End of Year activities

This last week or so is a strange time at school. Things are winding down and you’re finishing your topics and units of work.. so what do you do now? Although the easiest option would be to put on a few films whilst you're tidying your classroom, there are lots of more fun and educational ways to end the year with their brains still ticking. It’s the perfect time to get more creative in class and not worrying about filling books. I've thought of and collected some great lessons and activities to finish off the end of this school year.

Outdoor Maths Lessons

In an ideal world, we would spend plenty of our maths lessons outside. Well, weather permitting, it seems cruel keeping the children contained sitting at tables. There are plenty of activities to keep your class entertained outside:

• Symmetrical patterns using chalk on the playground 
• Direction and position games (one child blindfolded, getting them from a to b)
• I spy shapes where groups go around looking for different 2D and 3D shapes around the school/outdoor area 
• Statistics - tally charts collecting data, pictograms using items found outside

Maths games, puzzles and reasoning activities

This is your chance to challenge and include more fun exploratory lessons now the rest of the curriculum has been covered. You can find some great free resources over at Nrich, twinkl and NCETM websites. If you want to get more times table practice in before the end of the year, download my multiplication football board game that'll have them memorising their times tables in no time!

Memory Booklet

I've made a memory booklet for my own class to use in the last week of school. It's a chance for them to reflect on their time in my classroom and write/draw things that they have enjoyed, such as their favourite activity in each topic and their favourite book we have used in English lessons. You can get it from my tes shop.

Memory Riddles

A short poetry style unit could fill in some time towards the end of the year. They could describe their favourite memory of the year without being explicit (practicing the show not tell approach). They could do riddles about each other and the class have to guess who it's about - that'll test how well they know each other!

End of Topic review

Do a survey on what they enjoyed this year and what they think the next year group will enjoy. They could help with ideas on how to make your classroom/lessons even better for the next year group.

Talent shows

Give them time to practice and perform their own talent show! If the weather is nice this could be done in a shaded area outside. It's a chance to let all children share their passions with the rest of their class.

I hope these ideas are helpful and you enjoy the last few weeks with your current cohort. If you want to treat your class with cheap/free gifts, you can read about ideas I've used here.