On the last day of school, the only thought on kids minds’ is how much time is left until hometime. To be honest, teachers are thinking the same thing too. There’s no starting of new projects, and holding everyone’s attention for longer than five minutes is a formidable task.
Here are some fun activities to do on the last day of school while you manage to squeeze in some quiet time to help you move last-minute tasks along before the bell goes.
Cleaning and Tidying
One mighty task that could be made much smaller by lots of little helpers is cleaning out the classroom drawers, desks, and nooks and crannies. Here are some fun last day of school activities that incorporate useful tidying tasks.
Blowing Bubbles to Clean Tables
Turn cleaning tables into one of the fun activities for the last days of school by showing the children how to blow bubbles on the surfaces using washing up liquid. You’ll need:
- A mixture of washing up liquid and water in a tub or bowl
- Straws for each child
- Cloths to wipe up with
- A cup
Pour a small quantity of the soapy water onto each table and hand out the straws. Show the children how to blow bubbles by putting one end of their straw into the mixture and blowing through the other end gently.
Once they’ve had lots of fun experimenting, hand out cloths and ask the children to help by wiping the tables clean. They might never have been so clean before!
Make tidying up easier, not just on the last day, but at the end of every day with some desk organisers that make it easy for everyone to remember where to put stationery. We like the Handi-Holder because it can be put in the centre of the table and accessed from all sides.
Exercise Books
We cover some ideas for what to do with old exercise books in our blog, including whether they should be kept or thrown away and whether they can be recycled. You might thank yourself on the first day of the next term if you spend some time going through old exercise books and getting rid of anything unneeded.
Scrapbooking
If your students aren’t taking home a bin bag full of exercise books then deciding on some favourite bits is a good idea (and parents will probably thank you!). When you’re coming up with activities for the last days of school, task each child with creating a scrapbook full of their ‘best bits’ from the year to get rid of old work.
You could ask them to use some blank pages at the back of an incomplete exercise book, or maybe show them how to put a scrapbook together by ripping pages out of old books and sticking them inside a cover.
Make the activity more fun by supplying lots of collage materials like mosaic pieces and ribbons. With a frenzy of craft bits and pieces and lots of glueing, table covers are a must. Choose a thick, waterproof table cover for each table to make sure you don’t have to plan another cleanup activity!
Hold Impromptu Presentations
Getting kids up in front of the class for last day school activities will expend some of that energy that never seems to run out. You can make this activity as large or small as you want it to be. It could even take up your whole last day with drinks and snacks for the audience to nibble on as each child takes the stage with a revised act as part of your school Christmas party plans. Try out these last days of school activities to get your students to express themselves and have a laugh.
Awards
This award ceremony will definitely get some giggles and the students will be able to take their certificates or awards home to show their families for a laugh too. Make up some ‘silly’ awards that will be awarded to the children, as well as some that focus on skills or effort. Get the kids to vote anonymously by writing the name of the person they think should win each award and putting them in assigned boxes.
Hold a ceremony afterwards and announce the winners. Have each winner come up on stage to collect their award. You could even ask them to say a few words as their acceptance speech. Here are some award ideas:
- Funniest
- Most sporty
- Most artistic
- Most likely to release a number one hit single
- Most likely to be a mad scientist when they grow up
- Most likely to be a spy when they grow up
Speeches
Do you need to come up with some activities for the last day of school that involve writing practice? This is a great short literacy activity. Each child will have to do little research and put together a short speech to read out to the class, helping them to practice public speaking skills too. Look back over the last year or term to think of some characters that the students have learnt about. You could choose from historical figures, authors of books you’ve read together, artists, or even fictional characters like the Grinch.
Assign the children a person, animal, or character or help them to choose their own. The students will then have to prepare a speech as their character. The speech could be about a specific achievement (for example, Charles Dickens could give a speech about writing Oliver Twist).
Include this in your list of fun activities for the last day of school party by handing out plastic champagne flutes of juice or pop so that the children can toast each speech-giver. If your school has a stage you could set this up at the front of the class.
Talent Show
If you want to offer the children more variety than simply speeches, hold a talent show. Letting the kids know about the talent show well in advance will give them time to practice for it. This practice time could be incorporated into your weekly schedule in the lead up to the last day.
You could ask the children to bring in costumes to really get into the spirit of their talent. Not all talents have to be performed. Quieter children could work on a project to show at the front of the class and explain what they’ve done such as a self-portrait or a story.
For more mathematically focused performance activities and games, take a look at our blog post on maths activities for the last day of school.
Preparing for Next Year
Getting students thinking about next year will be helpful in the long run, when everyone returns after the holidays. Try out these last day of school fun activities for helping the students get excited about what’s in store.
Find out more ideas for back to school activities after Christmas in our blog.
Write a Letter to the Next Class
Practice letter writing while revising what’s been covered in the school year. This activity can be carried out individually or as a whole class, where you write the letter on the board. The letter should be addressed to the new group of students entering the school year after your current class. Here are some ideas for things to include:
- What was the most fun during the school year?
- What is the most important thing you learned?
- What is the most interesting/surprising/funny thing you learned?
- Tips and tricks to get through the year
- How to get good marks in year __
Think about Next Year During Circle Time
If you simply need a quick activity that doesn’t require much preparation, you could use the next school year as a topic during circle time at the beginning or end of the day. Prompt a discussion by asking the children what they think their next school year will be like, what they think they might be learning about and how it will be different.
Team up with another teacher to get a ‘cheat sheet’ from the class above that you can read out to your students, and discuss the tips the older kids have given. If you wanted to turn this into a larger activity, you could arrange a question panel with students from the class above where your students can ask questions by putting up their hands.
A soft, comfy, brightly coloured circle time mat is a must for any classroom with younger children to encourage them to engage during circle time activities. We like the Children of the World Ultrasoft Mat, perfect for any pre-school Christmas activities or end of year activities like this one.
Teacher Reports
Prepare yourself for a class assessment! Turn school on its head for one of the most unusual last day of school writing activities. Invite your students to write a report on their teacher. Not only is this a fun activity that will help your students to bond with you and feel more comfortable communicating, but you might also get an insight into their experience of your teaching.
The report should include what they like most about their teacher and what they would like their teacher to do differently. You could also include questions about their favourite parts of school or times of the school day. Encourage the students to think about their own reports or you could even look over some old reports together. This is a good opportunity to see how much they’ve grown and build up confidence in their achievements.
Add to the fun of this exercise by giving the students stickers to stick on their reports like these English achievement stickers.
Autographs and Farewell Messages
Getting the students to write farewell messages for each other is always a welcome friendship activity that promotes bonding and confidence, encouraging all of the students to socialise together, even outside of friendship groups. These are two creative ways for students to give each other goodbye messages for the holidays.
Body Outline Messages
Children will need to work in pairs for the first step in this activity. One student lays down on a large sheet of paper while the other draws an outline around them and writes their name on the top. Then task the children with working their way around and writing or drawing goodbye messages inside each person’s outline. Using a roll of poster paper is ideal for this activity as you can rip off different sized pieces.
If you’re coming up to the Christmas holiday, hand out some festive metallic crayons for the kids to write with.
Customised School Bags
Forget the usual plain t-shirts that everyone writes on at the end of the school year. Hand out plain tote bags and get kids to do the same, except this time they can put all their old school exercise books and work in them to take home at the end of the day!
At only £6.99 for five, these plain bags are a great choice for students to take home something really special that reminds them of their friends at school and can be used for carrying and storing school materials.
Check our ultimate Christmas school activities guide for ideas to fill up the days before the Christmas holidays. If you need a breather, we also list the only Christmas worksheets you’ll ever need.
