What Should I Do the Last Days of School?

If your classroom is anything like mine, the last days of school are the biggest struggle. The end of school gets so relax but my students need and crave structure. Too much free time leads to a lot of behavior and I found myself struggling to keep an even pace.

That was until I wrote special lesson plans for the end of school. I tried this last year and it made such a difference! The school year came to a smoother end and I was sending happy kids home every day. I have also learned some strategies over the years that help make the end of the school year easier.

I have a couple of tips and tricks below for the last couple of days, and a downloadable PDF filled with links at the bottom. There are over 40 freebies linked, including Adaptation Station exclusive freebies that you can only get on the blog! Enjoy!

Tip #1

Keep your routine! This doesn’t necessarily mean teach science lessons or run tight reading groups. It just means maintaining the pace you use all year long. For example, my day runs in 30-minute increments. That means about every 30 minutes, we change activities. I made sure to have my last days move at the same pace to help keep things predictable for my students.

Tip #2

Try something new. In my classroom, most of the year is spent on core academics. While I know those lessons are foundational and necessary as part of their education, it doesn’t leave me much room to work on other skills. This is the time when I squeeze in life skills, cooking and other activities that don’t always relate to core academics but are still very important for my class.

Tip #3

Have a structured party. A super common end of year activity I see is a movie. While that is fun for most students, if I tried to play a 90-minute movie and expected all of my students to sit for it, it would never happen. Instead, I have a highly structured party, with visuals and activities that mirror the rotations we normally do. Read more about my parties here.

Not sure where to start? Did you run out of your budget for the year? Don’t worry, I have all of the freebies linked to help you! Click on this picture to get the PDF with my plans and the links!