Activities for the Last Day of School

"How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."

- Winnie the Pooh

Today was the last day of school. Half of my class has now had me as their grade six and seven teacher and we have built solid relationships and had a lot of fun. I thought saying goodbye to students after one year of teaching them was hard. Hah! Saying goodbye to them after two years is much worse! Alas, they are not my kids and need to be returned to their parents. 

To help brighten what I thought might be a less than joyful morning for some, I planned a bunch of fun activities to keep them busy and excited! The distraction worked really well until it was time to leave. Read on to see what we did. 

How to Survive a Year in Mrs. Fully's Class

Students worked in partners to design an 11 by 17 inch page of life tips for my future students. I gave them a large blank space so that they were not restricted by lines. Enjoy the entertaining samples below. 

Popsicle Picture Frames

Originally, I wanted to gift each of my students with a picture frame and a copy of a photo taken on our last hike. Then I noticed the price of picture frames and decided that providing students with supplies to make their own frame made a lot more financial sense.  

I went to the dollar store and picked up many bags of Popsicle sticks, hot glue sticks, and a few decorative clothes pegs. Over my years of teaching and volunteering at summer camp I have accumulated a lot of crafting supplies. We had sequins, ribbons, glitter, fake flowers, pom poms, paint and basically anything else you could want to create with. 

Students each received a class photo, as many Popsicle sticks as they wanted, and glue guns. They created some super cute picture frames to take home with them!

Beach Ball Words of Encouragement

This didn't exactly turn out as planned because we ran out of time. My original idea was to provide each student with a beach ball and sharpie, have them write their names on it, then pass it around a circle of students and have everyone write something they appreciated and loved about that person on the beach ball. When the beach ball returned it would be filled with encouraging words. 

What actually happened: We handed out the beach balls and sharpies, wrote our names on them, and then recess started a bit earlier than I anticipated. After a class vote, we decided to stay in at recess to very quickly sign everyone's beach ball with our names only. Then they took their beach balls out for recess and had their friends write words of encouragement on them. 

If I do these activities again next year, I will make sure I've collected student locks from lockers, handed back all work, and also confirm that my class will be with me for the full morning without an interruption for Daily Physical Activity. This way we will have more time for signing beach balls. 

Hopefully some of these ideas are useful for you in your own classroom! My kids loved them :-) Thanks for reading!