Children always look forward to the end of school each year, thinking about the vacation months to come and the fun things they will do. To provide the perfect closure for students, it is always good to do an activity that rewards the effort they have put in the whole year, and that helps strengthen the bonds between them. In this article, we give you memorable end of year class party ideas for students and teachers.
Additionally, given the surge in COVID-19 cases, certain virtual end of year ideas were added to accommodate this situation. Virtual school is no excuse not to underline the hard work that took place during this odd pandemic school year.
11 ideas to make the end of the school year special
Here are 11 ideas to make the end of the school years special for students:
- Recap video
- T-shirt autographs
- Yearbooks
- Themed party
- Paper ball battle
- Autograph sheets on a body outline
- Mime game
- Award to the most…
- Message jar
- Dancing contest
- Cooking challenge
1. Recap Video
If you have audiovisual material and photos of activities that you have done throughout the year, you can create a fun tribute video with all the most extravagant images of the class students. Turn off the lights of the classroom and have some popcorn ready to remember altogether the beautiful year that went by so fast.
2. T-shirt Autographs
Teachers can make a bake sale or ask children to bring plain colored shirts to school on the last day. These shirts must be of light color. You can instruct the children to soak their hands in paint colors and put them on the t-shirts, you can also allow them to paint their designs. After the paint has dried, students can take turns signing their classmates’ shirts with special pens for writing on fabric.
3. Yearbooks
While the students are enjoying their vacations, not all of them have the same opportunities to see their classmates. It is a good idea to ask the children to fill out a memory book on the last day of school and create an autograph section.
It is advisable to create the memory books well in advance, dedicating some pages to ask questions about the school year so that the students can answer them in their books. Leave plenty of space for them to write their answers and include photos. Here are some questions you can ask:
- What is your favorite activity from this school year?
- What is the most interesting thing you have learned?
- What was the funniest thing that happened this year?
- Which field trip did you like?
- What are the names of your new friends?
- What surprised you this year?
- What are your plans for the holidays?
4. Themed Party
Looking for a lovely school year party idea? Each classroom of the school could be given a theme to respect on the last day. You can choose a theme from a particular decade, fashion, television series, or movie. The theme should be easy to respect as it shouldn’t cost anything to the parents for their children to participate.
H2: 5. Paper Ball Battle
This is very typical, but all the students, once in their life, threw paper balls at their classmates trying not to be unmasked by the teachers. This last day is an opportunity to have a great ball battle! Clearly, teachers need to moderate the battle so it doesn’t get out of hand. The teacher has to be firm in setting the rules of the paper ball battle. No other object should be thrown, and running in the classroom should be prohibited.
6 Ways to Get Students Excited About Virtual Learning
6. Autograph Sheets on a Body Outline
This is an alternative to a conventional yearbook. You can have each student lie on a large sheet of paper while one of their classmates traces around their body with a marker. Your students should have some time to decorate their outline to their liking, with colors and different materials, and write their names on the top of the paper. At the end, you can give all the students a marker and have them go through the papers of their classmates, while they write something positive about the person and sign the paper with their name.
7. Mime Game
This is a great team building activity! Most of the students have probably imitated someone in the break hours. So this is the time for them to do their best with this personalized mime game where they have to guess which teacher or classmate they are mimicking.
8. Award to the most…
This is an activity that will unleash a lot of laughs and smiles. You can create categories like “the most talkative” or “the funniest“, “the most punctual” and then ask the children to nominate their classmates and vote on who best fits each category. This idea can also work as a virtual awards ceremony! If you worry that some students won’t receive a prize, it is always a good idea to prepare an individual award for each student.
9. Message Jar
The teacher must get a large transparent jar and invite all the students to write a beautiful moment, something they liked, a reflection, or a message that they want to dedicate to the teacher and their classmates.
When everyone has finished, you can ask them to fold the paper and write the name of the person to whom the message is addressed on the outside. Then they will have to deposit it in the jar and the teacher will take them out and share them with the rest of the students.
10. Dancing Contest
The end of the school year is something that fills all students with happiness, and there is nothing better than moving your body to celebrate this moment! You can prepare a playlist with the students’ favorite music and have a dancing contest. At the end, they can vote and crown a winner. It doesn’t matter who wins the contest, the important thing is that everyone enjoys the dance and learns to laugh at themselves.
11. Cooking Challenge
This is a very fun way to celebrate the end of the school year activities with good taste. You can ask your students to prepare their favorite dishes at home and bring them to class on the last day. It will be a challenge to most of them but at the same time, it will encourage them to use their creativity. Dietary restriction should be consulted before giving this school year party a green light, some allergies are not worth taking the risk.
How do you celebrate the end of the school year virtually?
With the COVID-19 pandemic perturbing presential classes and replacing them with virtual schooling, most of the ideas mentioned are not feasible. This is why Kronos XP has created a way to celebrate the end of the school year virtually by holding virtual class activities.
Futuristic and Virtual Competition
Organizing a virtual competition is probably the most fun and engaging way for students to end the year if the pandemic still has the upper hand by the beginning of spring. Kronos XP has created a futuristic parallel universe filled with fascinating characters to promote healthy lifestyle habits among 5 to 12-year-olds. This fantastic, technological universe, both funny and realistic, incites the adoption of healthy lifestyle habits.
The concept is rather simple. In a future not so far from our time, humanity is facing serious problems. Physical inactivity and unhealthy lifestyles are compromising both human health and survival. Thanks to the efforts of the space-time agency Kronos, the situation is improving. Its agents have gone back in time several times to influence the behavior of young people through school shows offered in primary/elementary schools. This experience for the youth will help end the year on a positive note!
Organize a virtual school show
Farewell virtual meeting
Video calls have been widely used during confinement, and most students followed their classes online throughout the whole year. Organizing a virtual meeting in which all students connect to the same video call is a good idea and an opportunity to remember all the moments shared throughout the year.
You can structure the event by asking some concrete questions that recap the school year and having the students participate by sharing their answers. You can also ask students to prepare speeches.
Guess Who?
You can ask your students to share a photo of themselves from when they were babies. Then you can organize a video call with all of them, in which you show the photos one by one while sharing your screen. Students will have to guess who the person in the photo is. This is a very fun activity that is sure to keep everyone entertained from start to finish.