ceciliafelsenstein End of the year. Some people feel ecstatic; others, rather melancholic. Some people give consideration to what has been done; others to what has not been done. Nevertheless, we all agree that it is a time to review and reflect after so much work…
Students benefit more from guided questions or tasks… just asking them to reflect on their learning, sounds too abstract to them….especially at this time of the year…
So, you will find below, 10 Reflective End of the Year Activities for you and your students to be able to end the school year in a meaningful way.
10 Reflective End of the Year Activities
1. Reflective Game: Stand on the line if
This game is great for students to become more aware of others. By standing on a line drawn by the teacher, they will be expressing their feelings, sharing their thoughts and awakening their empathy towards their classmates.
2. One-pagers
One-pagers are used by many teachers nowadays. They are a way of merging content with artistic skills. So, everybody wins 😂. On the one hand, we teachers get our students to work on something specific, in this case, reflect on their year at school and what they have learnt from a pedagocical, social and emotional point of view. On the other hand, students enjoy using color pencils or markers and develop or show their artistic skills.
3. Summarizing the year in Emojis
This digital activity is great for those students who find talking hard. They will have to summarize their year in emojis. This task seems easy and detached; however, it can express a lot if we are able to read between the lines or to ask further deep questions.
4. Summarize the year in songs
This activity is similar to the one above. Instead of emojis, students will be asked to summarize their year in songs. Great for teens who are so into music… Teachers will for sure learn about new singers, bands, and songs… and students will have to reflect on what has happened pedagogically, emotionally and socially throughout their year.
5. Summarize the year in hashtags
This third “summarize your year in…” activity requires students to use hashtags. This simple task can be expanded and worked on if students are asked to explain those hashtags, why they have chosen them and whether they think they convey positive or negative ideas.
6. Memes
Memes are everywhere. No matter which social media you open… a meme will appear. Students love them! Everybody does! So why not having some fun creating memes? On this occasion, students will be asked to create memes of their year at school. They can be given some hasthags as topics to focus on. Don’t forget to tell them they need to be school appropriate!
7. Song/poem creation
This is a collaborative activity which encourages students to think and work together as a team. Each member of the class (or a group, if they are too many) should say a word to summarize his/her year at school. All together, students will need to build a song or a poem using all the chosen words.
8. ABC Game
Reviewing what has been learnt is important and not necessarily boring!! This game requires students to write a word or concept they have learnt for each of the letters in the alphabet. You can check this resource for a more detailed explanation! This is just ONE game to review what has been taught… If you want to go over vocabulary lists or words taught, here’s a post full of ideas!
9. Magazine
Another artistic activity you can do with your students in order to reflect on the school year that is finishing is buidling a magazine. You just need old magazines, markers, glue, scissors and white pages. In groups students can build their own pages for the magazine. they are going to build all together as a class. You can give each group a different topic.
10. Mural
Last but not least, one of my favorite activities: mural creation. The mural which will be built by the whole class could be used as a “welcome poster” for the coming students.
I hope these 10 Reflective End of the Year Activities help you finish this school year in a positive and enthusiastic way by having fun with your students and helping them to reflect.
