If you’re looking to make the end of the year memorable, then you’re in the right place. In this blog post, we’re listing out a whole bunch of ideas for ending the school year with your upper elementary students on a high note!
Ideas to Make the End of the Year Memorable
#1 | Recognition and Awards Ceremony
Host an awards ceremony to acknowledge and celebrate students’ achievements, whether academic, social, or extracurricular. Consider creating personalized certificates or small trophies for each student.
Topics for the awards night could include awards for each special or extracurricular as well as awards for leadership, positive qualities, and academics.
#2 | Memory Lane
Set up a “memory lane” display featuring highlights from the school year, such as photos, artwork, and class projects. This allows students to reflect on their experiences and see the collective accomplishments of the class.
Open up memory lane night to parents and give them a chance to see how students have grown over the course of the year!
#3 | Outdoor Celebration
Organize an outdoor celebration with games, a picnic, or a barbecue.
An outdoor celebration is a great way to make the end of the year memorable because it provides a relaxed and enjoyable environment for students to socialize and celebrate together.
Families may also be invited to enjoy this event, and you could incorporate some games like yard darts, kickball, or other events that parents and students could participate in together.
#4 | Field Day
Plan a day of outdoor activities and games. Include a mix of traditional field day games, team-building activities, and perhaps some water games to keep things exciting.
# 5 | Student Talent Show
Host a talent show where students can showcase their unique skills and talents. This event not only entertains but also highlights the diversity and individuality within the class.
Encourage students to show off all forms of creativity and talent. You can also incorporate the visual arts by displaying student sewing or crochet projects, lego building, or other art projects.
#6 | Collaborative Art Project
Engage students in a collaborative art project representing their year. This could be a mural, a large piece of artwork, or a time capsule.
#7 | Guest Speakers or Performers
Invite guest speakers or performers to inspire and entertain students. This could be a motivational speaker, a local artist or musician, or even an alumni. Entertainers like actors, magicians, or other performance artists are also good choices and can expose students to something they may not otherwise be able to experience!
#8 | Classroom Awards
Create personalized awards for each student based on their unique qualities, contributions, or talents.
Categories Ideas:
- Most Creative
- Best Team Player
- Future Scientist
- Student Teacher
- Craziest Ideas
- Classroom Leader
#9 | Letter to Future Self
Have students write letters to their future selves, highlighting their goals, aspirations, and favorite memories from the school year.
If you have the means, seal the letters and provide them to students to open in the future. You could give them to the students’ teachers the next year or even keep them until students get into middle or high school.
#10 | Create Your Own Games
Projects can be a lot of fun at the end, and making your own board games is definitely a way to both make the end of the year memorable but also challenge the students.
#11 | Autograph & Memory Books
I love memory books. Even if your school has yearbooks, memory books are still a lot of fun for students who want to document their own year and all the ups and downs along the way.
We have several different memory book themes that you can choose from if you decide to make the end of the year memorable by reflecting on some classroom memories.
Click here to read a blog post that talks about memory books in more detail and provides links to some of the ones we have available in the store!
Get the memory books on Teachers Pay Teachers by clicking this link.
#12 | Review Bracket (or Team Competition)
If you want to see just how far your students have come in a year, consider having a review games trivia bracket.
Using review Game Shows like these or other review games that have a game-like feel, set up a bracket with students making up teams to compete against each other.
Each day, pick a review game to play with students and then keep track of each team’s score. The games will show students how much they’ve learned in a fun and exciting way!
Hopefully, this list has more than met your expectations for fun ways to make the end of the year memorable with your upper elementary students.
If you have even more ideas to add to this list, we’d love to hear about them.
Until then, have a fantastic end of the year!
