End of Year Ideas and Activities for Upper Elementary Classrooms

The end of the school year is hectic and exhausting! 

The end of the school year + distance learning is even more hectic and exhausting! Take a deep breath and get ready to wrap up the year with some amazing and digital activities to end your school year in style, make lesson planning a snap, and keep your students on their toes. #teacherwin

I love wrapping up the year with amazing end of year read alouds, hands-on activities, and projects to spark all the wonderful memories we made throughout the year. Here are some of my favorite projects to wrap up the year.

Keep Them Learning

As the year begins to wind down, keep the routine and normalcy of learning intact. This will help students stay focused and engaged during the final weeks of distance learning. The best activities to keep students engaged and motivated at the end of the school year are projects. I love having students work independently on projects that tie together all of the learning that they did all year long! Some of my favorite independent projects for students with tasks specifically designed for students to work at their own pace independently and include scoring rubrics to make correcting a snap are:

• Math Performance Task PBL
• Biography Research Projects
• Endangered Animal Research Projects
• Ocean Animal Research Projects
• FREE End of Year Writing and Create Your Own Math Game Project

Celebrate Students and Staff

I love to celebrate students and staff members at the end of the school year. I also love to help students celebrate one another and teachers, too. The year that I started teaching fifth grade, which is the last grade level in the school, I started to have my students send Staff Shoutouts. These are always a big hit with my students and my colleagues. During the last week of school, students send at least five shoutouts to former teachers and staff members who they want to thank and recognize as an important part of their lives. When we are in school, students would complete the shoutout form and then secretly tape it to the door of the staff member to surprise them. They are so much fun to send and to receive!  These FREE shoutout forms have gone digital, so you can have your students send them this year, too!

Here are some more ways to celebrate others at the end of the school year:

• Student Recognition Awards (Freebie)
• Staff Shoutouts (Freebie)
• End of Year Thank You Cards
• End of Year Awards and Tags

Bring on the Memories

What is May or June without reminiscing about the school year? I love to offer students new and different ways to celebrate memories, different from traditional memory books they may have made in the past. One way I do this is by having students write ABC end of year poems. It is a great (and challenging) way to get students brainstorming and writing about the amazing year we had together. Another one of my favorite twists on the traditional end of year activities is student expert books. For this project, students create a flipbook of all the different things that they learned throughout the year that made them expert readers, writers, mathematicians, historians, tech specialists, and team players. These are great memory books and keepsakes for students to bring home to their parents to truly show what they know!

• End of The Year ABC Memory Poem
• How to Be a 3rd Grader (with templates for 2nd-5th graders)
• Student Expert Books (with templates for K-5th graders)
• Bio Poems

Don't let the end of the (distance learning) school year be stressful for you, your students, or their parents. Wrap up your year with engaging activities to make the rest of the school year stress-free and extra memorable.

Looking for more ways to keep students engaged this end of school year season? Check out some of my favorite websites to assign meaningful activities to your students.

47

Must Watch Memorial Day Videos for Upper Elementary

If you follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, then you know that I truly respect American holidays like Veterans Day, Memorial Day, and Flag Day and love to bring the patriotism behind them into the classroom.

When the calendar is turned to May, Memorial Day is front and center in my upper elementary classroom. You can find my students knee-deep in learning about this important holiday through close reading, content writing, and critical thinking activities, such as comparing and contrasting Veterans Day and Memorial Day.  I love teaching students how to differentiate between American holidays and understand the history behind each.

No matter how you involve your students in learning about Memorial Day, these FREE Memorial Day videos will inspire, educate, and motivate your students to learn more about our American holidays. And bonus...you can grab a set of note-taking graphic organizers for free at the bottom of this post, perfect to help your students take notes as they watch these educational videos.

Note: As with any video, website, or resource that you bring into your classroom, be sure to preview each video before sharing with your class to make sure that they are appropriate for your cohort of students.

History of Memorial Day PBS Kids 1 min 40 seconds

This quick, fast-paced video is the perfect introduction about Memorial Day for upper elementary students. The history and origin of the holiday are included, making it a great jumping-off video to watch before your Memorial Day lessons even begin.

Why Do We Celebrate Memorial Day? by Clarify by PlayBac 4 mins 38 seconds

IClear and easy to follow, this video reminds students WHY we celebrate this holiday. This video ends by reminding students this is an important holiday that is more than just BBQing. Lesson complete!

Why Do We Celebrate Memorial Day? by Xsploor 11mins

This is the longest video and explains in kid-friendly language why Memorial Day is celebrated. Students will learn a lot from this video.

BrainPOP and BrainPOPJr varied times around 5 minutes

While Brainpop and Brainpop Jr are {amazing} subscription websites, they do offer free videos of the week. When May begins, they usually have free videoes of the week related to America and Memorial Day. Be sure to check their sites weekly to see what free videos they are offering that week. If you are unfamiliar with these sites, Brainpopjr is geared towards grades 1-3 and Brainpop is geared towards 4th grade and older.

BrainPOP does have a video specifically about Memorial Day, while BrainPOPJr offers videos related to America and US Symbols that are usually FREE during Memorial Day Week.

No matter how you decide to bring Memorial Day (and other American holidays) into your classroom, include these videos. Search through these websites to engage students, too.  Have students take notes, summarize, discuss, or just enjoy the information they are learning in different ways to honor our soldiers and learn about important American history.

You might be interested in these activities:

Memorial Day

Flag Day

Veterans Day

Love these ideas? Pin and save for later!

7 Poetry Activities for At Home and Classroom Learning

One of my favorite things about April is that it is National Poetry Month! I love celebrating poetry all year long, but especially during April when we can spend even more time writing and reading poetry. In my classroom, we love to read classic poetry and new poetry, revisit with familiar and new poets, and of course, become poets ourselves, writing different forms of poetry all month long.

I especially love having students write poems because they are engaging for all levels of writers, including struggling writers. Writing poetry can also be therapeutic, serving as an outlet for kids to express themselves in positive ways, especially during difficult times.

Whether you are in the classroom teaching, teaching remotely through distance learning, or a parent looking for easy to implement and engaging poetry activities to help celebrate National Poetry Month this list is for you.

These activities are engaging, fun, and require little to no resources. Read more about each activity below and grab a FREE printable list of these poetry activities HERE.

Go on a Rhyming Hunt!

Anything that gets kids up and moving around, whether they are at home learning or in the classroom, is a win in my book! Begin this activity by having students travel around their environment with a plain piece of paper on a clipboard. This can be done inside or outdoors. Accompany the kids on the hunt. As you travel around, stop the kids and ask them to observe their surroundings. Have a student share a word that they observed and then allow two minutes for students to record all the rhyming words that they know for that word.

For example, if students observe a tree, they spend the next two minutes thinking of all the words that rhyme with tree. When you are done with your rhyming hunt, have the kids use the list of words to write a poem. All of the words that they recorded now act as a brainstormed list, making poetry writing even simpler!

Use Song Lyrics

What better way to engage students than with music? Most times, a song becomes a favorite or is "catchy" because of the flow of the lyrics. Have your students think about their favorite song and analyze the lyrics. Ask them these three questions to get them analyzing:

• Do they rhyme? 
• What is the rhyming pattern? 
• What makes that song's lyrics flow? 

Use any nursery rhyme or familiar song to model for students how to find the rhyming pattern and then let them analyze their favorites. Take it a step further and assign students a partner and have them compare and contrast the flow and rhyming pattern of both of their favorite songs.

Lessons Made Easy with Videos And Websites

If you are looking to integrate technology into poetry writing activities, these websites offer great introductory lessons and activities for teaching kids about poetry.

• BrainPop JR Visit Brainpop Jr. (these videos are appropriate for grades 1-3) and sign up for a free account to access these three videos to get your students excited about poetry writing. Simply search for Rhyming Words, Poems, and Writing with the Senses
• BrainPop Visit Brainpop (these videos are appropriate for grades 4 and up) and sign up for a free account to access these three videos to get your students excited about poetry writing. Simply search for Poetry, Similes, and Metaphors, Maya Angelou
• Storyline Online I can't rave about this site enough! I have used it for years with my students and they love it each year. This is a completely FREE site. Have your kids listen to a read-aloud of the book Clark the Shark which is filled with rhyming words. Go a step further and have the kids record the rhyming words that they hear in the book and then write their own poem using those words.

Who is Your Favorite Poet?

To this day, I still remember being a third grader myself and studying the poetry works of Shel Silverstein. I even had to memorize one of his poems and recite it to the class. I still have that poem memorized, it was the poem, Nobody. I loved it then and still love it today.

Poet studies truly immerse students in poetry and leave an impact on kids as readers and writers. I love teaching my students about the poets behind their favorite poems. You can assign a poet for students to research or allow them to write a biography report on any poet of their choice.

Some favorite poets to get you started are Shel Silverstein, Jack Prelutsky, Roald Dahl, and A.A. Milne.

Create a Digital Poetree Bulletin Board

I have a poet-tree bulletin board up all year long in my classroom. It is a spot to display our monthly poetry writing. The kids not only look forward to writing different forms of poetry each month and displaying it on the tree, but they also love to read and hear the poems of their classmates. Creating a digital bulletin board can be a little bit of work for the teacher, but it is a great way to display student poetry writing and share it with students. Grab my digital Poetree Bulletin Board activity for FREE at the bottom of this post and give it a try! The download includes all the necessary Google Classroom directions. Be sure to have Google Classroom to be able to do this activity with your students.

Acrostic Poetry with Any Item or Book

I love assigning acrostic poetry writing for my students for many reasons, but mostly because writing an acrostic poem can range from simple to challenging depending on your directions. If your students are home because of distance learning, have them try one of these two acrostic poetry activities:

1. Have students write an acrostic poem about their favorite thing in their homes. It can be a toy, game, pet, or family members.
2. Have students write an acrostic poem about a character in a book they are reading at home, or assign them to watch a story via Storyline Online, like Enemy Pie, and write an acrostic poem describing a character from the book.

This list of Acrostic Poem Lesson Ideas will also help you challenge students with acrostic poetry.

Write a Poem

If you are not with your students, you can still assign them a poetry writing activity. These three poetry writing activities are perfect for students to complete on their own as they require very little support.

1. Write a Free Verse Poem: This type of poem does not follow any rules. It allows students to write their thoughts and feelings in form of natural speech. You can assign students a topic or let them choose. Without any specific pattern rules students will have a chance to just write!
2. Pick a Color, Any Color: Color poetry is a fun form of poetry that students can write about for any topic at all. A color poem is a poem that uses one specific color to convey the mood the poet is trying to express. One type of color poem is written with the five senses about one specific color. Here is an example of a color poem that I wrote as a model for my students all about the color green:
   
   
   Green is grass kissed by the morning dew.
   Green means heavy coats away and light jackets come out to play.
   Green is children as happy as a puppy to play outside.
   Green is buzzing bees moving like racecars from flower to flower.
   Green signals warmer days are here.
   Green equals spring. 
   
   Encourage your students to pick an item, focus on its color, and then use their five senses to get the mood they are feeling about the color into poetic form.
3. Write About Yourself with a Bio Poem: What better thing to have students write a poem about than themselves? Bio poems are filled with emotions and personal thoughts. They allow the poet to express themselves through writing. While this form of poetry does follow a specific pattern, the sentence starters of this form of poetry give students clear direction on how and what to write. 

I hope these poetry activities give you some direction and many ideas on how you can celebrate poetry all year long, with an even bigger focus during April. Don't let remote teaching and distance learning stop you from celebrating National Poetry Month with your students. Poetry writing at home can be fun and engaging for your students with these easy-to-implement ideas. Be sure to grab this free resource to help encourage different forms of writing at home, too!

Looking for digital resources for direct lessons on poetry? 
Click HERE.

Love these ideas? Pin for later!

245