Download a free printable instead of buying or creating a gift for your students. Children will treasure the poem from their teacher for years to come!

This is the second post I’ve done about how I keep my students engaged at the end of the year. I teach seniors, and after prom they’re pretty much checked out. However, I don’t just want to show movies when there are plenty of fun things to do that can be related back to what ... Read more

Every teacher needs to see these 7 amazing end of the year gift ideas for students.

Have you been thinking about giving your students end of the year awards? Class awards help make the end of the school year special and memo...

Using science fiction poems (or speculative poems) in the classroom can be a great way for students to build a deeper understanding of the genre.

Thank you for your interest in the May Maynia End of the Year Gifted Challenges Packet. This packet is designed as an end of year fun set with critical and creative thinking activities. It is appropriate for students in grades 2-4. The activities can be used separately or as part of centers. This would be great to use in the gifted class or any class that needs a few extra challenges.

Do you need some end-of-year activities to get your to and through the last day of school? Keep your students engaged until the very last day!

FREE 🎓 End of the Year Keepsake Boxes and Poems for Preschool, Pre-K, Kindergarten and First Grade

Give your students a year-end sendoff that celebrates their learning.

These prompts naturally differentiate your writing center. Each page has key vocabulary to support kinder, 1st and 2nd grade writers. These are a perfect addition to your work on writing center!

As a teacher, there are so many chaotic moments at this time of year. It is chaotic for you as well as your students. However, as much as you (and they) are counting the days to the end of the school year, there are some steps that you can take to both calm that chaos now, and reduce the chaos in the fall. Read below for some great tips, and a chance to enter to win a $60 gift card For your classroom, you are likely to have some downtime as students are finishing up, completing projects, reviewing for tests, and generally winding down. Their attention span is waning, as is their level of effort and focus. This is a great time of year for several types of activities. I like to use this time to try out new classroom activities or routines that I am thinking about trying in the future. I wrote about this in my recent blog post here (with a couple freebies)! I also think that this is a great time to do some of those 'fun' activities that you may not have time for at other times. Have students film a video as either a reflection or a portfolio, or a final project. For science, this means that this is a good time to do something like the chemistry of tie-dye. Or a map reading practice outside on school grounds (a treasure hunt perhaps)? If there is a lab that you'd like to do, but it doesn't quite fit into the curriculum, you can sometimes fit it in at the end of the year. Here are two free, fun activities. One has to do with density and one has to do with static electricity. Students definitely need to be kept engaged, as the weather gets nicer, and you want them to leave on a positive note. This is a time of year when its good to give students a choice. Maybe some students want to do a lab, and others have work to finish up or another assignment to work on. And there are some students who are just done with doing any organized type of activity. I think it is always a good idea to have some 'jobs' that a student can do if they don't want to do school work, or they are finished. At this time of year there are plenty of jobs. Students can do the following (and much more): go through markers and throw out those that no longer work sharpen colored pencils take posters and decorations down pack boxes if needed, and with good direction some students may be able to help file papers, alphabetize, hand back work. Use this help! As you are cleaning up and closing out this year, the more organized that you are (and your students are) you can make your next year start off much less chaotic. If you are anything like me, you think that you will remember what's in that unlabeled box that you just put on the top shelf...but I won't and I don't know if you will either. Label!! Be organized! For labs, if you put away the lab partially set up (such as in student kits, labeled) you will save yourself so many headaches! Get yourself in order (computer files, paper files, lab equipment). As much as you want to get out and enjoy your summer, while the school year is fresh in your mind, a few other things that you can do include ordering supplies if you have any budget and know what you are teaching. It is so nice to come back to a supply order ready to go. If you are teaching something new, secure a textbook and/or curriculum guide or pacing chart so that, after you've had a bit of a break, you have some resources to start getting up to speed and you won't be scrambling to find them later (I have curriculum/resource guides for Earth Science and AP Environmental Science available in my store). Take the time to do a little bit of reflection, whether its through a student evaluation or a self-reflection, think about what went well, and what you would like to change. The end of the year is a good time to think about some possible changes. If your school is starting any new initiatives next year, such a 1:1 technology, see if you can get a few resources before the end of school to start you thinking. If you are really ahead of the game, you could even think about some basic classroom materials that you may want to get printed out and have on hand. A good place to look would be in the Classroom Organization Bundle, which includes such things as station signs, testing sign, editable seating chart templates, tickets out and other 'goodies' that I use at the start of the year, and throughout the year in my classroom. And most of all, after you've done all that, or as much as appeals to you, go home, sit out in the sunshine with a glass of ice tea, and enjoy it! You've earned it!! More End of the Year Survival Tips a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sometimes math centers may not work for your students. This post will share two alternatives to teaching whole group math that are not math centers.

➪ This product aligns to the 5th grade CCSS! Looking for a fun and interactive way for your students to prepare for state or end of the year math tests? Download this FREE and highly engaging "Find Someone Who..." math review activity! Note: This product was updated as of July 2020 to include a DIGITAL | DISTANCE LEARNING version! What's Included: ➪ 1 paper version of "Find Someone Who..." ➪ A link to the digital | distance learning version of "Find Someone Who..." ➪ Answer key Topics Include: ➪ Decimal operations (+, -, x, ÷) ➪ Multi-digit whole number multiplication and division ➪ Fraction operations (+, -, x, ÷) ➪ Geometry ➪ Conversions (customary and metric) ➪ Volume ➪ Decimal place value ➪ Order of operations ✭✭ Please consider following me so you'll receive updates on when the other versions are released. ✭✭ ✭✭ Please consider leaving feedback! ✭✭ NOTE: While I always strive for accuracy, I am human and can make editing mistakes. If you find anything that needs correcting, please send me a message immediately. I would be happy to correct and upload a new file before you rate it! :) Thank you in advance.

My favorite kind of activity to assign students at the end of the year is the kind that reviews multiple standards at once. You may have seen some of my blog posts about my Math PBL Projects , and how they do exactly that! But, on the literacy side of things. I have a couple of ELA PBL Projects tha

I’m going to be really honest here. When I first started teaching 12 years ago, I didn't really know about addition and subtraction strategies. I was teaching 1st grade, and the curriculum we used taught the count up strategy, sums of 10, and doubles. We spent 1-2 days on each and then quickly moved

Choice boards include activities that your above-level students or gifted/talented students need for enrichment. 3 tips to differentiate like a pro!

1 . Letting the students take over. Students begin to get antsy toward the end of the year. They become bold in their actions and th...

Hey friends! Happy 2019! While reflecting on this past year, we thought it would be a good idea to share some of our fave classroom ideas from the teacher Instagram world. In addition to We Heart Teaching , we also run the Instagram account Classroom Pinspirations. A few years ago, we had the i

It took me years to realize that I didn’t have to spend the last few weeks of school feeling completely exhausted and “over it”. Somehow I both anticipated and dreaded the endless kickball competitions, theme celebrations, and influx of parent volunteers. It also didn’t occur to me that my students were completely capable of maintaining …

Use this product to collect words to describe each student in your classroom. Then take the words your students come up with to create a personalized gift for each student. You can also have students rotate around the room and write 1 word to describe each student. Your students can then create th...

End of the Year Activities for Secondary Students - 5 helpful activities to wrap up the year.