Ways to Count Down to the End of the School Year

It’s a little shocking to me how little time in school my daughter has left for this school year. It feels like seventh grade has flown by and we’ll be done and into summer in no time.

If you want to mark the remaining days — in the classroom or at home — this collection of end of the school year countdown ideas is a fun way to do it.

If you have enough days left to do this for everyone in your classroom, this idea from Sparkling in Second Grade is super sweet. Each child gets to be the student of the day one day and the other kids say or write a nice thing about that student. Then the child can keep those nice words, and it serves as a classroom countdown to the end of the year as the number of pictures dwindles.

The Sassy Apple Teaching has a fun list of 16 end of year activities you can make into a chain and have a different child break the chain to see what the activity is each day. You can of course alter this one if there are things you can’t do or you don’t have that many days left. Or just make your own list and write the ideas on paper looped to make a chain.

Around the Kampfire has a nice list of end of year traditions including a countdown that lasts five days. Each idea includes a simple snack and printable activities you can grab from Teachers Pay Teachers. (Other fun ideas include kindness notes, end of year awards and a printable memory book.)

Another fun set of end of year activities you can add to your chain or just do on their own comes from Amy Lemons. There are art projects, solar smores, even a pickle day to make the end of the year super memorable.

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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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