It’s getting to that time of year again.  You know the time.  Students are bored and restless.  You are stressed and frantic with reporting.  And you all need a break!  Today I’m going to give you a break – I have some easy, low-to-no prep end-of-year activities for students.

So take a breath, click the links, and make your end-of-year easier with these fun activities.

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#1 End-of-year activities for students – The Daring English Teacher

The first end-of-year activity bundle we have is this one by The Daring English Teacher.  The activity bundle has over fifteen activities you can use anywhere from the last month of school to the last day of school.  

Included in the bundle are    

  • class survey
  • class pennant banner
  • summer coloring page
  • snapshot project
  • my favorites of the year
  • social media reflection
  • top 10
  • survival list
  • classroom commercial
  • letter to incoming students
  • letter to my future self
  • thank you letter
  • story rewrite
  • classroom quilt
  • find someone who
  • plot diagram

#2 The Amazing Race Geography Project – Discovering our world

If you’re teaching geography and looking for a fun end-of-year activity for students in your middle classroom, this project is perfect.  The fully-editable project can be adapted to fit your classroom needs.  Included in the end-of-the-year project are 

  • a lesson plan with suggestions on differentiation, essential questions, and learning goals
  • introductory lesson
  • research links
  • project timeline checklist for students to use
  • amazing race itinerary (using absolute and relative location)
  • location profiles (cover climate, physical geography, and economic activities in each location)
  • student-created tasks for each location
  • product choice board
  • 100-point grading rubric
  • student example research and project
  • example presentation

#3 End of the year activities last week of school resource – Addie Williams

The next end-of-year activities for students I have are these ones by Addie Williams.  The bundle includes eighteen different activities for your students to choose from.  With over thirty worksheets and templates, they are easy to differentiate for different ages and abilities.   Included in the activity are

  • my year in a nutshell
  • time flies… when you’re having fun – idiom poetry prompt
  • memory movie activity
  • world’s greatest classroom advertising activity
  • Classroom Times – newspaper front page activity
  • past, present, and future goals
  • soundtrack of my year – what music represents your year?
  • letter of advice to next year’s students
  • top 10 – so many ways to complete this activity!
  • tweet me activity – review activity
  • final countdown – writing activity
  • getting social – social media summarizing activity
  • selfies and snapshots – social media fun
  • my year in books – a literary look back
  • life lessons – what life lessons did students learn this year?
  • in the news – the year in review
  • thanks a million – thank someone for their help this year
  • writing prompts with themed writing paper (3 prompts)
  • optional cover page – perfect for students who want to turn this into a memory book

#4 Google slides activities – The Supported Teacher

If you are mostly digital, you might prefer these end-of-the-year activities for your class.  These editable, no-prep google slides activities are a great way to celebrate the end of the year with your students.  The bundle includes fun, engaging, and creative activities such as

  • a survival guide to middle school/high school
  • end-of-the-year playlist project 
  • letter to my future self 
  • end-of-the-year one-pager
  • end-of-the-year course survey
  • scaffolds and templates to enable easy differentiation
  • rubrics to help students create quality projects that meet assignment goals
  • digital and print versions
  • also included are a teacher guide and student-friendly directions

#5 Language Arts Movie Questions Bundle by Kim’s Middle School Mania

Sometimes your students just need a break from meaningful activities – if that’s the case showing a few movies may be just what they need.  And just what you need – did we mention reporting??  If that’s what you all need *right now*, this bundle by Kim’s Middle School Mania fits the bill.

Included in the bundle are questions for the following videos

  • Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip
  • Annie (2014 version)
  • Cars
  • Despicable Me
  • Elf
  • Finding Dory
  • Home
  • Inside Out
  • Life of Pi
  • Maleficent
  • Marvel’s The Avengers
  • Mulan
  • Night at the Museum
  • Remember the Titans
  • Ruby Bridges
  • Shark Tale
  • Shrek
  • Soul Surfer
  • The Ransom of Red Chief

#6 End-of-year escape room activity – The SuperHERO Teacher

In this end-of-year activity for students, your students work through five “missions” to unlock the escape room. Included in the escape room are

  • teacher directions
  • five detailed missions
  • six keys to unlock the missions (puzzles, mazes, mind games, and riddles)
  • envelope cover pages
  • photo examples

The escape room reinforces a growth mindset, career readiness, and mindfulness through each of the activities.

#7 Writing competition end-of-year activity – Laura Randazzo

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In this end-of-year activity for students, your students enter their writing into a series of peer-review competitions and give each other meaningful feedback.  Bonus: you lighten your grading load and your students still get feedback on their work.  

In the activity, students will eliminate unsuccessful writing and the remaining high-quality writing can serve as excellent models for other students.  And because you can make the entries to the competition anonymous, students love the low-pressure, fun-fill activity because it offers incentives in the form of bonus points for winning rounds rather than punishing unsuccessful students.

The best part of this activity is that students debate each other about what constitutes strong writing.  Plus it can be used with different styles of writing, such as literary analysis, persuasive writing, expository writing, or cause/effect tasks.  

Included in the activity are

  • suggested lesson procedure with step-by-step directions
  • slide decks to direct students through two rounds of the competition
  • an opening assignment sheet
  • a peer-review rubric
  • reflection sheet for post-content assignment

You only need to think of 12 writing topics related to your current unit of study and you’re all set.

#8 End of year ELA escape room – Language Arts Excellence

If your students love escape rooms, this is another option for an end-of-year activity for students.  The bundle includes both an in-class and digital version of the escape room.  In this skills-based escape room, students must escape their classroom by solving five different language-arts-skills-based puzzles, while finding clues and discovering a hidden message along the way. Tasks included in the escape room include

  • literary devices crossword
  • identify parts of speech in funny and inspirational quotes from famous figures (digital version) or correctly cite MLA sources in an MLA works cited page (paper version)
  • identify figurative language devices from pop songs
  • perform a close reading of Langston Hughes’ “A Dread Deferred”
  • jig saw quote
  • an escape room reflection sheet
  • also included are instructions for how to access and share the digital escape room, a teacher answer key, a digital student workbook, a digital teacher answer key, detailed instructions for running a paper-based escape room and print checklist, student team charts, welcome sign, and materials for five tasks 

 

#9 End-of-year activities – Teaching and motivating teens

These activities are also a great option, especially for teachers who have wide variations of ability within their classes.  These activities are print-and-go.  They include activities such as

  • students to students – a matching game bases on apples to apples
  • round table spelling bee – informal spelling bees in small groups with four levels of differentiation
  • metaphors for me – students create metaphors to describe different experiences throughout the school year
  • word scramble – wordplay that is differentiated into three levels

 

#10 End of year awards – The SuperHERO teacher

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If you’re a teacher who likes to give out awards to your class at the end of the year, you will love these blank and editable end-of-year award templates.  The resource includes

  • 55 unique classroom awards
  • 4 different designs
  • modern, professional layout
  • student achievement questionnaire for students to complete
  • teacher directions
  • editable templates
  • blank templates

Just insert the names of your students on the awards using the editable templates, then print the awards double-sided so students can complete the student questionnaire.  Better yet, get your students to use the templates to devise their own awards for each other.   

#11 Task card activity – Kacie Travis

This end-of-year task card activity gets your students moving and reflecting on their year in a fun and engaging way.  Included in the six stations are

  • selfie station
  • advice station
  • favorite unit of study station
  • most helpful friend station
  • class reflection station
  • summer plan station

#12 End-of-year activities – by me

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Last, but hopefully not least, are these end-of-year activities for middle and high school students by me.  Similar to my get-to-know-you activities for middle and high school (available here) these are a great way to review the end of the semester or end of the year.  

In the activity, students use a growth mindset to think about what they have learned academically, about themselves, and about their classmates throughout the year. Included in the activity are

  • 2x my year in review/their year in review worksheets
  • 1x student survey top five year in review worksheet
  • 1x find someone who worksheet

These worksheets are a great way for students to reflect on what has changed and what has stayed the same over the year.  They also make great displays once completed if your students like to display their work.

That’s the last of our end-of-year activities for students. . . 

But if you’re an Aussie, or a Kiwi, or the end of your academic year is close to Christmas, check out these blog posts for more end-of-year activities for students.

 

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