4 Ways to End the Year Strong and Celebrate Learning

I don't know about you, but during my first few years of teaching, by the end of the school year I was dead tired and didn't have the energy to give my students time to reflect on and celebrate how much they'd learned.  I was teaching right up to the end of the year, throwing in a few fun last week activities, and then packing up and running towards my bed to sleep off my exhaustion!

But after I got better at time management and I wasn't as tired as previous years, at the end of the year I started taking the time to have some discussions with my students about what they'd learned during the year.  Those discussions were so enlightening for both myself and my kiddos, that now I'm hooked.  

Fast forward a few years, and I have a routine for how we celebrate and reflect on our growth and progress each year.

First Way to Celebrate: Student Publishing

The first way we celebrate our learning is by publishing our best piece of writing from the year. A few months before school ends, I give my students time to look through the texts they've authored throughout the year.  

We do everything in Google Classroom so it's easy for them to look back at each piece.  I ask them to select the piece that makes them the proudest.  I explain that they will celebrate themselves as a writer by publishing this piece as a memento of 5th grade.

The website I use for publishing is called Student Treasures.  This company offers many different ways students can publish, and some are even FREE.  I encourage you to check out their website. 

Our 5th graders don't bring home many memories like those littles do in lower elementary, so a professionally published piece of writing is the perfect memento to sit out on that open house table in a few years.

Second Way to Celebrate: Classroom Reading Celebration

Secondly, we also celebrate all of the reading we've accomplished throughout the year! We keep track of how many books we read for our classroom book challenge.  Students keep track in their reading binders and I keep track on my classroom door.

Here are the sheets my students use to track their progress.  Click on the link or the picture for more information - Book Challenge Recording Sheets.

 

Here is a photo of how I keep track of the books I read aloud to the students and that I read to myself on my own time.  

If you're interested in the editable poster for your door click HERE  or the picture below to grab it for FREE.  

How do we celebrate the books we've read?  A few weeks before the end of the year, I give students time to count up their total of finished books.  We compare their total to their beginning of the year goal.  Then we celebrate, usually with ice cream and a showing of a movie that goes along with one of our favorite books.  

Even if a student didn't reach their goal, we still celebrate all of the reading they did accomplish.  Lastly, I give them time to talk about goals for next year so they can start reading over the summer!

This is a great time to talk about how to get a library card, show students how to log in and use the local library's website and encourage families to take their kids to the library over the summer.

Reflection Journal Prompts

Another way we reflect on our learning is with these end of the year reflection journal prompts.  We take a few minutes at the end of each class period to think about what we've learned as readers and writers.  We talk about the strategies that have helped us most this year, the growth we've made and our favorite and least favorite books and texts we've written.  

It's so nice to take this time to rehash all that's happened throughout the year and it really helps my students and I to realize how much we've learned.

Reflection prompts are a quick question that your students can respond to in their journal or electronically and share with a partner or the class.  

If you want some that are already created for you, click these links or the picture below - End of Year Reflection Reading Response Prompts or End of Year Reflection Writing Response Prompts.

School Wide Celebration

Lastly, a final way to celebrate learning with students and even families, is to host a school wide learning celebration family night.

Our celebration focuses on writing.  We invite families into the building and we celebrate our students' writing growth by passing out the Student Treasures published books.  

During the celebration, we give students time to share the books with their families and friends.  Students also show their families their Google Drive where all of the writing pieces from the year are located.  They show off those pieces as well.  Then we encourage students to write a new piece with their family.  It's usually poetry about their memories from this school year.  I put these finished poems into a classroom memory book for the students to keep.

Click the link or the images below to access the print or digital versions of the End of the Year Memories Poem Freebie that I created for my students.

      

We also give out cookies and juice. Students and families are split up into groups and they travel the building together to each station - published books, computer labs, poetry.  This is also a great time to highlight your huge pile of lost and found materials for families to look through and take home.

I hope these ideas inspire you to begin celebrating all you've accomplished with your students this year too.  Let me know how it goes in the comments below!