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It’s that time of the year again…end of school year season! The end of the school year can come with a lot of different emotions: excitement, sadness, and mass CHAOS!! Some teachers show movies, others have extra play time toward the end of the year. It can be hard to decide what to do once you have taught all learning targets for the school year and you don’t really have time to start a big new unit.

Below, you will find some end of year ideas to do with your class that will help keep students engaged while still learning. Calm the chaos with the below activities:

Zoo Field Trip Activities and Parent Forms

Many classrooms go on field trips toward the end of the school year. A popular field trip destination is exploring your local zoo. Zoo field trips provide so many opportunities to learn about animals, habitats, science, life cycles, etc! Zoo field trip planning; however, can be stressful. Managing chaperones, making sure all students have everything needed, and staying organized can be tough. The below resource includes truly everything needed for a successful and smooth field trip experience. How do I know? This is what I use with my classes for our zoo end of year field trip! It is tried and true! If you are interested in checking this resource out, simply click the photo below!

Beach Day Activities

Another popular end of year day for many classrooms are beach themed days. These days are perfect to get you and your students into the summer spirit while having fun and continue to learn! You can learn about ocean animals, habitats and engage students in ocean/beach themed learning activities. Every year, my class has a beach day at the end of the school year and it is a hit! I decorate the classroom to look beachy, play island music in the background and just make our classroom feel like a beach oasis. The students tend to be so calm on these days and it really helps calm the end of year chaos!

Beach Day ideas:

• Water Balloon Toss: On beach day for my class, I allow students to come dressed in swimsuits with cover ups and bring a dry change of clothing. At the end of the school day, we engage in a very tame water balloon toss. The students simply partner up and toss the balloon back and forth.
• Fishing for sight words: I have a cheap inflatable kiddie pool I bring to school on beach day and cut out fish images with sight words on them. On the back of each card, I attach a small sticky magnet. I have a magnetic child friendly fishing poll that students use to “fish” for the sight words. They get to keep the fish if they read the word correctly and have to throw the fish back in and try again if it is not read correctly.
• Reading on Beach Towels: Students bring a towel or blanket to school, and we spend some time outside reading on our towels/blankets. Relaxing and educational=perfect combo!

We also take part in a scuba themed craft, ocean themed activities, and learn about ocean habitats and animals. Click on the photo below if you would like to see what my students love doing on beach day!

If you love both of these ideas and would love to stock up and save instead of buying both separately, it is your lucky day! I offer both of these amazingly helpful resources as a bundle in which you get a discount!

If you are in of many end of year activities and summer activities for children, both of these products are included in a mega bundle in which you save 20% off! This mega bundle includes 19 resources and over 500 pages of summer themed activities!

Happy (almost) summer break!

-Meredith