End of Year Things to Consider
Students:
On the last day of school, the kids have mentally checked out, the teachers aren't far behind, and there's no more time
for long-term projects. But, we still need to fill the day with something productive in order to keep the natives from
getting ridiculously restless and out of line.
If you're wondering how to organize the last day of the school year so that it's as fun and memorable as possible,
consider these ideas:
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Write a Letter to Next Year's Students - Ask your students to write a letter to the students you will teach next
year. The kids can offer tips for success in your classroom, favorite memories, inside jokes, anything that a new
student in your room might need or want to know. You'll get a kick out of seeing what the kids remember and
how they perceive you and your classroom. And, you have a ready-made activity for the first day of school next
year!
Make a Memory Book - Design a simple little book for the kids to fill out on the last day(s) of school. Include
sections for my favorite memory, a self-portrait, autographs, what I learned, a drawing of the classroom, etc.
Get creative and your students will appreciate a memory book of their year in your room.
Clean, clean, clean! - Use the power of youthful energy and elbow grease to lessen the cleaning load you face in
closing down your classroom. Kids will love to scrub desks, take down posters, straighten up books, whatever
you ask them to do! Write all of the tasks on index cards, pass them out, turn up the music, and supervise. A
cute idea is to play The Coasters' "Yakety Yak" while they clean. It sings, "Take out the papers and the trash, or
you don't get no spending cash!" Dare them to finish their jobs before the song is over.
Assign Impromptu Speeches - Think of 20 quick speech topics and have the kids choose them from a jar. Give
them just a few minutes to prepare mentally and then call them up for spur-of-the-moment speeches. Fun
topics include "Convince us to buy the shirt you are wearing now" or "How would the school be different if you
were principal?" Click here for a complete list of topics. The audience loves to watch and the speakers will love
getting creative in front of the class.
Play Outdoor Games - Dust off that outdoor games book that you never had time to use this year and pick a few
activities for the last day of school. A great choice is Guy Bailey's The Ultimate Playground and Recess Game
Book. The kids will be antsy anyways so you might as well put their energy and excitement to good use.
Organize Learning Game Centers - The children won't even realize they're learning. Pool together all of the
educational games in your classroom. Split the class into small groups and designate centers in the room for
each game. Set the timer and give each group a certain amount of time with each game. Give the signal and
then the groups rotate around the room so everyone gets a chance to play all of the games.
Focus on Next Year - Give the kids time to write, draw, or discuss how things will be different in the next grade
level. For example, third graders will love to imagine what they will learn, look like, act like, and feel like when
they are finally in the world of fourth grade! It's only a year but to them it seems a universe away!
Hold a Spelling Bee - Hold a traditional Spelling Bee using all of the spelling words from the whole school year.
This one can take quite awhile, but it's certainly educational!
Go Back to Back - Use a safety pin to attach a large index card or thicker piece of paper to each child's back.
Then, the kids go around and write nice comments and memories on each other's backs. When you're all done,
each child gets to keep his or her note with compliments and fun times written on it. Teachers, you can jump in,
too! You just might have to bend down so that they can reach your back!
Write Thank You Notes - Teach your children to recognize and appreciate those individuals who helped make
them successful this school year - the principal, secretary, food service workers, librarian, parent volunteers,
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even the teacher next door! This may be a good project to start a few days before the last day of school, so that
you can really do it right.
Looking Ahead to the Last Weeks of School!
BY SUSAN CURTIS · 03/27/2015
A MiddleWeb Resource Roundup
I remember from my days in New Hampshire that spring brought mud season, complete with bumpy frost heaves
rippling across rural roads as the ground thawed. Then came black fly season that drifted into June, well beyond the last
snows of May. Then a sunny summer finally arrived – and it felt as if we had earned it.
Whether schools in North America have plowed through the last pesky testing period, teachers can expect swarms of
young people experiencing spring fever in their classrooms. At schools not on a year-round schedule, those spring weeks
can be exhilarating for teachers, too, using lessons and activities that capture middle graders’ energy, stretch their
minds and engage their attention. Below are ideas shared by educators to do just that.
Beyond Busy Work
Cossondra George, a veteran teacher at Newberry Middle School in Michigan, suggested in an Education Week Teacher
post that teachers finish the school year not with a slow glide but with a strong climb. Her ideas for having students
evaluate the year of learning through an anonymous online survey offers levels of complexity fitting different ages.
George also shares planning for having students write letters to next year’s class, hosting an in-class awards
presentation, working with students to create a memory book, online or on paper, and more.
In Bringing the School Year to a Strong Finish Mike Anderson homes in on the emotional impact students may
experience as their year ends. Anderson, who spent 15 years teaching 3-5 graders and wrote this article for Responsive
Classroom, provides a collection of activities to prepare students for the transition while keeping their learning on track.
He concludes,
Our school days are so busy that slowing down to think about anything further away than the next week often seems
impossible. But it’s exactly because we’re so busy that we need to think about ways to keep the focus on learning and
community right through the end of the year. Otherwise, we risk losing valuable learning time. And we may deprive
students of that wonderful feeling of bringing their work together to a fruitful conclusion.”
Responsive Classroom, which works with K-6 educators, provides lots more end-of-school blog posts here. See
suggestions for continuing learning and Engaging our students to the end by Principal Carol Hunter at SmartBlog on
Education.
Scholastic offers a lengthy collection, Wrapping Up the School Year, including several blog posts that look really helpful
for middle grades teachers: Genia Connell’s post that provides two upper elementary lesson plans, Brent Vasicek’s
detailed Your Closing-the-Classroom Checklist, Cate Sanazaro’s quick strategy for making next year’s first day fun and
efficient, and Ruth Manna’s Saying Goodbye, suggestions for helping kids with their end-of the-year mixed feelings.
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Year End Stress, Teacher Version
Of course teachers need to tend to their own stress as the year ends, too. Nearly 200 teachers commented on Elena
Aguilar’s Edutopia post, How to Stay Charged During the Final Weeks of School. A teacher for 14 years, Aguilar is now a
transformational leadership coach. In the post she offers specific tips, for example, introducing an engaging project
while maintaining a familiar schedule, providing time for reflection for yourself as well as for your students, and more.
Aguilar concludes by outlining why students’ troubling summer expectations may cause them to act out and suggests
ways to respond that help them and you as the last day nears. In another post Aguilar suggests ways to integrate the
arts into the post-test weeks as a way to bring enthusiasm back into the classroom.
Spring Projects
Writing about Six Engaging End-of-Year Projects for Edutopia, UCLA Graduate School of Education instructor Rebecca
Alber remembers her former high school students’ post-test malaise and suggests remedies that can work for them and
younger students. She points out, “They have to feel as if they aren’t actually doing work. (Yep, you have to trick them!)
And whatever you do plan, three elements are essential: choices, creativity, and constructing.” She recommends
involving students in “Show What You Know,” “On-Campus Field Trips,” “Craft a New Ending” and more, all with
cognitive demands attached. Commenters offer ideas for middle graders as well as those older kids.
Projects take over in May for seventh and eighth graders at Marin Country Day School in Corte Madera, CA. In a 2012
MindShift article, Matt Levinson, then head of the school’s upper division, lists some of the children’s options. Eighth
graders choose one project for the month. Seventh graders rotate among a range of options including one centered on
service learning.
Find a how-to for planning and implementing a three-week service learning project for upper elementary students in
Alycia Zimmerman’s ‘Tis the Season to Do Community Service. Writing in Scholastic’s Top Teaching blog in 2011,
Zimmerman outlines a December project with logistics that could fit just as well in May or June. Along with a step-bystep guide, she provides links to Generationon.org and Learning to Give.
Field Trip Fun and Learning
Imagine yourself surrounded by a busload of middle graders: a never ending nightmare or a memorable spring day filled
with learning? You decide (assuming field trip funding is still a reality in your school district.) Get down-to-earth specifics
for creating a day of academic fun from Amanda Wall’s MiddleWeb guest article, Learning on Field Trips. Wall, a former
teacher, is now an assistant professor at Georgia Southern University concentrating on middle school education. Find
out how Mobile Apps Make Field Trips More Interactive in an Education Week post by Sarah D. Sparks. Laura Devaney
at eSchool News offers a collection of sites providing virtual field trips.
The Cultural Calendar
Brighten spring learning with help from the calendar. Consider exploring Mexican culture through observing Cinco de
Mayo, with Scholastic resources for younger students and a visit to History.com for older kids where the introductory
essay and video are helpful but other resources are irrelevant. May’s Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month is another
option. In addition to learning the history and contributions of Asian and Pacific Islanders in America from a Library of
Congress collection of federal resources, students can see their impact on modern day America with help from a US
Census factsheet. Scholastic provides additional activities.
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Social Studies Dates to Remember
Teachers may want to take a look at Law Day. After President Eisenhower’s 1958 proclamation of May I as Law Day, in
1961 the US Congress declared May 1 to be the nation’s day to celebrate the rule of law. Today the American Bar
Association offers varied Law Day resources which in 2015 focus on the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, providing a
free guide and packet as well as an online video that provides a brief history of the document and an explanation of its
importance to the United States.
A more somber American observance arrives on May 25: Memorial Day. The US Department of Veterans Affairs, Office
of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs, supplies an overview of America’s day to remember citizens who died serving
the country. The document follows the development of Memorial Day with its beginning after the Civil War when many
referred to it as Decoration Day as people decorated military graves. The VA mentions Confederate Memorial Day and
notes that after World War I the national day began to commemorate all military who had died for the nation. In 1971
Veterans Day was declared a national holiday.
More recently Congress created the National Moment of Remembrance which encourages all Americans to pause
wherever they are at 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day for a minute of silence to remember and honor those who died
serving the nation. The VA website hosts a video featuring actor Joe Mantegna, a recurrent host of the annual Memorial
Day concert, speaking about the observance. More videos as well as an overview of the day are available from
History.com. Also find lesson plans at Read Write Think and an infographic posted by Richard Byrne.
Teachers whose school year runs into June or year round may want to celebrate Juneteenth, the holiday that
commemorates June 19, 1865 when American slaves in Texas learned, with the arrival of federal troops, that they were
free following the end of most hostilities with General Lee’s surrender in April. TIME provides an overview. Read Write
Think offers links and an activity to compare June 19 and July 4 using an online Venn diagram.
Find lots more links to historical and cultural events – everything from Stonewall Jackson’s death to Nelson Mandela’s
election as South Africa’s president – on Awesome Stories’ interactive monthly calendar.
Celebrate the Solstice
The Summer Solstice provides learning opportunities for both science and social studies classes. Arriving on June 21 this
year, the solstice marks the year’s longest day in the Northern Hemisphere. The AAAS’s Science Netlinks hosts a quick
audio explanation of why our planet’s 23.5% tilt developed during the period of frequent celestial collisions and how it
impacts seasons. An accompanying post explains why more huge direct hits from space debris are unlikely. Science
Netlinks also provides lessons. National Geographic hosts an enlargeable graphic showing Earth’s revolution around the
Sun. Visit TimeandDate.com for a look at solstice traditions in Northern Hemisphere. EarthSky.org provides a 2012 post
on viewing Stonehenge on the summer solstice.
Lots to Read
Relaxed, post-test reading takes on an organized flavor in Spring. Read Write Think provides resources to help students
dive into books, especially during National Children’s Book Week May 4-10, 2015 (its 96th anniversary!) Kids can vote in
the Children’s & Teen Choice Book Awards through May 3 and hear the favorites announced as Book Week begins. The
Children’s Book Council and Every Child A Reader originated the awards in 2008 so that youngsters could share their
opinions about books written for them. Teachers and librarians can find Book Week resources here.
Over at the Nerdy Book Club, you’ll find Michele L. Haiken‘s idea about how middle schoolers can spend some time near
the end of school “paying it forward” by reading to younger kids. In her case the journey to the elementary classrooms
“is part of an authentic assessment in my Speech and Debate class.” Works either way!
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More Suggestions, from Larry Ferlazzo
You can prepare for the grand finale by referring to Larry Ferlazzo’s helpful suggestions for closing out the year, gleaned
from his own classroom and from his readers. At his Classroom Q&A blog, Larry has posted Ways to Use Class Time
During the Last Two Weeks Of School featuring ideas from
Teachers:
A great way to teach your students about the value of showing appreciation for hard work is to have a class discussion
about why teachers are so special. Follow up this discussion with a few fun activities.
1. Read a Book
Often students don't really grasp the importance of all their teachers do. To help them understand the time and
effort it takes to be a teacher try reading a few books about teachers. Some of my favorites are: "Thank you Mr.
Falker" by Patricia Polacco, "Miss Nelson is Missing" by Harry Allard and "What If There Were No Teachers?" By
Caron Chandler Loveless.
2. Compare Teachers
Have students compare their favorite teacher with a teacher from one of the books you read. Have them use a
graphic organizer like a Venn diagram to help them organize their ideas.
3. Write a Letter
Have students write a letter to their favorite teacher telling them what makes them so special. First brainstorm
ideas together as a class, then have students write their letters on special paper, and when completed, allow
them to give it to the teacher they wrote about.
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Teacher Appreciation Week:
Teacher Appreciation Week is a time when students, parents, and the community take the time to recognize the
dedication and positive impact of teachers. Even though teachers are surrounded by their students each day, they often
lose sight of how important they truly are. Following are twenty teacher appreciation ideas that you can use and modify
to help honor the teachers in your life.
1. Provide breakfast for all the teachers in the school.
Having a nice breakfast waiting for the teachers in the morning can be quite a welcoming way to start Teacher
Appreciation Week. This is quite an easy idea to arrange as a selection of donuts, danishes, and coffee are more than
enough.
2. Give each teacher a gift card paid for by donations or by the PTSA.
One year, our school gave out a $10 gift card to Amazon.com to all the teachers. It was enough to buy a paperback and
was well appreciated.
3. Have students write a letter to their favorite teacher.
One way to incorporate teacher appreciation within the classroom is to have students write a letter to their favorite
teacher. Then you can arrange for this to be delivered either within the school or by post to a teacher at another school.
4. Have students write a poem about their favorite teacher.
One Language Arts teacher at our school had students write a poem for their favorite teacher. This was given a grade,
just like any other poetry assignment. The poem was then delivered to the teacher.
5. Donate to a charity on behalf of the teachers.
This idea works especially well in certain circumstances. For example, if a teacher recently suffered through breast
cancer, then donating a sizable sum to the American Cancer Society in the name of all the teachers of the school would
be a wonderful way to honor them. Alternatively, the teachers could vote concerning which charity they'd like the
donation to go to.
6. Cater a lunch.
Having a lunch catered with non-cafeteria food can be quite a treat. One year, Outback Steakhouse donated an entire
lunch for the school personnel. Even something less fancy can still be quite memorable for the teachers.
7. Have a massage school provide chair massages all week.
Massage schools are quite willing to charge cut rates in order to give their students practice. The massage students can
set up in the teacher work area throughout the week. Then the teachers can sign up and get a chair massage during
their planning periods and lunch.
8. Create a free raffle for the teachers to participate in.
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Have businesses and parents donate prizes and then give out free tickets to the teachers so that they have a chance to
win a nice prize.
9. Create an individual award for each teacher.
This works best if the administration is involved and personalizes a reward for each teacher. However, even if it is not
personalized, teachers can be given a certificate and a small recognition gift at an assembly before the school.
10. Have all the teachers' cars washed during the school day.
This is another well-appreciated gesture. Have a local company or just a group of students wash all the teachers' cars
during the school day.
11. Allow a casual dress day or week.
If the administration agrees, teachers always enjoy the chance to dress in casual clothes for one or more days during
Teacher Appreciation Week.
12. Have food treats available throughout the day.
You can set up a central location like the teacher workroom and have treats like donuts, cakes, cookies, and other treats
available all day long so that students can come during their planning periods.
13. Place a note and candy in each teacher's mailbox.
You can place a special note of appreciation along with some candy in each of the teacher's mailboxes so that they find
it first thing in the morning.
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