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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Lots of Americans seem to think that May 5 is Mexican Independence Day, but that holiday actually falls on Sept. 16.

May 5 is the celebration of the Battle of Puebla, in which the Mexicans defeated the French in 1862. Independence Day marks the beginning of their fight for independence from Spain in 1810. That was the day of what’s known as El Grito de Dolores, or the cry of Dolores, for when the Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rang the church bells at his church in Dolores and declared that Mexico should be free from Spanish rule.

They would fight for their freedom until 1821 when they finally gained independence.

Fabulous Classroom has a little of the history and ideas for celebrating the holiday for all age groups. There’s also a link to a good video in that post about the real story of Mexican Independence Day.

Twinkl also has a good tops about the history and different activities, discussion ideas, crafts and foods that can be incorporated into lessons at school or used at home.

I also found a few pins that no longer link to a website but include good information on Mexican Independence Day, including some questions for students to answer based on the reading. You can find more printables and questions for kids from TX Homeschool Mama on Etsy (also available in Spanish).

You can find a lot more paid resources about Mexican Independence Day at Teachers Pay Teachers.

Mexican flag crafts are a fun option for celebrating Mexican Independence Day (though the current iteration of their flag has only been in use since 1968). Kids Activities Blog has a free Mexican flag printable and a few different ideas for decorating it including dot markers and torn tissue paper.

You can also find some great Mexican crafts at Red Ted Art. The post includes all sorts of Mexican inspired projects including Day of the Dead crafts, Frida Kahlo pinatas and upcycled musical instruments. I love the giant paper flowers they shared from Honestly WTF.

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