You’ve been working all year on prepping for the state test… but once it’s over, what do you do now? Whether you still have weeks or just days left of the school year, you’re going to want to keep your students engaged. Keep reading to learn about 3 end of year activities that my students love!
1. Student-created board games
Do you want your students to show what they have learned this year? Have them create a board game! They can create the rules, the board, and question cards. This is a great end of year activity to sum up students’ learning, and to have some fun!
My requirements for the games are that they must include:
- 20 math questions (I usually require a certain amount from each strand)
- Simple rules (they love to make complicated rules that their classmates don’t understand)
- Student-created board to play the game on
I also allowed them to borrow dice and something to use as game pieces. It usually took students a few days to create all of their game elements.
Once the games were created, we held a game day where students got to play each of the games! This activity kept students engaged for days, and got them doing math!
2. “Numbers About _____” Projects
Do your students have topics that they’re interested in that they don’t often learn about in school? For example the Titanic, dinosaurs, sports history, or really ANYTHING. I’m sure they do! Researching high interest topics is an end of year activity your students will love!
But what if we put a math spin on it? Have students create “Numbers About _____” Projects (for example: Numbers About the Titanic) of their choice! Here’s how:
- Have students choose a topic that they want to research and brainstorm a list of questions about their topic. To make it math related, have them write questions that would have number answers. For example, “How many species of turtles are there?” “What year was the first dinosaur bone found?”
- Let students research and find the answers to their questions!
- Have students put their information together in a format of your choosing. They can make a PowerPoint, a poster, a video… the possibilities are endless!
- Get students to either present their projects to the class or show off their work in a gallery walk.
I love this project because, since students are researching a topic of their choice, they stay engaged! A bonus is that your class will get to learn about a lot of different topics when the projects are presented!
3. Amazing Race
I have played Amazing Race as a test prep activity and as a fun end of year activity. It’s great either way! If you’re not familiar with Amazing Race, it’s a show where participants race to locations around the world, completing challenges.
The Amazing Race classroom version is very similar! Students “travel” to locations, by solving a “route info” clue about a world landmark. Once they are there, they encounter a “roadblock,” where they must answer review questions to move on. After they have moved on, they have to take a “detour,” which involves a teamwork challenge. Then they’re ready for the next “leg” of the trip!
Do you need some materials to help you get started with your own Amazing Race? Grab my Amazing Race resource to get blank card templates! The templates are editable–just add your own challenges and you’ve got a creative activity for your students to complete!
What I love about this game is that you can make it your own. You can add as much review as you want (or none at all), and your students will have a blast!
Here are some of the places we’ve visited (the routes), along with the challenges students completed when they got there (detour):
- Egypt- Build a pyramid that has a base that is 5 cubes long and 5 cubes wide. The next layer should be 4 cubes long and 4 cubes wide. Continue the pattern until the top layer only has one cube!
- China- Using chopsticks, move 20 pompoms from a plate to a plastic cup.
- Australia- Hop, like a kangaroo, from one point to another with a balloon between your knees! One group member will need to hop from start to finish and back again, then pass the balloon to the next group member to repeat the process. It’s a relay race! Keep doing this until all group members have raced.
- Italy- Create a fake Leaning Tower of Pisa using plastic Easter eggs. Your tower must be able to stand, without falling over, and should be at least 1 foot high.
- United States- Put together a puzzle of the United States correctly.
Need more ideas for end of year activities? Check out these posts:
