May… that month that seems like it will never come, but when it does, also feels like it will never end! If you are an elementary teacher, you know exactly what I mean by that. I love May because it is a time to think about all the memories and bonds I have made with my students throughout the year, but it can be a difficult month too. It is difficult to keep our students engaged when summer is so close! I have found these 10 ideas below to be simple ways to keep my students engaged all the way up to the last day of school. I hope there is at least one new idea below that you can try this year!
- Voice and Choice: I believe that giving students choice all throughout the year is important, but it is especially important at the end of the year to keep them engaged. My favorite way to do this is by creating choice boards for my students!
- Movement Activities: My students are always extra wiggly at the end of the year! I love to give them activities to do that will get them moving like my Around the Room Word Problem activity that has students move around the room to solve word problems.
- Go Outdoors: At the end of the year, I take my students outdoors whenever possible. The change of scenery and fresh air helps both my students and me. My favorite engaging outdoor activities are chalk math (pictured above), doing a read aloud outside and letting students independently read outside.
- Calling out Student Engagement: Throughout the year, I like to call out my students for being engaged, but I do this even more at the end of the year. I make sure I am direct at why I am calling out the student. For example: Kennedy, thank you for being engaged by focusing on the activity and not letting others distract you” or “Jose, I can tell you are engaged because you are looking at the teacher and taking notes on our math lesson”. Then, I try to give them a little reward for it. I use either class tickets or raffle tickets for this. That part is up to you!
- End of the Year Centers: Centers are another great way to get your students moving, give them voice & choice and help them review. I love to create end of the year math centers and let my students choose which ones they think they need more practice on. Click here to check out my 3rd EOY Centers and 4th EOY Centers.
- Review Games: My students LOVE anytime we add games for review. Their favorite review games are Jeopardy and Kahoot. This is a great way to review without having students just answer questions or do a practice test. If you use either of these games, you will see high engagement with your students!
- Being Silly: The end of the year can be stressful and overwhelming for a teacher, but remember to still be silly with your students. That silliness will help them stay engaged and not make the end of the year seem so daunting. Trust me, a little silliness can go a long way in keep students focus and engagement!
- Student Leaders: I love to let my students be leaders at the end of the year for more engagement. I like to ask students to lead our morning meetings, lead us in a review game, read part of the read aloud, etx. I bet you will see more engagement with your students when one of their classmates is leading them in the activity!
- Partner Activities: I too often hear teachers say that students need more independent practice at the end of the year to prepare for the state test or make sure they can independently do the skills being taught for the next grade. I would like to challenge you all on this. I have found that my students learn best when they are learning from one another and that the best way for them to review is by reviewing together. Also, this is a great time to give voice and choice. By the end of the year, my students know the expectations of choosing a partner. I rarely choose their partners at the end of the year because of that and I find that most of the time, they are more engaged when they choose their own partners.
- Student Created Games: One of my favorite activities for the last couple weeks of school is to have my students create their own games on something they have learned that year. Some ideas for this is letting them create their own board game, create a Kahoot game, create a partner activity for the class, etc. Every year it blows me away with what my students create and they love playing each other’s games when they are finished. This in turns brings about very high engagement!
I hope you were able to find at least one new idea above to try with your students this year! I would love for you to try out my movement activity, Around the Room Word Problems, it is a great way to review single step and multi-step word problems at the end of the year. This is a brand new resource that will soon be a new product line in my store. Click here to check it out!
