End with a Bang! 10 Ideas for Mind-Blowing Last Lessons
The end of the year is a wonderful time to take advantage of the electric energy in the air. Students are in the mood for entertaining and social activities.
Be sure to end your school year with a bang by employing some of these creative and fun ideas for memorable last lessons!
Try These 10 More Mind-Blowing Last Lesson Ideas
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1
Class Collages
There are several ways to do the class collages. Students can each create their own class collage which you will then display on the last day of class. The collage should include drawings, sayings, cutouts from newspapers or magazines, and some class work. Allow time in the last few class periods for them to assemble their collages and work together.
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2
Class Awards
Say a few words for each students. Describe their personality or recollect some memories you have of them. Then have the class add in their input about each particular student. You can then have little trinket awards for topics like: the most positive, the most improved, the best artist, the best comedian, etc. You can also involve students in the class awards and have them vote either ahead of time or on the spot. This is also a great way to review personality vocabulary as well as superlatives.
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3
Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts within the classroom or on school grounds are a lot of fun to make happen. It takes some planning, but you can come up with clues that sets of teams must find in order to locate prizes, surprises or more clues for the one final big prize! You can also just give them a list and have them gather as many items as they can on the list. Then hand out prizes at the end. Be sure to involve the elements of language that they have been studying throughout the year.
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4
Get Outside
Find ways to get outside on the last days of classes. Students love the break in routine and if you can be outside for an entire class period, that will add to the energy level of the class. You could play games that allow the class to be noisy, play charades or I-spy, read stories, or have a snack and some discussion. Be sure that with younger learners you set clear boundaries and rules for the privilege of being outside.
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5
Play a Class Power Point
If you have taken photographs throughout the year, putting together a class Power Point is very easy to do. You can add music, words, and animations and assemble as many pictures as you would like. Play it for them as part of the last class and then make CD copies for each student to take home.
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6
Feedback
It is important that with all the fun and entertainment at the end of the year, that you also make some time to gather student feedback. Create a class survey or poll that focuses on your teaching style, their favorite lessons, things to improve and what they learned. These can be informal and also discussed or kept confidential. Getting feedback about the year is important for teachers and asking open-ended questions will get the students writing comments and makes for more significant responses.
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7
Games and Snacks
Food always helps in creating an atmosphere of fun and relaxation. Do a large review in the form of one game or various games. Provide snacks for them to munch on while they play. You could also play games that the students really like and then have prizes of food or surprise them with something sweet like cupcakes or donuts!
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8
Story Time
Students like to read and also like to share. Have each student bring in their favorite book or story and read it out loud to the class. Another option for this is to take a vote on the students’ favorite stories. Then put them into groups and have them act out the stories for the last day of class with or without sound. Students can practice this in the days leading up to the end of the class, and it makes for some really fun lessons and review.
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9
Book of Class Tidbits
This provides the students with a class memory book. You can put them together or have students work to assemble the book during the last weeks of class. You will want to include a page or two for each student and provide quotations, photos, and excerpts of their work. The class could also come up with a theme for the booklet and design the cover artwork for it. On the last day of class you can present it to them as their parting gift, and then students can autograph each other’s books!
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q
Make Postcards
Creating postcards is a wonderful way to incorporate a lesson on summer vacation. Have postcard-sized card stock ready to go for students. Then bring in some sample postcards as models. Students can create the artwork for the front of their postcards on the last day of class using paints, markers, and magazines. Student could write them out to classmates and mail them over the summer or they could save the cards to use how they would like.
Putting the time and effort into celebrating students’ accomplishments of yet another year gone by is extremely rewarding.
Your students will leave the class ready for their next encounters and energized by the care you took with them. For teachers these are the memories that make it all worth it.
