Fun End of the School Year Activities for the Classroom

I’ve written a lot over the years about different ways to mark the end of the school year, from printable award ribbons to making books, writing memories on stars, counting down to the end of the year, and activities for older kids to mark the end of the year.

It would be easy to say just go read all of those and call it a day, but there are lots of other fun things you can do with kids of various ages to mark the end of the school year.

Life Between Summers has a post with a variety of ideas for early elementary but I like the part that talks about the book A Letter from Your Teacher on the Last Day of School. How sweet for teacher to write a letter to each student, and the students can write letters to each other as well. It also has activities around Our Class is a Family by the same author.

You can also have kids write letters to the future students in your classroom that can be shared on the first day of school. This idea comes from Jennifer Findley, who has other end of the year literacy activities in her post as well as a free printable you can use for student letters.

For older kids I think it would be super fun to build a class play list and share with everyone to listen to over the summer. Kids can submit what song they think represents their class or holds a memory from the past year for them, and write about and/or share with the class why that song is meaningful to them. I got this idea from We are Teachers, and they have a sample playlist to get you started or if you want to add some songs to make the list longer.

I love the idea of a collaborative project for the end of the year that allows kids to share memories or things they’ve learned over the school year. The Eagle’s Nest has a bulletin board with cameras to have kids write and draw “snapshots” of the year, but I also love this puzzle printable where each student can draw something meaningful to them, and you can include a picture of the class in the center. You can get this printable from Top Teaching Tasks.

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End of the School Year Classroom Activities

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

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