For many in the Western hemisphere and beyond, the school year ends in June or July. And what a year it’s been for schools! Online, offline, hybrid…whatever you’re particular challenges have been, here are some inclusive end-of-year activities to help round off this epic 12 months. If you’re still in school, you may just find something that helps put back a bit of sparkle and connection so read on.
Helping Students Feel Connected
In my international school, there is a significant turnover of students each year as families move on to new jobs or return to their home countries. As teachers, we are used to saying bye to leavers or welcoming new students at all times through the school year. We constantly have to monitor our students’ emotional states as they say goodbye to beloved friends, try to make new friends, and navigate staying connected.
Therefore, I always have my eye on ways to ensure students do not feel alone. In this year of sitting behind screens from afar, many students may be experiencing a sense of disconnection. The activities on this page will best be done in pairs or small groups so students have a meaningful task to collaborate on where they can practice their social and team-working skills.
Student-Created Games
Put students in small groups or pairs. They choose a topic from a list you provide, or from their notes. Create a game for individuals, pairs, or the whole class to play together. If you are luck enough to be in person, provide materials for them to create a physical game. If online, they could use an online gaming platform of their choice such as:
Opening up the options to students will lead to increased engagement. I’ve had students come up with great online games of their own using everything from Scratch to Youtube to Google Forms.
Cooperative Games
Students having fun, connect with each other, and all while using retrieval practice to try and get their learning to go that bit deeper before the year ends? Yes please!
My earlier blog post on cooperative games delves into the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of these activities. As before, students can create question sets for each other and then use them with a cooperative game template. For example, Race the Game is available as a print and digital bundle so it can be used for online, offline, or hybrid classes. As a ‘Well done!’ for getting through the year, you can grab it for free now!
Breakouts and Escape Rooms
Breakouts and escape rooms are the ultimate team-building activity. If you’ve experienced them yourself, you’ll know how much fun they can be. Teams quickly realise that everyone’s brainpower will be needed to complete the tricky tasks they face, so why not give your students a treat with an end-of-year challenge?
- Breakout Edu has games that can be played online or in person. Create an educator account and then use the filter to select ‘User Generated Games’ in your subject area. A digital game that will suit most ages is ‘Mindful Maddie‘. Although tagged as elementary, it’s challenging enough to keep tweens and teens engaged too. Plus, how perfect for students to head into their holiday with a reminder of how to manage their emotions after such a turbulent year!
- Teens and tweens will enjoy this mythology-themed breakout and learn a bit about pourquoi stories along the way. It can be used for online learning or printed, although students will need a device to enter their responses for each task.
Flipgrid Farewells
Flipgrid is a free app where students can record and respond to messages. Create topic-specific grids for students to end the year with some reflection and gratitude. Example topics:
- This Year’s Most Important Life Lesson
- What I Appreciate About My Classmates
- Favourite Memories of the Year
- Advice to Next Year’s Class
- (Lockdown) Vacation Ideas
- How to Stop the Summer Slide (ideas to maintain learning)
- ‘Most Likely To ___ During the Break’ Awards
- Share a Google Earth Tour of Your Dream Destination
- Create a Holiday Playlist
The great thing about Flipgrid is students can respond to each other’s videos with text or another video response. I like to set a minimum number of responses per student, and I allocate small groups to start the replies for each other so nobody is left out. Furthermore, students can use whatever language they prefer, as Flipgrid has a nifty subtitle feature that translates into many other languages! Sign up for a free account here.
Create a Time Capsule
Whether online or offline, students can curate their favourite moments and memories of the year. If you are in the classroom, they can use shoeboxes or any other container to hold photos, texts, small objects, QR codes…anything they can fit inside that represents their year. These containers can be put into a storeroom or somewhere else they will be safe and retrievable on a chosen specific date.
If online, students can use their email service to schedule an email to their personal account (not school in case they move on) for some time in the future. (Instructions for Gmail users are here.) They could either use the message itself as the time capsule with images, text, videos, and links. Alternatively, they could include a link to a folder in Google Drive, Dropbox, or similar containing all the memories they’d like to revisit. The advantage of a digital time capsule is that students will be able to receive it even if they have moved on from their current physical location.
Of course, because the audience is the students themselves they can include items that are meaningful to them in particular. They can also use whatever language(s) they feel comfortable using so this is a great way to have students take real ownership of the design and outcomes.
Have a Wonderful Break!
Hopefully you’ve been inspired to give one or more of these activities a go whether you are ending the year in front of screens or in front of students. If you’re still going, I hope you can select some of these for a bit of reflection at the end of your current unit. Best of luck to you and let’s all hope that the world is a bit calmer very soon.
Take care.
We’ve got this!
