With only a few days or weeks left, lesson planning can be difficult! You need some quick and easy games and lessons to keep students focused and on track. Well, worry not, because we have gathered some of those perfect last minute lessons for you below. Check them out and leave a note telling us which ones you tried and loved!
Last Minute Lessons for the End of the School Year
Preschool Lessons for the End of the School Year
Alphabet Card Games – Print out some fun alphabet cards and reinforce basic skills with your pre-schoolers as the school year draws to a close.
Ordering Turtle – These turtles are in a race and only following the directions will help them get to the finish line. Print out this adorable sheet to help reinforce ordering, following directions, and ordinal numbers.
Rainy Day Window – This clever craft is a perfect rainy day activity! Help students create their own rainy window and follow the activity up with a sing-a-long of The Itsy Bitsy Spider.
Elementary Lessons for the End of the School Year
Summer Seek and Find – Build their summer vocabulary with this challenging seek and find. Ideal for older elementary students, this printable will challenge and keep them focused!
Math Pyramid Challenge – Brain teasers and math puzzles are the ultimate end of the year activities. This clever pyramid challenge activity is perfect for an end of the year activity packet or paired lesson.
Notes for Next Year – Have students write notes telling the children who will be in your class next year what to expect. It is a great way for them to reflect on the year while practicing their writing at the same time.
Intermediate Lessons for the End of the Year
Reading Aloud – This end of the year activity is a great way for your students to reach out to elementary grade students. Get an elementary summer reading list for Kindergarten or First Grade from either a teacher at the elementary school or a school librarian.
Pair your students up and have them choose one book from the list. The students will then be responsible for creating a short video where they read the story aloud. They can add a title, text at the bottom of the screen for each page, and music to accompany the opening and closing credits, if they desire. Post the videos online after obtaining parental permission to do so. Inform the elementary teachers and librarians that they can direct students and parents to the videos if they would like to hear the stories read aloud during the summer.
Dear Me – Middle school is a hard age for children and they can sometimes think the worst of themselves. Use this writing activity to encourage them to look into the future. Have them write a letter to themselves at some time in the future. It can be at high school graduation, when they turn 21 or for their 10 year class reunion. The students can write about their life now and how they hope it will be at the point in time when the letter is opened.
Seal the letter in an envelope and either have the students address it to their current address and give it to you to mail at some point in the future, or seal it and take it home for safe keeping.
What are some of your favorite end of the year lessons? Share them below or on the Really Good Teacher forums!
Kim Smythe says
I think that the activities listed as Preschool activities are really elementary instead. They are great ideas, but my pre-K kids cannot do the turtle or the rainy day window, especially at the beginning of the year.
However, I like the idea of ordering turtles, but I would probably have turtle cutouts with numbers on them, so that they have something to manipulate with their own hands.
The rainy day window is so cute! I think it can easily be adapted to accomadate little hands. Maybe have most of it pre cut, or drawn so that they could cut it out.