. Also if you signed up using a school email address please be aware that schools often block outside emails with attachments. I always recommend using a personal email address for this reason. This should solve the issue and I hope your students enjoy them! -Linda

        Reply
      • Linda says

        June 12 at 10:47 am

        Hi Emily,
        Be sure to check you spam folder and use a personal email address. Schools often block outside emails with attachments.

        Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Welcome!

    Welcome!

    Let’s Keep in Touch!

    • Bloglovin
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest

    Science Planned for You

    science units for second grade

    Get Free Posters

    Free Science & Engineering practices posters article
    end of the school year countdown

    Join the Group

    office supplies facebook group announcement
    free grammar assessments

    Search By Subject

    Get Help Teaching Science

    states of matter books for kids

    18 Awesome States of Matter Books for Kids

    plant life cycle books for kids

    14 Best Plant Life Cycle Books for Kids

    books for teaching about the butterfly life cycle

    21 Butterfly Life Cycle Books For Kids

    landslide science experiment to teach fast Earth changes

    Landslide Science Experiment to Teach Fast Earth Changes

    Topographic map landforms activity

    Topographic Map Landforms Activity for Kids

    article on how to see a plant produce oxygen photosynthesis science experiment

    Breathing Leaves Photosynthesis Experiment for Kids

    Copyright © 2022 // Design by Laugh Eat Learn // Theme by Genesis Framework