I have 23 school days left before this year is over for me and my students. I don't know this because I'm just so anxious to start my summer break that I've started counting. I'm just that close so it took me about 30 seconds to find a calendar and count them up. For many of my readers, it will be even less than that. So, the question is: How do you want your year to end? How do your students want their year to end? To borrow T. S. Elliot's wording in The Hollow Men, "Not with a bang but a whimper"...? Hopefully not.
As I think back on endings in my life, there are two things that are important. One is seeing it as the opportunity for something new to begin. The other is being able to wrap up and find closure on what is coming to an end. Some of the most memorable endings included parties, dinners, poems, yearbooks, memory t-shirts, and song. (Below is the Muppet version of a song that my dance class performed with the entire dance troupe at the end of every year end recital. Enjoy!)
Anyway, here are a few ideas if you are looking for some:
1) Look at these online printables that are useful for younger kids.
2) Check out these activity ideas that are useful for a variety of ages and events.
3) Write letters. Have students write to themselves about goals they want to accomplish during the next school year. Have students write encouraging letters to each other about what they appreciate about each other and possibly see each other doing in the future. Write encouraging letters to your students and lamenate them so they become keepsakes and future sources of encouragement.
Enjoy your final few days with your students! Make them count!
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