What’s more important in May or June than end of year ELA activities that students will actually enjoy? These are tried and true resources that cause my students to beg for more! You’ll also love the FREEBIE I’ve included… and that all of the activities require virtually ZERO PREP!
1. End of Year Digital Escape Room
After testing is over and students (AND TEACHERS) are just DONE, I have a hard time pushing my kids to keep working. Unfortunately, we don’t have a choice, but what we can do is make it fun. That’s where this End of Year Digital Escape Room comes in. It includes reading comprehension, figurative language, growth mindset, and more! This interactive and engaging escape is a great way to wrap up the year with a bang during those last weeks of school.
2. 10 EDITABLE End of Year Projects – Digital & Printable
I came up with this EDITABLE variety of 10 End of Year Projects when I was thinking of activities that my students would enjoy. In addition, I also wanted resources that would help show me what they learned, what went well, what could use improvement, etc. Students choose 5 of the 10 mini-projects to complete (or however many you would like them to do). Perfect for differentiation. There are tons of options! From explaining the skill(s) they have learned this year that they feel will be most helpful in the future to reflecting on challenges experienced, students have a variety of high-interest choices.
3. End of Year Activities – Digital & Printable
My students go crazy over these digital & printable End of Year Activities – Social Media Style! They print beautifully, both with and without color and are a great keep sake for students to remember the school year. This will keep your students engaged even when they’ve already checked out. As we all know, middle school students LOVE social media! These templates resemble popular social media platforms that students are familiar with.
If you would like the 3 resources discussed above as well as 4 more, you can save 20% by purchasing my End of Year Activities Bundle here!
4. SpongeBob Trial
I don’t know any middle school student who doesn’t have some knowledge of SpongeBob. This lesson was a great way to show students how important it is to provide evidence that supports their claim. To enable students to see how a “real” trial in court works, I showed each class this video that’s a mock trial made by students. It allows them to see what to include in an opening and closing statement as well as how to share their evidence. Keep in mind that you don’t have to do an actual “trial.” You can modify this based on your own needs, time constraints, etc.
Their job is to determine whether SpongeBob killed Mr. Krabs. Students are given evidence that supports that he did and did not commit the crime. I put students in groups, and then told them whether they were on the prosecution’s side or the defense. The kids had so much fun that they asked if we could do more lessons like this! Access the entire lesson with directions included here. Disclaimer- I did not create this lesson. There are variations of the lesson all over the internet. This is one I found and put into Google Slides. You can print, or do the entire assignment digitally.
What activities do your students enjoy at the end of the year? I’d love to hear about them in the comments. I wish all of you a speedy last few weeks of school and hope you have an AMAZING summer!
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