The end of the school year is a busy time for teachers, but it’s also a time to let loose and have some fun. A top priority is cleaning and organizing the classroom and you will want to keep your students busy with fun and engaging end-of-the-year activities.
Easy End-of-the-Year Activities
So what activities can you do the last week of school to keep your students engaged and occupied so that you can close out the year? Here is a list of the best end-of-the-year activities for your students in 5th grade.
Memory and Autograph Book
My 5th-grade students are promoted at the end of the school year to middle school. We don’t have a yearbook at our school, so having a Memory and Autograph book is important.
The memory book has questions for students that guide them to reflect on their school year. I also like to add class pictures to it. Students write memories about what they learned, who their friends were, and school events. They also write about their favorites and their future goals.
You can grab the Memory Book HERE.
I print it in color and have students complete it a few days before school lets out. It allows students to work quietly but it also gives them a chance to get autographs and messages from friends.
Most of the time, we get together with other 5th-grade classrooms, and have a signing party in the multi-purpose room. We play music and let the kids mingle and sign each other’s memory books.
End-of-the Year Music Festival Project
If you want an engaging ELA and Math project that gets your students reviewing math concepts taught throughout the year, then a Music end-of-the-year project will do the trick.
Students pretend that they are planning a music festival for their school to raise money to buy musical instruments. They must create a flyer and think about their favorite band or artist whom they would like to invite to the school and perform.
What I love most about this project is that it gives a chance for students to learn more about their favorite artist or band. They complete a biography sheet about them and also analyze one of their favorite songs by writing done some of the lyrics.
I allow students to even listen to some of their songs online when deciding what song to write about, and they have so much fun doing this.
This project also includes math problems to review 5th-grade math standards.
Karaoke
Kids love to sing and what better way to celebrate the end of the year with some music? Students may seem bashful at first but I promise you that you have to give karaoke a try in your classroom.
I don’t use a machine or microphone, but of course, if you have access to that, by all means, use it. I tell my students that we are going to do a modified version of karaoke.
I take song requests and play Karaoke videos on YouTube that only show the lyrics to a song and we all sing along. I ask my students to choose songs that they think most students will know so that everyone feels included.
Make sure to have a few songs in mind before you start. I was very surprised that many of my students didn’t have any song requests.
Board Games
Another fun activity is to play board games or card games. I have a personal stash of board games that I keep for rainy days but if you don’t, ask your students to bring board games from home.
You can either have students choose what game they want to play, or you can create rotations. I taught my students how to play the card game spoons and they loved it. Click here to watch a video on how to play.
Bingo
Bingo is another fun game that students love. At the end of the year, my students learn the names of the 50 states, so we play a bingo game with the names of all 50 states. You can play bingo on any topic and create your own bingo game with a bingo generator.
Sudoku
Many of my students have never heard of the game sudoku, but when I teach it to them, they are hooked! Here is a great website where they can play for free.
Make sure to teach them the rules and do a few puzzles together.
Watch a Movie
It seems simple enough but your students will love to watch a movie together. I ask my students to bring a small pillow, blanket and any stuffed animal to snuggle up with. We move all the desks over to the side of the room, and we vote on a movie to watch.
This gives me a chance to finish cleaning and organizing my room. I also get my lesson plans ready for the first week of school. It might seem too early, but I promise you that it will relieve some major stress for the first week of school.
Conclusion
These easy end-of-the-year activities require very little teacher prep and will make the last few days of school fun and memorable for your students. In addition, they will keep your students busy and engaged so you can have time to get things done.