The end of a year is the perfect time for reflecting and reminiscing on the year gone by, while also looking forward to the year ahead. It can be a time of deep personal awareness and for students in particular a way to remember all of their achievements from the year. The end of the school year is also a time for kids to think about what they are proud of, what targets they have accomplished, their success, and what they want to focus on moving forwards. The following activities make the perfect accompaniment to key reflection times and can be used both in the classroom and at home.
1. Task Cards
These great and varied, end-of-year reflection task cards can be printed, laminated, and placed somewhere with easy access for students to choose an activity that helps them reflect on their school year.
Learn more: Classroom Freebies
2. Reflection Grid
Simple and quick to fill in, students can use a grid worksheet to fill in keywords about their positive impact during the school year. This no-prep activity can be completed during any part of the day and is perfect for student reflection.
Learn more: Planerium
3. Quirky Questionnaires
This recording sheet works well with younger students to help develop their writing skills. Kids can answer the simply-worded questions and draw their own self-portraits to reflect their appearance at the end of the school year.
Learn more: Positively Splendid
4. Thought Bubbles…
These sentence starters give students a little reminder of what they have achieved and accomplished throughout the year. This is also a great tool for teachers to gather extra information about what lessons went well or for an end-of-year presentation to share with their class.
Learn more: Laura Candler
5. Use Google Slides
Download the PDF version of this activity and assign it to Google slides or Google classroom. It is designed to capture students’ live voices as they respond to the question: What would you do differently and why? This thought-provoking activity for all ages makes for a great remote learning opportunity.
Learn more: Teaching with Jennifer Findley
6. Live Worksheets
A wonderful interactive way for students to fill in their thoughts and feelings about the past year, which gives them the opportunity to explain their best moments and biggest challenges. These can be filled in life online or printed and handwritten and are an effective option for teachers looking for feedback from students.
Learn more: Live Worksheets
7. School Year Review Booklet
This fun (and free!) worksheet folds into a booklet for students to note down their highlights and proud moments during the school year. They can be printed onto colored paper or decorated as kids would like to make fun memory books.
Learn more: Teachers Pay Teachers
8. Summer Bingo
Give your students something to look forward to after their reflection time with a fun ‘summer bingo’ grid where they can tick off what activities they will participate in, or get ideas about what they want to achieve over the summer as well!
9. Write A Letter to Themselves
For this thoughtful reflective activity, have your current students write a letter to their future selves. Around the same time the following year, students can open their time capsules to see how much they have changed and to decide if their responses would be any different.
Learn more: Pinterest
10. Write a Letter to Other Students
This reflective task gives students the opportunity to share their experiences over the course of the school year, reflect on them, and give your class and future students some exciting things to look forward to in their new class. Not only does it help the old class with transitions but it gives them the opportunity to share their favorite parts of their school year too while getting them excited about their future learning.
Learn more: Multiplication.com
11. Making Memories
This memory worksheet is a perfect art activity for students to draw their favorite memory of the year, remembering their happy learning experiences using writing prompt questions as a guide.
Learn more: Mylemarks
12. Summer Fun Wordsearch
As part of reflection activities, these summer fun word searches are the perfect accompaniment to the end of the year. Simply print and distribute them as a great brain break activity or an early finisher task to get kids excited for summer break.
Learn more: WordMint
13. Goal Setting
This engaging activity can be useful for older secondary students to develop deeper reflective practices. The idea is for them to reflect and set goals for the future whilst recognizing their achievements from the previous year.
Learn more: Saturday Gift
14. End-of-Year Foldable Hearts
These creative and decorative pieces are an engaging art activity for students to look back on their school year with colorful drawings. These folding hearts and flowers can be self-made or printed as a template before being decorated with kids’ favorite moments.
Learn more: Pin on Primary
15. Mini Book
This mini-book is ideal for younger students to write about their school year using reflective language, explanations, and drawings. It’s a great way to assess how they feel about the year gone by and what they have enjoyed about their time at school.
Learn more: TES Resources
16. End-of-Year Rewards
A certificate ceremony for all students is the perfect way to show them just how much progress they have made throughout the year. It also provides an opportunity for them to reflect on their triumphs, and share them with their classmates.
Learn more: Squarehead Teachers
17. Looking Back…
This interactive and editable template gives learners another way to reflect on the past work and learning that they have participated in. It’s also useful for a quick brain break activity!
Learn more: Templates by Canva
18. Marvelous Mobile
This dynamic mobile activity is great for developing independence as well as fine motor skills. These can be hung at home or in future classrooms for students to set goals for the new school year that reflect their progress from the previous year. All you need is a piece of paper to get started!
Learn more: On Lemon Lane
Honesty is the Best Policy: 21 Engaging Activities to Teach Kids the Power of Honesty