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

Not all of us live where there is a lot of snow in the winter (or even where it is winter as I write this, but it can still be fun to learn about snow, what it is and why it falls, so let’s get into it!

First, let’s talk snowflake science with The Homeschool Scientist. They have a free prinatble snowflake science less that’s more than 60 pages long and good for multiple grade levels. The blog post linked here includes some fun snow facts, information about how snowflakes form and why they are both six-sided and (probably) all different.

Expressive Monkey has a great post about how snowflakes are formed and why they have six arms, and also shows some of the pictures taken by W. A. Bentley in the 1920s (more on him below).

You can also grab a free snow facts worksheet with space for kids to draw their own unique snowflakes from Education.com. Simple Living Creative Learning also has a paid snow study resource set that includes things like different types of snowflakes, the snow cycle, symmetry drawing with snowflakes, tips for snow safety, snow-related vocabulary and more.

Homeschool Superfreak has another great page for learning about snowflakes, which includes information about Snowflake Bentley, a great book to read (and person to learn about). It includes lesson plan ideas and links to activities.

Speaking of activities, if you happen to have snow around you can make snow ice cream or maple candy, paint on snow or with snow, or do some snow science experiments. If you get a ton of snow you could maybe even build an igloo or snow structure.

If you don’t get snow you can learn about how animals keep warm in the snow and cold temperatures with this experiment from I Can Teach My Child. Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls can help you learn why big paws (or snowshoes) make it easier to walk in the snow. Or make a snowstorm in a jar like this one from MomBrite.

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