How to Make the Last Few Weeks of School MEMORABLE and PEACEFUL

I know that this time of year often feels like chaos control and just keeping the kids busy/entertained, but it is absolutely possible to still keep your peace & have fun with the kids these last few weeks!

Using a mixture of both strategies (my tips) and activities (all mentioned in this post), you can make these last few weeks count in terms of memories as well as reducing the chaos for yourself.

Tip #1:

Give the students projects or activities that will keep them entertained & independent to give you a little bit of time to organize, clean out, finalize grades, or do some of the millions of other end of year items on your checklist!

Activity Idea #1:

End of year memory activities are an essential for any grade level, if you ask me! Over the years, i’ve done a variety of projects to showcase what we’ve learned throughout the year as well as our favorite activities.  This can be as simple as creating an anchor chart together as a class where every student adds a favorite memory or lesson on a post it OR you could take it one step further and create these groovy flower & peace sign memories so you have a bulletin board display and/or your students have a keepsake to take home! You can grab this exact activity here!

Tip #2:

Let students work towards and earn moving around the room/sitting with friends as they work on these.  While it is a fun time of year, it’s important to still put boundaries in place and let students know that these “fun things” and working with friends are a privilege that need to be earned by following the expectations (so that your class won’t feel like a wild ZOO lol)

Activity Idea #2:

This is the time of year when I love doing projects that integrate art with math concepts we’ve learned throughout the year.  One of my (and my students’) favorite activities is our distributive math projects.  I let students choose ANY topic or interest to them (think sports, food, movies, music, etc) and they visually represent the distributive property with their chosen example.  I have loved seeing the creativity in what the students choose, and they have so much buy in since they pick a topic they love so much! This activity keeps my students locked in & quiet!

You can just show your students examples and explain the directions (no purchase necessary), but if you want premade directions slides, guidelines, and rubrics, you can purchase this activity here.

Tip #3:

Play music while your class works! I love taking song requests, and you can even assign a short activity of having students come up with song suggestions and build their dream playlist.  I don’t know what it is, but there is just something about having your class working but at the same time the teacher and students are all singing along to a song they love.  This just builds core memories/makes for sweet end of the year memories.

Activity Idea #3:

Have students write a letter to next year’s class, telling them things like what to expect, what their teacher is like, and advice to those students.  Again, you can brainstorm as a whole class or you can just have students independently write a letter.  I have a template included for this in the groovy end of year craftivity mentioned above!

I hope these give you some ideas and I hope you find some peace in the chaos that is the end of year! You’ve got this!!!!

Xoxo,

Lauren