Stop the scroll! You’ll find so many end of the school year activities in this post, you won’t have time for them all. Better yet, they’re all free or low cost.
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It’s the end of the school year and you need activities the will contain the excitement and finish out the year strong. I asked some other teachers to share with you some of their brightest activities and products that keep the brains going right up until the last day. Here’s what we found.
This post was updated on April 22, 2024.
This post includes some free and some paid resources and activities. Believe me when I say they’re all top notch activities and resources. As you go through this post, I’ll put the word “Free” after the title of the resource or activity, so you’ll know at a glance if it’s free or low cost.
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links. This means if you click and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you.
Try Out a Free, No-Prep, Printable End of the Year Escape Room
Remember how time always stood still on the last day of school? It seemed like the bell would never ring for your freedom to summer vacation.
This escape room, The Twisted Time Loop Spell takes it a step further. It seems as though time is running backward! If your students don’t want to be stuck in school until the end of time, they’ll need to solve the puzzles and challenges to escape. You know they’re going to love this!
Word Games for the End of the Year or Anytime
Have you played the popular T.V. game with a big wheel and a glamorous woman in beautiful clothes turning the letters? Yes, that one!
I love idioms, and this game is a perfect way to practice idioms in a fun way. You could use it for famous quotes. It’s a great game for other material you want to review in which the answer can be a sentence or phrase.
FREE Wheel of Wealth
Mathy Techy (who is a super innovative seller on TPT) has a free version you can play with your classes. It’s so fun that my family and I played it together and had an afternoon of fun. The best part was when my DH was ready to solve for the answer and he went bankrupt!
This game is quick to download and set up. Plus, Mathy Techy includes detailed instructions and video.
It’s called Wheel of Wealth and you can check it out by clicking on the image above.
LEARNle
This game is similar to the word guessing game that’s so popular right now. You have six tries to figure out a five letter word by putting letters in the spaces. Mathy Techy created LEARNle for you to have fun reviewing vocabulary, science or math terms, or just random words.
Don’t tell the publishers of the other game, but LEARNle is more fun for the classroom. As the teacher, you can create differentiated lists that give your students just the right amount of difficulty for their age and level. It also allows you to choose the length of the words.
You can watch a video of how the game works before you decide to buy it. The video link is in the product description.
End of the Year Letter Writing
I’m all about writing friendly letters. How about you?
Students worry about who their next year’s teacher will be. They would often ask me if I knew. So, I decided to let them introduce themselves and put their best writing in a letter to next year’s teacher.
FREE Letter to Next Year’s Teacher
This friendly letter writing activity lets your students tell the teacher anything they want him or her to know. They might include something they’re proud of, information about hobbies, or even their hopes for the next school year. When you’re back in the fall, you can pass the letters on to their current teacher. It’s a fun way to close out the year, and it’s free. Join the over 5,000 teachers who have used this with their classes!
Here’s what happy teachers are saying about the Letter to Next Year’s Teacher:
My students really enjoyed writing this letter to their third grade teachers. They were really excited by this activity! —Shannon C.
My students loved writing a letter to their new teacher. They were even able to present and read their letters to the next year’s teacher too! — Lori L.
My students loved getting to reflect on their year, the planning page was visually engaging for students and the prompts significantly helped their quality of writing for introduction to their teacher next year. I look forward to giving their new teacher their letters. — Ann G.
My students enjoyed this. We put it in their portfolio at the end of the year. — Kathryn N.
Friendly Letter to Next Year’s Students
Students love to give advice to the ones coming up, don’t they? So why not let them do it in writing? The Friendly Letter to Next Year’s Students resource lets them tell the most important things to do in your class. It might be to remember to raise your hand, or it might be to always participate in groups, or it might simply be to relax and have fun.
This End of Year Friendly Letter Writing packet has several different styles of writing paper for first grade through fifth grade. You can customize it to your class.
Poetry Writing for the End of the School Year
Writing poetry can be a calming activity after field day or end of the year assemblies. Here are two free poetry activities from Angela at Vibrant Teaching.
I love the first one because it helps students gather words and descriptions for the five senses. Doing this before they begin writing will put them in a frame of mind for descriptive writing. By the way, you can use this chart all year long or at the beginning of any poetry unit.
FREE 5 Senses Charts
After some brainstorming and thinking time, students can create an end of the year poem relating their favorite memories and experiences from the school year, using some of their sensory related words and phrases. I’ve created poetry books by copying and binding the poems and giving them to the students before the last day of school. It’s fun to get autographs from the other class poets, too!
FREE End of Year Poem
This end of school year poem is ideal for teachers to give to students. Choose from 3 different designs in both color and black and white. Then print and give to your students or save as an image and send electronically. Below are some additional ways to use this poem.
You could include it in a memory book, roll it up like a diploma and put a ribbon around it, attach it to a gift, or laminate it for posterity.
Food Themed Activities for the End of the School Year
Did somebody mention ice cream? All you have to do is say the words, “ice cream” or “hamburger” and your students will be all over the activity!
FREE It Was A Sweet Year
It Was a Sweet Year is a super cute ice cream shape book to record the year’s best memories. Once it’s cut out, colored, and stapled together, your students will have a tasty souvenir from this school year. Did I mention it’s free?
How Our Year Stacked Up
How Our Year Stacked Up is an original way to incorporate hamburgers into learning. Students can cut out and color the parts, and then create their hamburger of favorites. You can always count on Happy Hive Homeschooling to add some extras in their products. The extras in this one are bulletin board letters, and hamburger parts to print in color. What a fantastic bulletin board for the end of the year this will make!
End of the Year Awards Ceremonies
What school year would be complete without an awards ceremony? I love doing this activity. It’s a good way to reflect on students’ personalities, strengths, and how much you enjoyed having them in your class. Here are forty editable awards from Vibrant Teaching. Forty are in vibrant color, forty are ink savers, and all are editable.
End of the Year Awards
You can use them year after year. Just input the students’ names, the date, and your name. You can give them out digitally if you’re distance learning, or print them and hand them out in an in person ceremony.
Back to School Webinar Handout
Put this one in your back pocket to review when you start planning for next year. Laura Candler has been one of my go-to teacher authors for research backed, unique, and engaging, classroom activities since the year 2001. (Yes, since before TPT was even a thing.) I trust anything published by Laura in my classroom. This webinar is hosted on her website, and it’s free, my friend.
Don’t hesitate to check out the webinar and see what great ideas she has to offer.
Back to School Webinar Handouts (FREE) by Laura Candler | TPT
More End of the School Year Activities That Are Free
I have two more blog posts full of free activities for you to do with your students. Check them out! Choose the best and save the rest!
End of Year Activities That Don’t Cost a Dime
End of the School Year Activities That Are Free and Fun
Teacher Break Time
Now that you’ve made it through another school year, I hope you’ll take some time to rest and rejuvenate! It’s time for beaching, not teaching.
You’ll have plenty of time for Professional Development and planning for next year soon enough. For now, I hope you can enjoy a few days for yourself. Save this image to your Instagram if you’re going to be beaching, not teaching!
Because every teacher deserves time to relax.
Thanks for reading this far! I appreciate you!
