Looking for some fun new activities for the end of the year? Try these five exciting activities to keep your students engaged through the last day of school.

1. Write letters. Have your current students write letters to the students who will be entering your class next year. Encourage them to share what they learned, what their favorite part of the year was, or what they would do differently. Then post or read the letters for your next class on the first day!
2. Get parents involved. For each unit that you covered throughout the year, prepare a question that takes the subject matter to the next level—something students didn’t learn or discuss in class but could easily research or consider on their own time. Pass out one question to each student at the end of the year (it’s ok if multiple students have the same question). Then send the question, along with the answer and/or notes and resources, to each student’s parents and encourage them to pose the question to their children over the summer.
3. Bingo! Play bingo with your class using this bingo card generator. Students achieve bingo by having their classmates sign off on squares that apply to them. Squares can include fun facts (e.g., “Taking a trip to the beach this summer”) or can be based activities or projects your class completed throughout the year (e.g., “Favorite book read in class this year was A Wrinkle in Time”).
4. Play Balderdash. Create your own Balderdash game to reinforce the vocabulary words your students learned throughout the year.
5. Create a classroom memory book. Students can work on their own pages, or they can work in teams to create themed pages. Come up with page categories/prompts ahead of time (e.g., “My favorite project this year,” “Three things I learned this year”), and have students fill in the blanks. Supplement with photos of students or projects if you have them, or students can bring in their own photos. You can make copies for students to take home, or digitize the pages so students can keep electronic files. Share the memory book with your new students on the first day of class next year!

What are your favorite end-of-the year activities? Share your ideas in the comments!

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