5 Classroom Engagement Tips for the End of the School Year

The end of the school year is already crazy, busy. Here are some ways you can save the sanity of your students and yourself to finish off strong. Check out these tips for a successful slide into the end of the year. 

1. Less Structured Days

Curriculum is finishing up. Students are getting excited for summer. Instead of whole group activities all day, incorporate some of the following: 

• Centers
• Partner Work
• Choice Boards

You can keep your sanity by conserving energy and not be the one leading all day long. 

2. Turn Learning Activities into Games

This will help to keep your students engaged when engagement seems to be a unattainable.

• Blooket (a favorite of my class) or Kahoot
• Whiteboard races: (two groups line up and a question is given. The front person in each line races to be the first to write the answer. Or Use individual whiteboards and see you can be first to raise the right answer up.)
• Trashketball: Students have to answer questions correctly to try to shoot a basket for their teams. You can use a ball of paper and a trashcan to keep it super simple.
• Scoot: Place task cards on each desk. Students move from desk to desk with a recording sheet and answer questions. 

The best part is that you can use any content area for these games, but these just make it feel like play. 

3. Review Without Worksheets

Keep students reviewing important skills for upcoming tests. Instead of using the regular worksheets, try some of these:

• Task Cards
• Scavenger Hunts
• Escape Rooms
• Around-the-Room Review

By adding movement, you are subtracting behavior problems. 

4. Project-Based "Fun" Learning

Let students create instead of sit. The sky is really the limit, but here's some ideas to get you started: 

• "Create a Business" Project
• Biography Posters
• Stem Challenges
• End of Year Memory Books

These will help keep learning meaningful but low stress.

5. Teach Life Skills (They WILL LOVE this)

These are no prep, but high in value.

• How to Debate
• Teamwork Challenges
• Goal Setting for Next Year
• Kindness/Leadership Activities

There you have it! Keep your sanity and still keep the learning going until the last day. If you are looking for some resources to make some of these type of activities a reality, click the pictures below. 

10 STEM challenges for the great outdoors. 

Superhero STEM & Writing Activity

Soccer STEM & Book Unit

Llama Themed Memory Book

Turn Test Prep into Fun: Easter Egg Hunt Math Review for Upper Elementary

With spring approaching, classrooms everywhere begin to buzz with excitement --the warmer weather, Easter celebrations, and of course...test prep season. But what if this time of year could be about more than just tired reviewing of standards? What if you could season it with fun? 

Easter Egg Hunt with a Twist

Turn your math review into an engaging egg hunt where your students:

• Solve math problems
• Move around the room
• Stay excited about learning

Imagine your students going on a classroom Easter egg hunt while reviewing their math skills. That's just what you CAN do with this fun and engaging activity. Students will solve math problems, hunt for eggs, and solve clues to reveal the answer to a riddle. 

The Power of Movement During Test Prep

We all know that students do not need another set of worksheets --they need more engagement!

Activities like an Easter egg hunt:

• Break up long review sessions
• Get students moving (and that in turn increases focus drastically)
• Encourage problem-solving in a fun way
• Make learning memorable

Instead of dreading review days, students will actually look forward to them. 

Skills You can Review During Easter Math Activities

An Easter math egg hunt is perfect for spiraling key skills in 3rd and 4th grades. You can cover skills like: 

• Addition and subtraction
• Multiplication facts
• Long division
• Equivalent Fractions

With students actively searching, solving, and checking their answers, they stay engaged longer --and retain more. 

Easy Prep, Big Impact

The best part? These types of activities are incredibly easy to implement. 

All you need to do is:

• Print the math recording sheet
• Cut out the eggs and hide them around your classroom
• Give students the math recording sheet
• Let the learning review (and of course the fun) begin

Within minutes, your classroom transforms into an interactive learning environment.

For Easy Differentiation

These work well for easy differentiation. Students can work on different skill sets within the same classroom because different egg designs can be used, or you can copy the eggs on different colored papers if you choose the blackline version. Then all you have to do is show students which egg design or color they are looking for around the room and they can ignore all the others. 

The Testing Season

Remember, your classroom doesn't have to feel stressful. 

By combining: 

• Engaging math review
• Movement-based activities
• Fun Easter egg hunts

You create a space where students feel both successful and appreciated. 

And that's worth celebrating!

Final Thoughts

This Easter season, try shifting from traditional review to something more meaningful. When students are engaged, moving, and reflecting, they don't just review math --they experience it. 

That's when the real classroom magic happens. 

Click on the photos below for each separate resource or check out the bundled product at the top to save even more!

 

Five Things to do to Ease Back to School after New Years

I am not the kind of teacher to rush back and hit the books and new learning right away after Christmas break. I love to spend the first day back as a review day...some might call it a slow start. Here's a look at what I am planning to do my first day back. 

1. Start with time for talking. 

I think this one is very important. Students have been away from the classroom for two full weeks. They are excited. They are tired. Some don't want to be there. Let's face it, they need a few minutes to share and talk about their break, and hear about the breaks of others. I will be using a Rolling into the New Year activity to help with this. Students have a few minutes to talk with friends in a structured way. Using this is super easy. Students take turns rolling the die and then talking about the question they rolled. You can see it in the picture below. You can find this activity over here.  This resource is updated for each year, including this year. 

2. Review Rules and Procedures

Students need to be reminded of the rules. Anytime you are out for more than a weekend, it is a good idea to review. This could be done in fun ways like making it into a game or a fun and interactive quiz. 

I am going to use a true or false quiz that is fun and a bit ridiculous. For instance, I choose really outlandish things like: 

True or false, when entering the classroom late, you should pretend to be on the red carpet, walking with style and doing a few spins on the way to your seat. 

Students will smile, laugh and also remember what they are really suppose to do, because I will also have the real rules and procedures throw in such as: True or false, when entering the classroom late, you should come in quietly, close the door behind you, put your things at your desk and join whatever activity we are doing. 

You get the point. I would do this with every rule and then go over it together when everyone has finished.

3. Math Review

Instead of jumping in to a new concept in math, we are going to do a math review called Unlock the New Year. This review is by Cooties and Cuties and it is a quick countdown activity where students do a few review skills for each number on the board and then move toward the number 1 where they will get a few Hershey's kisses as a celebration for completing the challenge. 

4. Starbooks Cafe

Starbooks Cafe is a fun and relaxing way to get back into the swing of reading while reviewing several reading skills in a reading marathon. Students will get to sip a sweet hot chocolate while reading and responding to a book of their choice. 

I found this activity years ago online, but I do not remember where it came from. But you can see how I set this up over here.

5. Staff Appreciation Writing

I am adding in this new activity from hello_fifth on TPT. Students will choose one staff member and will write about why they are grateful for that staff member. It will give them a chance to work on their writing skills, but with a smaller task instead of diving right in to writing essays. It will also put a smile on the staff member's face when we give them out to each of them. 

As a bonus, this week, I have a part two of low cost New Year activities, so be sure to check it out as well.