Thinking Ahead to Next Year
Invite your students to leave behind advice for those who will follow in their footsteps or to write informative letters to the teachers who will teach them next year.

Create a Class Yearbook
Create keepsake yearbooks of memories about the school year that's ending.

Students Offer End-of-Year Feedback
This feedback form gives learners an opportunity to reflect on their personal growth this school year.
 

An Autograph Book from Yesteryear
Explore a school autograph book from the 1880s, and invite students to create contemporary versions.

Math Bingo
Adapt the game Bingo to provide math-facts practice for K-12 students.

Design a Poet-T
Turn plain white T-shirts into fabulous poet-T's.

Produce a TV Commercial
Challenge students to create their own new breakfast cereals. Each student will create packaging and a TV commercial pitch to go along with it. Videotape students as they present their TV commercials!

Alpha Autobios
Invite students to create their own alphabetical autobiographies. Here's an example: "A is for Arkansas; that's where I was born. B is for Bonnie; that's my sister's name. C is for Cub Scouts; That's my favorite activity."

ABC Books for Days!
Adapt the ABC book idea, and challenge students to learn about a topic they want to explore. For example, students might be interested in the Civil War, music, authors, Hawaii, sports, or plants. Are you looking for more ABC book ideas? The Education World story ABC Books Aren't for Babies offers more than 200 of them!

Classroom Scrapbook
Gather samples of student work that you've been setting aside all year long, and invite students to make a Fourth-Grade Scrapbook.

Egg Drop!
Many schools save the last days of school for their annual "egg drop" activity. Each student works within guidelines to fashion a container for an egg so that the egg won't break when the student drops it from an established height -- the school's third-floor window, for example. To read more about the classic egg drop activity, see the Education World story Why All the EGGS-citement About EGGS?

A Little Drama!
Another idea for fun and education -- put on a play! Students might write their own script, or you might use a script you find online. If you're looking for a great resource, see the Education World story All the Classroom's a Stage!

Reading Theme Days
Keep kids reading right up to the last bell by offering special classroom or schoolwide reading theme days. You'll find tons of ideas in the Education World story Reading Activities for Read-In!

Scavenger Hunt for Info
Plan a scavenger hunt for information! Develop questions for books in your classroom library, or create a list of five questions for each volume of a set of encyclopedia. When students find all five answers in the, let's say, C volume, the teacher can check the answers. Then the student grabs one of the volumes that isn't being used and tackles the five questions related to that volume. Give prizes to the students who come up with the greatest number of correct answers!

Online Scavenger Hunt
If the computer lab is free, you might want to challenge students to complete an online scavenger hunt. You might use one of Education World's weekly Internet Scavenger Hunts or, if you'd prefer to have all students work on the same scavenger hunt, you might use another Education World activity, Brush Up Those Study Skills: An On-Line Scavenger Hunt.

T-Shirt Memories
Each student brings a white T-shirt to school on one of the last days of the year. Each student paints his/her hand with bright-colored paint on a shirt; then each student pressed his or her handprint onto the T-shirt. The students signed their names under their handprints. Finally, students went around to one other's desks and collected autographs using thick, pointy-tipped, permanent black markers to sign the T-shirts.

Tin-Can Ice Cream
Cara Bafile, a former classroom teacher and an Education World writer, shared one of her favorite activities -- making tin-can ice cream. Of course, ice cream is good any time of year -- but this activity is a great small-group activity for the last days of school!

"I got the recipe for tin-can ice cream from my mother, who got it from another teacher," said Bafile. "It's one of those teacher hand-me-downs with no particular source. I have seen some similar recipes using self-sealing plastic bags, but I can vouch for this one -- you'll make the best ice cream you'll ever have!"

This recipe makes about 3 cups of ice cream, Bafile noted. Teachers might adapt the recipe, depending on the size of the group or whether they want small groups of students to make their own batches.

Tin-Can Ice Cream
(Ice cream without an ice-cream maker!)
Ingredients:

1 cup milk
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (pure vanilla extract works best!)
Other materials needed:
1 small coffee can
strapping tape (It's the only tape I've found that will hold the lid tightly in place.)
1 large coffee can
1-1/2 cups rock salt
crushed ice (2 bags)
a rubber spatula
spoons, cups, and bowls

Mix the ingredients in the small coffee can and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Tape the lid on the can securely with strapping tape. Place the "filled" small coffee can inside the large coffee can. Pack the large can with crushed ice around the smaller can. Pour at least 3/4 cup of rock salt evenly over the ice. Place the lid on the large coffee can and tape securely with strapping tape. Roll the can back and forth for ten minutes. Then open the outer can. Remove the inner can. Remove the lid and stir the mixture with a rubber spatula. Scrape the insides of the can. Do not allow mixture to become liquid. Replace the lid on the small can. Tape securely again. Drain the ice water from the larger can. Insert the small filled can. Pack it with more ice and salt. Roll it back and forth for five more minutes. Enjoy!

More IDEAS:

* A 'Boring' Lesson in Geography
* Invent Your Own Poetry Form: An End-of-the-Year Activity
* Phone Book Math
* Mystery States Game
* It's Up for Debate
* Math Fun -- Volume 1
* Math Fun -- Volume 2
* We've Got News for You (Activities for Teaching With the Newspaper)
* Make the 'Write' Impression
* More 'Write' Stuff
* Ten Games for Classroom Fun
* Don't Waste a Minute
* Crisscrossing the Country: Scavenger Hunts for Kids of All Ages
* Rock or Feather: A Critical-Thinking Activity
* ABC Books Aren't for Babies
* A Month With No Holidays? Make Up Your Own
* Whiteboards Stimulate Student Learning
* Summer Reading Lists Abound on the Web
* Kids Learn About Differences from A Walk in Your Shoes
* Student Essays Describe 'Perfect' School
* Interest Grows in Checkbook Math Lessons
* Wax Museum Biographies Teach and Entertain
* Students Create a Virtual Tour of Their Community