This year is obviously going to look different for many as us when it comes to fun end of the year activities. If you are anything like me, I bet you have been scratching your head to think of ideas that are going to be fun for the kids, and it very low maintenance for you, in case you need to take down your classroom.
This is a quick little slide deck that I assign to my students at the end of the year where they input pictures, text etc. to share how their year was in a nutshell. This is super easy to assign, and my students always have a fun time reminiscing on the year. I like to add my bitmoji to each slide to add a little fun to it.
2. Awards
One of my favorite things to do is give awards to my students. You can make this student voted, but I always feel it means more if you choose. You can give them to students to print by emailing them, posting them on google classroom (you can assign certain kids each award), emailing them to parents, or even putting a slideshow together and "give" them out via a zoom party. To make it extra personal, add pictures of the student it is going to, so it's like them walking up and getting the award!
One of my favorite "assignments" to do. My kids love warning them on what not to do, and get them excited for what next year is going to bring them! Super easy to assign these on google classroom to complete. Miss 5th has a wonderful template that is FREE! I always use this one and feel like it is done beautifully, like all her things.
4. Slideshow
One of my absolute favorite things to show my students on the last day of school is a slideshow of our year. I make sure to take pictures of all the students to it doesn't feel like a 5 person slideshow. I try my best to do it in order of how the year unfolded and it's just great to remember all the fun we had throughout the year! I like to use iMovie as it's super easy to drag pictures, video and music into the slideshow! When mine is finished, I will make sure to link all the music used this year, but here is all the ones I have used in the past few years. (I always use Future Looks Good on you for the very last part where I typically have a picture of me and each student. This year I am going to just be putting a picture of each student with what they want to be as thir future career.
Music used in the past:
+ Good Life-OneRepublic
+One Foot- Walk the Moon
+ Best Day of My Life- American Authors
+ Future Looks Good on You-OneRepublic *warning I always clip out one bad word
+Story of Our Live- One Direction
+ High Hopes-Panic! at the Disco
+Short clip of Meet me in the Middle (Because they're going to middle school)- GREY, Maren Morris and Zedd
+Unwritten// Happier Remix -Natasha Beddingfield
5. Zoom party
I am planning on doing a last day of school Zoom party to give out the awards, play our slideshow and just have a little dance party celebrating our difficult year. I am also going to plan on playing some games. Trivia, GimKit, and pictionary are super easy to do on zoom. For pictionary I recommend using Jamboard or other drawing apps and have the kids guess.
One easy task that is fun is assigning a virtual field trip, or even going on one together via zoom. I have to put easy tasks up while I am in my classroom daily on the last two weeks and plan on definitely utilizing the product linked here. There are 5 different themes and students get to explore and reflect on the field trip.
7. Note to Each Student
I always do a note to each student! I simply create a Slideshow and make ti diameters 4x5 (or however big you want your photos) I then place a picture of the student, or me and the student on the slide with a typed out special note to each student. I then save these as images and drag them all into Costco Photo (or where ever you get your photos done) I plan on putting this with their things when they come to grab their belongings and yearbooks this year. Typically I tape it into the inside to act as me signing their yearbook. As we know, signing a sweet note to each student on the last day is an impossible task, so this reassures I am writing my goodbyes to each of them.
You can easily make a slide for each student so that everyone can write something to all the kids in the class, so they get the feel of still writing their goodbyes. You can use Google slides, make a slide for each student and make it so all students can edit. You can also use Jamboard and just make a slide for each child. I think they will be missing this piece the most, so make sure you think of something for kids to say their goodbyes to one another.
9. Arts & Sciences activities
We do an arts and science day at our school during the last week, and my grade level and I wanted to still give the kids something similar! We came up with a whole bunch of fun resources for the kids to have access to during the last week of school!