Looking back on the relationships, growth, and memories from the year is what makes the last week of school so fun and meaningful. However, not wanting students to miss out on that, I’ve been coming up with fun end of the school year celebration ideas for distance learning!
End of the Year Celebration Ideas
- With upper elementary students, one of my tried and true feel-good end of the year celebration activities is called Classmate Compliments. (I should come up with something flashier, but this is straight forward).
You do need to prep a little bit ahead of time. It’s helpful for students to have time to think and write their responses.
- Each classmate submits a compliment about their other classmates.
- I collect all the compliments then pass them out to the students.
- Usually, we used colorful pieces of paper to write the compliments on and students’ decorate name bags to keep them in.
However, here’s how it can work with e-learning.
- Create a Google Form that has each student’s name as a question.
- Share the form on your virtual classroom platform for students to submit their compliments.
- Set rules and expectations – examples are super helpful!
- Another idea is to start a few weeks early and have students do 4-5 names a week.
- Similarly, for students w/o internet, send a picture text or paper copy of the class list home. They can write their compliment on the paper and their parent can send a picture back to you.
Celebrate Students’ Uniqueness
2. Mini Talent Show: Give each student 2-3 minutes to share a talent. You can have a class sign up or ask each student to share something.
Ideas for shy students: read a poem, share a favorite memory from the year/favorite book, introduce their pet, read a piece of writing they wrote, send you a prerecorded video to share with the class
3. Online Award Ceremony:
- Similar to a regular end of the year award ceremony choose an award for each student or let them nominate each other (Google Forms is a great way to do this)
- You can share your screen with students as you flip through and announce the different awards or print them off (to mail or deliver next school year (depending on grade level)) and hold them up to the screen.
Fun and Silly End of the Year Celebration Ideas
4. Dress Up Option: Let students vote on a fun way to dress up for your last class. For example, they could wear silly socks, have wacky hair, a mismatched outfit, fun hat, etc.
5. Host a Dance Party: Turn on some tunes and students can dance along!
6. Short Slideshow: Have each student send in a picture of themselves (silly or serious) and a sentence or two about their favorite memory from the year.
7. Host a “How-To” Celebration: Let students know ahead of time what you’ll be teaching them so they can gather supplies (or send/drop off supplies to them depending on your situation). For example, how to make ice cream in a bag, how to make play-doh, how to make slime, paper airplane challenge, how to make orgami, etc! Above all, whatever you think your students would like best AND is managable for you.
Celebration Ideas for the End of the Year: MEMORIES
8. In addition the ideas above, sharing memories can be a fun way to commemorate the year. Post a few of these questions in your digital classroom before your next meeting. Ask each student pick a question and prepare an answer to share with the class during your celebration. Similarly, they could post their response on the thread if you don’t have time during the call.
If appropriate for your class, encourage students to bring a fun snack/treat/beverage to the celebration.
Here are some ideas to get you started!
- What’s a funny memory you have from this year?
- What advice would you give next year’s students?
- What was the hardest part of the year? How did you/we overcome it?
- What is a favorite memory from the year?
- What is something nice you remember someone doing for you/the class this year?
- From this year, what are you most proud of?
- In our school/classroom, what is your favorite place?
- Share 3 important things you learned this year.
- How did you grow this year?
- Knowing what you do now, what advice would go back and tell yourself at the beginning of this year?
- What was your favorite book you read this year? Why?
- Name someone who has positively impacted your life this year. How?
End of the Year Celebrations: Play Games
9. Games, games, games: No matter what, kids LOVE games!! You can check out this blog post to see some of the class favorites perfect for distance learning. Click here to read more about zoom/Google Meets games.
From the Teacher…
10. Teacher Video: Lastly, you could also make a quick video for each student sharing what you love about them. Share something kind you saw them do that year, include their best personality and character traits. If you have any pictures with them add that to the end!
It’s easy to take the video on your phone. Then, upload the video to Google Drive and share the link with each student personally.
Are you ready to have your best year yet?
I am!! Have you ever heard of social-emotional learning (SEL)? Ever wondered what it was? If you’re looking for ways to help your students (and yourself) have the best year yet you’re going to want to check this free SEL guidebook out.
SEL results in less stress for you and empowering your students to:
–manage their emotions and mental health ✅
-show empathy ✅
–resolve conflict and communicate effectively ✅
-cultivate a community of kindness ✅
–thrive in and out of the classroom ✅
