Looking for fun ways to keep your students engaged and having fun right up until Summer Break? Here are 4 ideas you can use this week!
1) Play Your Own Play Day!
This activity was a massive hit with my students last year! Students work in groups to come up with a game students can participate in, including a fun name and poster! Students were also encouraged to use materials they already have access to at school to reduce costs including hula hoops, soccer balls, skipping ropes, paint and construction paper for signage (you may need to coordinate with your Phys. Ed department for use of supplies).
Not only is this a fun day outdoors, students work in groups and get to be creative! It's also an opportunity to work with other classes as well by inviting them to participate.
Teacher prep required: Minimal
Create a schedule so each
group has a chance to present their games and run their station. I had half the groups run their games in the morning, and then the other half of the groups run their activities in the afternoon and worked out great! We even had other classes join and it was a great opportunity for my students to take the lead and work together to help the games run smoothly!
2) Collaborative Games
Collaborative games are a great way for students to work together and tackle a fun and engaging problem! Last year, my students were given two collaborative challenges to complete:
Paper Cup Stacking
First, students were asked to work together to stack paper cups... without actually touching the cups! Students needed to work together to come up with a solution, and were given elastic bands and strings to help stack their cups.
Teacher prep required: Moderate
Teachers would need to provide students with paper cups, elastic bands and string to complete this activity.
Marshmallow Structures
My students were also challenged to create a structure with dried pasta and marshmallows. You can add an additional element of difficulty by asking students to ensure their structure can hold a certain amount of weight or withstand wind!
Teacher prep required: Minimal-Moderate
Teachers would need to provide students with dried pasta and marshmallows to complete this activity. A fan may also be needed if you require the structures to withstand wind. A reminder to double check about allergies before giving students the dried pasta and marshmallows to build with.
3) Open-Ended Math Problems
This activity requires students to apply what they've learned this school year to solve math problems - the catch is, there are MULTIPLE ways to solve! Find examples of open-ended problems here.
Teacher prep required: Minimal
Teachers will provide students with the questions and chart paper! Markers optional.
4) Collaborative Bulletin Boards
Creating a collaborative bulletin board was such a fun way to keep the hallway looking cheerful until the end of the school year! Last year, we made a summer bucket list board with all of the things we hoped to accomplish over the break. There are so many fun ones available on TPT - the one I used is from Art with Jenny K on TPT!
Another idea is creating a bulletin board from your current class to welcome your next class in September, or a decorative board to welcome others back to school come the fall!
Teacher prep required: Minimal
Teachers will provide students with templates or allow them to create the board on their own with materials you have in the classroom.
Check out this reel to see these ideas in action!