Winding Down: End Of The Year Tips and Activities
June 12, 2014
As a teacher or other school administrator, you’re probably familiar with restless and eager students who can’t keep their mind off of summer vacation. While it’s important to continue teaching students theoretical and practical skills as the year comes to an end, it’s also important to have some fun with your students and celebrate another year of success and hard work.
After months of rigorous planning for day to day lessons and activities, it can be tiring to come up with ways to fill your final days of school. That’s where we can help! The following is a list of some end of year activities that can help you keep students focused and learning while incorporating added fun into your classroom:
1. Student Teaching: As a teacher you’ve worked hard everyday delivering lessons to your students, so let them have a chance to do the same! Divide students into groups and assign topics that you think they’re interested in. Then, advise students on how to research their topic, and set guidelines of what areas they should cover in their lessons. Consider asking students to create handouts or activities to accompany their lesson, then set a schedule where each group gets an equal chance to present their lesson to the class.
2. Write Letters: Dedicate some time for students to write letters to their future selves as well as future students. For future students, ask that your current students tell them their favorite part of the year, favorite activities and favorite subjects, as well as areas that may be a little troublesome and suggest how they can prepare. For letters to their future selves, ask them to write down goals they have and then set them away in a box labeled with the year. Then, a few years later, mail the letters home to students so they can see how much they’ve changed and what goals they have achieved.
3. End of Year Reflection: At the end of every academic year, it’s a good idea to reflect on how the year went. The best part is, you can ask students for help; after all, their feedback is one of the best ways to figure out what you did well and what could be improved. This can either be done as a group (in person) or anonymously through a short survey. Be sure to reiterate to students that their honest opinions are valued and extremely helpful.
4. Student Awards: Celebrate each student by coming up with your own class awards. Make sure that you’ve picked out a unique award for each student, and remember to congratulate them on all of their success as they accept it.
5. Teachers vs. Students: Use the end of the year as way to test your students – but in a fun way! Come up with activities where students can team up against the teacher in academic areas they’ve studied all year. For example, hand out a worksheet of math facts and see who can complete it faster!
For more great end of the year tips and activities, click here.
After you’re done planning and the school year officially comes to a close, your involvement with your classroom doesn’t really end. Once you’ve taken down any classroom decorations and have packed up all your things, take a look around and see if there is anything that needs repairing or replacing. Maybe your desks are a little worn down, or maybe you realize you need more shelving and storage space than you had the previous year. That’s where we come in! At Nickerson Corporation, we have been supplying educational furniture and equipment for over 60 years. We offer a variety of classroom equipment, such as chalkboards, whiteboards, desks, chairs and storage cabinets! Take this summer to transform your classroom into a whole new world for your students next year. For more information, contact us at (631) 666-0200!