At this time of year it’s not only the buzzing of bees outside that teachers start to notice. It’s also the buzzing of excitement, giggles, and maybe a few wiggles, inside the classroom. These are all signs that spring is full swing and that the end of the school year is coming near.
While teachers may want to embrace the excitement of the end of the school year as much as their students, first they have to survive the end of the school year. If you are a teacher who needs ideas on how to survive the end of the school year, you are in the right place!
Classroom Management Strategies for Elementary School
If there was only one thing we could share with you about how to survive the end of the school year it would be to start with reviewing classroom management strategies. Yes, the same strategies you shared with your students during the first week of school.
The end of the school year is not all that different from the beginning of the school year. It’s a time filled with excitement and uncertainty. Only, at the end of the year students know one another and may be more chatty during class. Not to mention, the promise of summer break can quickly draw attention away from learning.
These are just a couple of reasons why revisiting classroom management strategies is our first survival tip. Revisiting classroom management will help teachers survive the end of the school year. It will also benefit students because it reminds them of what and how to focus on their learning – even amidst the distractions.
At the core of effective classroom management are 6 focus areas:
- Positive relationships
- An Inclusive Classroom Environment
- Routines and Procedures
- Student engagement
- Student accountability
- Time management
Revisiting Management Strategies
While you may not need to review all six of these focus areas at the end of the school year, we bet that most teachers and students could benefit from student engagement. One key piece to creating student engagement is providing students with clear expectations. Therefore, student engagement goes hand in hand with classroom routines and procedures. Routines and procedures are also great for reinforcing time management.
Today, we are going to share with you some of our favorite end of school year activities. These activities support student engagement, routines and procedures, and time management. These learning activities will give you everything you need. You can not only feel like you are surviving the end of the school, but you and your students can also be thriving!
Even though we are not focusing on all six areas of classroom management in this blog post, you can learn about all six of these focus areas in our classroom management toolkit. For today though, let’s prepare for another successful end of the school year with the activities below!
End of Year Read Alouds
If you have been a part of The Core Coaches community for sometime then you know read alouds are one of our core routines for the classroom. We first saw the success of implementing a read aloud routine in our own classrooms. And we continue to see this success through the feedback we receive from the many teachers who use our read alouds in their own classrooms!
There are two ways in which a read aloud helps create a classroom routine. The first is in how students set up for reading time. Every classroom approaches reading time differently. However, we can use a few questions to think about how a routine may look in the classroom.
- Do you have a reading area, such as a carpet, where you read the story together?
- How do students move to and from the designated space?
- What are the rules or expectations for reading time?
Using these questions as a guide, think about the reading routine and procedure you have in your classroom. Then, consider taking a day or week in April or May to briefly review the expectations of this routine as you move toward the end of the school year.
The second way to build a routine with your students for reading time is to use the same read aloud format for every book. This provides students with a clear understanding of what they will encounter when reading a new text. In turn, this gives students a clear understanding of the learning expectations and helps them engage in their learning.
Read Alouds as an End of Year Routine
If you have been using our read alouds throughout the year, your students will already be familiar with the format and structure. However, even if this is a new format for your students it is easy to implement. Therefore, whether it is a new routine or one you’re reviewing, your students will be engaged. Furthermore, using fun picture books related to this time of year will get kids even more excited to read!
End of Year Books for First Grade
The books below are perfect for reviewing reading routines with your first and second graders. Moreover, each one of these books has ready to teach lessons that goes along with it. This means less planning for you which helps with time management at this busy time of year.
End of Year Books for Preschool
In addition to being great books for first and second graders, many of the books above are also great for kids in preschool and kindergarten. We also have some favorites specifically for preschoolers!
End of Year Teaching Activities for Kids
While reading is great to review routines and procedures with students all year, it’s not the only way to get engaged learning. We have also explored several learning activities to see which best keep students engaged until the last day of school.
The absolute BEST way we have found to keep students engaged (and teachers sane) is our Countdown to Summer resource packet. This magical resource is designed specifically with the last 10 days of school in mind. Because, we all know those last two weeks of school are the hardest to keep students engaged!
10 Days Until Summer Countdown Activities
This amazing resource provides teachers with 10 ready to teach lesson plans that cover different subject areas. That’s right, in one resource you’ll find ways to engage students in literacy, math, and science right up until the last bell. Not to mention, plenty of art activities!
Below is a quick overview of the different lessons students can engage with over the course of ten days. Take a peek and see which ones you think will keep your students most engaged!
Countdown to Summer 10 Day Lesson Plans
- Summer Safety Day
- Weather Day
- Germ Day
- National Parks Day
- Aeronautics Day
- Game Day
- Nature Day
- Summer Holidays Day
- Water Day
- Reflection Day
Each of these days includes lessons in core content areas so that students are continuing to learn until the very last minute. Here is an example of the layout for each day. This example is from the Summer Safety Day.
- Reading: Safety Text Cards, Safety Book Suggestions, Safety Tips Graphic Organizer
- Writing: How to Stay Safe While Riding a Bike, Summer Safety Flip Book
- Math: Telling Time, Time for Sunscreen
- Science Activity: How Well Does Sunscreen Work?
- Art: Sun-melted Recycled Crayons
- Additional Activities: Pool Safety Posters, Sunscreen Commercial, Safety Word Search
There is also additional flexibility in how you implement each day. Every day can be implemented as a printable or digital version. You could choose one format for all ten days or mix it up. But remember that students do well with routines. So, by using the same format (printable or digital) you are giving students a familiar routine which will help with engagement and classroom management.
As with our read alouds, we created this resource to help teachers in all grade levels survive the end of the school year! In addition to the Countdown to Summer Lesson Plans for 1st and 2nd grade above, there is also a Countdown to Summer Survival Kit for 3rd and 4th grades.
End of Year Digital Activities for Kids
Our Countdown to Summer Survival Kit is the best of the best when it comes to surviving the last two weeks of school. We know that many of you will find need to re-engage students earlier than that. Therefore, we have compiled a list of some of our other amazing activities. These are perfect for student engagement at the end of the school year.
Interactive Learning Quests
Like our read alouds, our interactive Learning Quests are great for student engagement and also for revisiting routines. Each quest is designed around the same structure. Therefore, the more that students engage with these Learning Quests, the more familiar they become with the learning expectations. This means they are less likely to get distracted from learning.
If you have never used one of our learning quests, don’t worry. These are easy to introduce to students at any time of year. Moreover, kids love these quests so much that they will be excited to learn about and with them – even at the end of the school year.
Here are some of our favorite interactive learning quests to use at the end of the year.
End of Year STEM Activities
Another great way to engage students in a familiar learning routine is through STEM projects. Yes, even if it’s a new routine!
Moreover, STEM activities are a great way to engage students in hands-on learning that is not digital. Why? Because we know it’s important to provide students with variety. If using STEM in your classroom is new, not to worry. Just like our read alouds and learning quests, we provide detailed lesson plans for every project. In addition, you can also learn more about how to teach STEM over on our blog.
Are you looking to engage your students in a new way to explore science? Do you want to re-engage them this spring? Here are some of our favorite STEM activities for the end of the school year.
Preschool End of Year Activities
In addition to the dozens of end of year activities for first and second grade students, we also have several amazing activities for preschoolers. (Because preschool teachers need help surviving the end of the school year too!)
Above, we shared our favorite end of year read alouds for preschoolers. In addition, our exploration stations, math and literacy centers, and STEM projects are all meaningful activities for preschoolers.
Below are some of our favorite engaging activities that we know will keep your preschoolers engaged during those final weeks of school. Each themed bundle has a circle time activity, exploration station resource, math and literacy center activities, and a STEM activity. Everything a preschool teacher needs to save time planning and enjoy the end of the year, while the kids continue to learn.
Survival Tips for the End of the Year
At the beginning of this post we said that returning to classroom management is the key to surviving the end of the school year. What did you notice as you read through the activities we suggested? We never referred to rules as a classroom management technique. This is because the rules rarely work – especially if you start trying to enforce them at the end of the school year.
Therefore, we focused on sharing lessons and activities that will engage students and help you manage the classroom through effective routines. Moreover, all of the activities above have already been planned for you. This will help you have more time to manage students. You’ll also have more time to engage with students in the learning process.
Whether you choose to use one or all of the ideas we shared above, we hope that you remember to enjoy the end of the school year. And remember that you will survive!
