Fun Last-Day-of-School Activities to Wrap Up the Year

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You’ve laughed together, learned from one another, and grown with every “Aha!” moment. Don’t just close the book on this academic year as it ends — the last day is the perfect time to celebrate the whole story. Use this unique opportunity to end your year with intention and positive memories. Countdown together by engaging in the last day of school activities that incorporate reflection, celebration, movement, and summer goals for every grade. 

Creative Last Day of School Activities for Elementary Students

Your students are buzzing with energy, their backpacks are stuffed with memories (and perhaps a few mystery crayons), and the classroom is alive with excitement. It’s the perfect time to celebrate all your elementary students have learned and how much they’ve grown. 

Celebrate creativity on the last day of school

Field day is over, and the desks are cleaned out. Everyone is ready for summer break, but you can still fill the day with fun and excitement. Harness the energy with fun last day of school activities that include movement and celebration. 

• Develop silly class awards: Have students create silly class awards for things they’ve used around the classroom, like their textbooks and pencils. They can then share their awards for a big laugh. 
• Create memory wall self portraits: Tack a large piece of paper on the wall and have students create two self-portraits, one from when they started the year and one from how they feel now. 
• Host a grade-level talent show: Get all your grade-level teachers involved and have a fun talent show. It should include your whole class and be fun and silly. 
• Host an animal dance party: Let kids pick their favorite animal and dance using animal moves.

Last Day of School Activities | Last Day of School Crown Craft | End of Year
By Second Grade Smiles
Grades: K-3rd

Celebrate that your students are moving grades by giving them a crown craft to finish the year. This activity includes fonts and a template that can be colored and worn.

Share memories and reflect on the year together

Your students have changed a lot from that first day. Help them to see the growth and changes they’ve made with fun last-day-of-school activities designed to share memories. These make a perfect addition to your end-of-year awards. 

• Create a campfire recap: Sit in a circle on the floor like you are around a campfire. Have each student discuss their favorite memory, joke, or lesson of the year.  
• Create compliment books to spread kindness: Give students blank journals and have them use markers, crayons, etc., to decorate a compliment book. Different classes can then get together, and all the students can write a compliment in each other’s books. 
• Design a hand and footprint path: Grab sidewalk chalk and head outside. Have each student trace their hands and feet on one of the sidewalk squares. They will then write a reflection near their foot and a goal for the new year near their hand. 
• Build a memory quilt of the year’s best moments: Give each student in your class a square of cloth to decorate with memories from the year. Tie all the squares together to create a memory quilt that can hang in your classroom or the hallway. 
• Compare growth with a now and then activity: At the start of the year, give students a piece of paper and ask them to separate it into “then” and “now” sections. Have them fill in the “then” section with things like favorite color, goals, etc. At the end of the year, have them fill in the “now” section.  

Last Week of School Activities for Second Grade (2nd)
By Cara’s Creative Playground
Grades: 2nd 

Give your second graders a send-off in style by making the last week one to remember through camera crafts, an autograph book, and fun printables. The bundle includes eight different activities to ensure your last week flies by. The activities can be easily downloaded and printed.

End of the Year Sunglasses Bulletin Board Craft and Writing Activity | Last Day
By Sweet for Kindergarten- Kristina Harrill
Grades: PreK-5th

Explore the brightness of your class’s future through a craft and writing activity. The resource includes a sunglasses template, writing lines with prompts, and blank lines.

End of the Year Memory Book {Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade}
By Haley O’Connor
Grades: K-2nd

This printable resource has all the pages for students to develop an end-of-year book to take home. It includes pages for their friends and teachers, proud moments, and goals. The pages are available in full and half sheets.

End of the Year Memory Book {Not Grade Specific}
By Michael Friermood – The Thinker Builder
Grades: 2nd-6th

While some memory books are more grade-specific, this resource includes five cover pages and 18 book pages to make it fully customizable. It also allows students to highlight themselves and moments they want to remember through “about me” and “our class” pages, as well as what’s happening in the world. 

Words of Wisdom – Letters to Future Students
By Life with Mrs Wasik
Grades: 1st-6th

Keep elementary students’ last day writing organized with two different versions and prompts to get the most out of their letter to their future self. The resource includes writing prompts for elementary students, generic words of advice pages, and a cover page. Its design makes it perfect for creating a classroom book.

Fun Last Day Of School Activities For Middle School

The wave of nostalgia that washes over teachers on the last day can be a force. You’ve watched the tweens and teens in your classes grow and change through the year. You’ve shed tears with them as they’ve overcome challenges and held their hands during times of struggle. Make the final day capture your class’s heart with these last day of school activities for middle school. 

Turn the last day into an exciting academic wrap-up with a twist

Just because it’s the last day doesn’t mean the learning needs to stop. Fill it with academic fun that gets those neurons firing. 

• Devise an escape room review: Plan out a DIY escape room for the last day. Students must use all the knowledge they have learned during the year to solve the riddles and unlock the mystery. 
• Play a time travel game: Create stations around the room with writing prompts for middle school related to the different things you’ve learned in the class. Tell students they are boarding an imaginary time machine and filling out the prompts to reflect on each moment in the class. Students can then share their reflections and explore how each person’s experience was different. 
• Create a year in review mystery box: Tell students you want to create a box representing your whole year. Have each student create an item to put in the box. You can then share the mystery box with your class the following year. 
• Build a comic strip reflection: Give students blank comic strips and have them create a comic based on their class year. Then, have them share their comics with each other. 

Set the stage for success with goals and achievement activities

You know that your students will do big things in the future. Help them see how amazing they are and continue to be by illustrating the goals they’ve crushed and setting new ones for the future. Recent research on middle school goal setting shows that students this age need to define goals specifically and successfully implement them to be naturally motivated to stick with them. Help them build a personally successful future with these activities: 

• Create a brag bracelet: Give your students a pipe cleaner and beads with letters on them. Have them create a bracelet that uses one word to describe a goal they achieved this year that they are proud of. 
• Draw a growth map: Get a large piece of white paper. Have the entire class work to create a timeline of their year. Each mark on the timeline should highlight a goal a student achieved. 

Draft a goal garden: Either give students a paper with outlines of flowers or have them draw flowers. They will fill in the centers of the flowers with goals they hope to achieve in the next school year or over the summer. They can then color their growth garden.

End of School Year Reflection Pages and Goal Setting for Summer and Next Year
By Success in Special Ed
Grades: 7th-10th

Send your students off with 12 interactive worksheets. These worksheets cover everything from celebrating the end of the year to next year’s goals. They can be used as part of games or just filler.

End of The Year Activities – Last Week of School Resource
By Addie Williams
Grades: 6th-8th

Go beyond the last day with this resource, which offers 18 activities for the last week. They cover the year in review, memories, goals, writing, and social media.

Summer Bucket List: Last Day of School & End of the Year Fun Activity
By Enhance SEL
Grades: 1st-8th

Create an engaging craft that helps students personalize their summer bucket list. The resource allows students to color, craft, and glue while encouraging them to set goals for summer. It also offers three SEL activities.

End of the Year Activities – Last Week of School Fun for Middle and High School
By Cara McLeod
Grades: 5th-10th

This resource offers over 30 activities for your students to try, including creating a teacher report card, course evaluations, a memory wall, and even a video activity.

Lasting Farewell Activities for High School

The last day of school is more than just a day on your calendar: It’s the final curtain call before summer break begins. It might even be the last day of high school before your students begin a new adventure in life. So, it’s the perfect time to ditch the routine and make memories one last time together. 

Whether your class was filled with deep discussions, chaotic group projects, or inside jokes that no one outside the room would understand, these farewell activities help you wrap things up with just the right amount of fun. 

Express student style through artsy wrap-up ideas

Lasting memories take a little bit of fun and a lot of paint. Let your students leave their mark, literally. Grab the paints and chalk and have some fun together. 

• Take a chalk walk: Choose a well-known trail around the school and have students leave positive messages, reflections, doodles, and advice with sidewalk paint or chalk. 
• Paint memory rocks: Have students paint images, words, or quotes on rocks and leave them around the school as a legacy trail. 
• Design a before I go banner: Take a large piece of white paper and have students fill it with drawings, inside jokes, advice, and signatures to welcome the class next year. 
• Make backpack dump art: Students will empty their locker or backpack and use the materials to make an art project celebrating their last year. 
• Film a Year-End Short: Use phone cameras to make a short movie or TikTok highlighting your funniest or best moments. You might even have them record advice for incoming freshmen. 

End of the Year Activities for Seniors High School Playlist Last Week of School
By The Supported Teacher
Grades: 11th-12th

Students choose 10 songs that sum up the year. The activity includes a teacher guide, directions, modeling, and writing prompts. Teachers also have access to a scoring rubric. The entire process can be completed in the final week of school.

Write a lasting ending by trying ELA last day of school ideas

The ending is something that needs to be written down. Encourage a future love of writing and reading through these fun ELA ideas. 

• Build poems from book spines: Students stack books so their titles create a short goodbye poem. 
• Summarize the year in a one-page Novel: Have students turn their school year into a one-page mini novel in groups or as a whole class. They can choose any genre, but the characters come from the class. 
• Bring a character to your real life: Choose a character from your curriculum and write a short story about them being in your school. 

Summer Bucket List End of the Year Activities
By The Scholar’s Source
3rd-11th

This PDF resource is a journal page that students can fill out with several bucket list prompts. It includes images and pages for summer goals and dream vacations.

Enjoy the last day with zero prep and maximum fun for any grade

Between collecting supplies, finishing upgrades, and trying to keep your students from bouncing off the walls, those last few days are a whirlwind. That’s why zero-prep activities can be the perfect solution to make a connection and still have a laugh. Whether you’ve got littles or teens, these will turn your final bell into a celebration to be remembered. 

• Develop a laugh chain: Have students stand in a circle. Each student does something funny to try to make the student next to them laugh. It goes around the circle. 
• Act out hidden talents: Every student has a hidden talent. Host a show in your classroom where students can stand out. 
• Describe the Year in Emojis: Have the students describe the year in emojis through their facial expressions. 
• Try to teach the teacher: Task the class with trying to teach you something that you might not know. 
• Recap the year through the alphabet: Have students take turns stating one word taht describes the school year: Start with A and work your way to Z. 
• Explain the year in six words or less: Challenge students to sum up the entire year in just six words. They should include the highs, lows, memories, jokes, etc. 

Wrap up the year with lasting memories through TPT activities

Things can go from 0 to 100 fast between the wild energy and end-of-year tasks. You can tame the chaos by engaging those busy minds with fun last day of school resources. While your students are laughing and creating final memories, you’ll get a few precious moments to feel at peace or high-five yourself for making it through another fantastic year.