5 End-of-the- year activities - P1

5 End-of- the- Year Activities – Part I

Closing the school year is always complicated because we have too many reports, tests to mark, test to re-take, conferences with parents and the list goes on.

This post will help you to think of 5 different ways to close this school year

1. Going on Holidays

It’s always motivating to start talking about holidays because that way you feel they are closer to you, so anxiety reduces and the atmosphere is happier.  However, you cannot spend 40 minutes just “talking” about this topic, let alone if you still have a month ahead.

You can adapt this activity on how much time you have before the last day.  I thought you could work on a problem-based activity. The benefits are many:

For the teacher:

☺   You can adapt it to any vocabulary item that you have studied and you want to recycle and teach a new one.

☺   You can add as many steps as you want in order to fill your schedule. BE CAREFUL!!!! Don’t  make it too long because it’ll bore the students and they will stop participating.

☺   You can see your students actually using the language and not just repeating chunks that they have learnt.

For learners:

☺   They can work on activities that look like something they would do outside the classroom.

☺   They can work with authentic materials.

☺   They can apply the four linguistic skills.

The problem might be from something easy as “We are going to Hawaii, what should we pack?” to something more complicated as “We have this budget where can we go and have the longest holiday for the lowest price”

No one knows your students, better than you do. The sky is the limit. BE CREATIVE!!!

2. Celebrations

In your class, there may be students from different origin, religion or belief. This can give you many ideas. Most of the cultures have some kind of end- of-the- year ritual or tradition, so you can devote some time to these celebrations (like Christmas, Hanukah, or whatever you celebrate)

I thought of writing down in cards some facts that we knew about them and then sharing them and discussing if they are facts or myths.

I love food, so I love it when students bring something and share it with the class; like “show and tell” but more like “eat and tell”. Everyone loves this activity!! (First, check allergies!!!)

3. New year

The end of the year gives us the possibility to balance all the experiences we have gone through and plan new objectives.

You can do the same thing with your class; it can be personal or related to school. I’ve found that personal issues are sometimes harder to tackle because not every group wants to devote some time to that, let alone sharing it. So, what I’ve found useful is thinking of academic/ professional objectives.

If they write them down, they can check them by the end of the following year – which usually never happens because they lose them.

Some years ago, with a group of students we wrote letters to our future self and we kept them in a “trunk” (it was actually a beautifully decorated shoebox). At the end of the year, we read our own letter and we wrote a reply. It was very moving.