End of the Year Lesson Plans and Activities
End of the year lesson plans can help you and your students finish the year right.
By Greg Harrison
I always pay particular attention to beginnings and endings. When my students first come into the room each morning, I always insist on a good start, and reward them with check marks in my "Transitions Box," and bonus points in their "Class vs. Mr. Harrison" game - (I'll explain these classroom management techniques in another article). I also insist on a good ending to the day. The atmosphere in the classroom for those final few minutes before dismissal is what I "bring home" with me, and what the students tend to talk about with their parents. If it's chaotic, loud, and frustrating, I go home feeling like it was a bad day. However, if it's peaceful, positive, and happy, I go home feeling really good about the day.
The end of the year provides you with an opportunity to send your kids home with a good feeling about their school year. The atmosphere in class during these final weeks is what your students will remember once they walk out the door on the last day. As we all know, some of our students get a bit unruly as the end of the year approaches. Additionally, we "loosen the reigns" a bit, and will often tolerate behaviors that we didn't tolerate before. Together, that can be a potent mix which can lead to an unsatisfying end to your year.
Right after my students come back from spring break, I always lead a class discussion about my expectations for the rest of the year, and ask them to share some ways that we can all work together to make sure we have a great last few weeks. I take their ideas and create a "Positive Promises Poster," which is displayed in the room for the remainder of the year. The poster serves two purposes. It is a visual reminder for students of the things that they themselves came up, and also if some bad behaviors or attitudes surface, I am able to walk over to the poster and say, "Marcel, after you apologize to Cathy for putting her down because she got a wrong answer, please tell us which one of our positive promises you just broke." Usually, it only takes a couple of interactions like this before those behaviors cease. This simple classroom management technique will help you to maintain a positive atmosphere in your classroom during those crucial final weeks of the year.
Let's move on from classroom management. Below you will find four end of the year lesson plans that present terrific ways that you can keep your students engaged with meaningful projects, and help them end the year on a high note.
End of the Year Lesson Plans:
A Field Day of games and athletic events is a wonderful thing to do as a whole school. However, organizing these types of events can be a tremendous amount of work. I know because I used to be the Field Day Leader at one of my schools. This lesson plan outlines some simple games and athletic events you can implement if you choose to do a Field Day with just your own class. Or, perhaps you can team up with your other grade level colleagues and have a grade level Field Day.
This would be a terrific activity to do during the last week of school. Students work in pairs and create a PowerPoint as way of saying goodbye to their classmates. Photographs that you took throughout the year are made available to the students, and they are allowed to bring in any that they took as well. This would be an excellent project which would keep the kids engaged and motivated during the last week.
Students create a memory book that is a compilation of pictures and descriptive captions from the school year. This lesson plan is a three to four day project that will require you to provide digital photographs for your students to use. Having a digital camera in your classroom is one of the best things you can have at your disposal to capture those amazing moments before they're gone!
This well-thought-out lesson offers many ways for your students to reflect on the school year that is coming to a close, and to think ahead to next year. There are many excellent ideas presented which describe different types of letters that your students can write to younger students who will be coming into your class, and letters they can write to themselves.