End of Year Writing Activities

The end of the school year is always so bittersweet. While I always loved anticipating the freedom summer would bring, I was always really sad to say goodbye to the kids who spent the year growing and maturing right before my eyes. As I’ve said before, I always loved spending the last few weeks of school reflecting on our year. It’s also such a great time to look ahead to summer. I love implementing writing activities and crafts at the end of the year to give me an opportunity to do both.

I created a set of four different hand-drawn craft templates to accompany writing prompts. These prompts are pretty straightforward and simple which is exactly what I like at this time of the year.

The writing crafts are easy to print, cut, and assemble. Whenever I implemented activities like this into my day, I made sure to pre-cut the templates beforehand…unless I was specifically wanting my kids to practice their fine motor skills (which they could all use!!!). If time afforded me the option to let them cut, I’d use it…otherwise I’d cut out the templates or send them home with an eager parent to cut.

What’s great about these templates is that I can choose one writing craft & template to use for reflection, and a completely different craft & template to provide kids with the opportunity to look ahead to summer.

If you think about it early enough, these writing crafts would make adorable displays…the last of the year! BUT….I’m also loving these as an addition to student portfolios. I liked to create yearlong writing portfolios for my kids, collecting writing samples and activities throughout the year. As these are collected, I hole punch and add to the binders. On the last day of school, the kids take home a year’s worth of writing. Not only is it amazing keepsake, but it’s a great way for the kids to visually see their progress throughout the year. You can read more about those portfolios HERE.

And I don’t know about you, but I always loved having a lot of options at my disposal. If I loved something one year, I might have wanted something different for the next. It really depended on the class and my mood ;). Having a bank of options in your teacher toolkit is never a bad thing!

If you’re looking for a fun way to reflect on the school year and ring in summer break, you can grab a set of these end of year writing crafts to add to your teacher toolkit HERE.