As the end of the school year draws ever closer, students become more and more excited about their summer break. Maintaining student engagement becomes an increasingly difficult challenge. That combined with the end-of-year fatigue leads to the need for creative ideas. These final weeks provide the opportunity to reflect on the year. Remember the achievements, the growth, and the memories they want to carry with them. In this blog post, we will look at creative end of year activities that will keep your students engaged while focusing on reflecting on the school year.
Capture Your Year
My Year Scrapbook
Many classrooms create scrapbooks of the work they completed during the year. These can be individual scrapbooks from all subject areas or a whole class archive of the learning they achieved. Creating a scrapbook can take any shape or form that you would like it to. Some common scrapbook inclusions are:
- Favorite assignments or projects
- Photos from class events
- Personal growth milestones
- Academic achievements
- Friendship memories
Creating scrapbooks encourages students to think about their experiences this year and practice organizing these thoughts. Paper scrapbooks can be shared through digital tools such as Seesaw adding powerful layers to paper based projects.
Highlights Collection
This collection of Seesaw lessons offers timely journal pages where students can reflect and capture their best work. These lessons vary in format from a quarterly reflection on each subject, to individual subject based pages. Regardless of the lessons chosen, students have the tools to deeply reflect on their growth.
As this is a Seesaw activity, students have the benefits of the creative canvas. They are able to upload videos or photos of their work and add powerful layers such as audio recordings or drawings. These layers create robust posts that can be used for years to come. Families can save these and listen to their child’s best work for years to come.
Create Together
Class Mural
A mural is one opportunity to allow student creativity to blend with reflection. Murals can take on different forms. From painting, to photo walls, there is no one way to create a mural. Allow your classroom to decide on what the focus of the mural should be and let them create. Your teacher’s heart will be filled when students decide to create a mural on the laughs they had this year.
Reflection Activities
Guided conversations are a great way to reflect on the school year but they can sometimes lack the excitement you are seeking. Don’t worry, Seesaw is here to help! We created an engaging conversation activity that is sure to keep your students engaged while facilitating deep conversations. Questions you will may uncover include:
- “What’s something you learned this year that has nothing to do with school?”
- “If you could relive one day from this school year, which day would it be and why?”
- “What moment made you laugh the most this year?”
These reflections are easy to use and student friendly leading to rich and joyful conversations as you start to reflect on the year. 
Celebrate Achievements
Classroom Talent Show
Talent shows are great ways to allow each individual student to shine just one last time. You may be surprised to discover a special talent that has been hidden the entire year! Talent shows don’t have to be limited to musical or performative contributions, they can be whatever you want. Alternative talent show themes might be:
- Academic presentations
- Unique hobbies or skills
- Time machine talents
- Talent tag team
- Minute to win it challenges
Thank You Messages
Reflecting on the year would not be complete without expressing gratitude. From creating paper notes and letters to sharing a video recording, there is no wrong way to do this. Focus any thank you message on the growth your students were able to achieve.
- Letters to family members
- Notes to other teachers or staff
- Appreciations for classmates
- Video messages for school administrators
Sharing thank you messages builds gratitude and helps students recognize the community that supported their growth.
Final Thoughts
The end of the school year does not have to be a time of disengagement. Use the remaining time to make a final memory with your students. Create something special that will carry these students through summer and be something they remember forever. Honor the growth that was achieved this year, celebrate achievements, and prepare students for their next chapter.
If you take one thing away from this post, know that there is not a wrong way to close your year. Any activity you choose should maintain student engagement, provide closure to the year, and serve as a bond for the community you created. Send students off to summer with a sense of accomplishment and enthusiasm for what is to come.
