With these 6 engaging end of year literacy activities, you can make sure you still keep academics at the forefront of the end of the year but also keep students very engaged! These end of year literacy activities are fun, but also make sure students are learning up to the final days!
The Importance of End of Year Literacy Activities
You want students to love the end of the year and not check out. But you also want to finish up anything you need to teach and review all of the literacy skills you have taught throughout the year. These activities do just that! Engage students while reviewing many skills!
Activity 1: Book Clubs
Book clubs are a great end of year literacy activity! Students can read highly engaging books and talk to their friends about them! It is also a great way to get students started with new series before heading into the summer months!
Inside book clubs, students read a novel, complete an assignment each time they read, and then talk about that assignment with a group of students who are reading the same novel.
Read all about book clubs and how to run them with this blog post!
Activity 2: Choose a Themed Week
Beach week? Camping week? Or any other theme!
Choosing a theme can make students highly engaged in what you are doing and learning, even if it is academically challenging.
Here is how you can plan for this…
- Choose which theme you want
- Find picture books or novels that you can read around that theme
- Plan a research project around that theme
- Create a reader’s theatre or other fun activities around that theme
Or you can just grab the weeks ready to go for you here!
Activity 3: Last Day Blues Reading Activity
Read the story, “Last Day Blues” by by Julie Danneberg and complete this FREE reading activity with it. The students stop every few pages and answer a question or do a short activity. They have this book on EPIC for free, as well.
Activity 4: Bubble Day
Host a bubble day in your classroom. Students can make bubbles, experiment with bubbles, and answer “bubble questions” about a book they read!
This free lesson plan and unit can keep your kids engaged at the end of the year while working on academics!
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Activity 5: Narrative Writing
I love to read one of the following end-of-year books to my kiddos. Then, I have them write a letter to their future selves. You can put that letter in an envelope and have parents tuck it away to give to them when they are going to graduate.
Your Future is Bright by Corey Finkle
The North Star by Peter H. Reynolds
Oh, the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Suess
If you don’t want to put all this together, you can grab this full unit here!
Activity 6: Create a Play
This is a FAVORITE of the students. Put students in groups and have them pick their favorite memory from your classroom this year. Then, have them write a play that shows that memory. Here you can work on dialogue, writing, adding details, etc.
Give them several days to create this play.
Then, they act out the play they wrote to the class. This is a great way to wrap up the year and also work on vital writing skills!
Conclusion: Empowering students through Engaging Literacy Activities
Let your students LOVE the end of the year and still challenge them with some of the literacy activities below!
Do you want more ideas for the end of the year?! Head to these blog posts here to read more!
Within this blog post, you’ll find Amazon affiliate links, which means Amazon throws a few cents my way if you happen to purchase something from those links – at no extra cost to you. I hope you find the links convenient and helpful!
Hannah Wilde
I am so glad you’re here! I love helping 3rd-5th grade teachers by providing ideas, engaging resources, and professional development they need. I am a literacy coach who is here to help lessen the workload for teachers while making them more confident! I want students to be continually engaged in a rigorous environment!