The final few weeks of the school year can feel like a strange mix of excitement and exhaustion amongst the chaos of school trips, transition activities and sports day.
The good news is that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel ~ especially when pupils are mentally building sandcastles on a beach somewhere.
Here are a few simple end-of-term activities to keep learning engaging while protecting your sanity during the final stretch of the summer term.
Take learning outdoors
As long as we don’t have another heatwave (or nothing but rain!) why not take learning outdoors?
Whether it’s themed around their surroundings, or you simply take reading time to the school yard or local park ~ making use of the warmer days and having a change of scenery will keep your pupils at ease and engaged during summer term lessons.
Use current events as learning hooks
From the Year of Reading to the current FIFA World Cup – using current worldwide events and putting an educational spin on them are a great way of making lessons digestible and engaging. This will make planning for KS1 or KS2 easy.
Also, building topics pupils are already excited about can help keep learning fresh during the final weeks of term.
Embrace low-prep activities
One of the easiest ways to reduce planning time as a primary school teacher is to build several lessons around a single theme. Firstly, choose a strong hook that will captivate your pupils, then spin it across subjects (or even across the week).
The key here is to keep everything easy, simple and build as you go. This simple yet smart lesson plan will have your week cut out without the Sunday night scaries.
Keep a few quiet games in your back pocket
End of term vibes feel like a constant rainy Friday afternoon – from mindful doodles to mirror movements, keep a couple of quiet games up your sleeve to calm your class down in-between the excitement of the summer term.
For a full list of quiet games inspiration, click here.
Make use of our resources
Our Resource section has 100s of ready-to-use KS1 and KS2 activities for your pupils to enjoy in the lead up to the summer break.
From outdoor worksheets to handwriting activities – our resources will keep your pupils engaged and perfecting their literacy skills before the end of term.
Celebrate the progress they’ve made
It’s easy to focus on everything that still needs doing before the summer break.
The end of term is the perfect opportunity to reflect on just how far you, your TAs and your pupils have come.
Create classroom awards, memory books or simple reflection activities that allow pupils to celebrate their successes from the year.
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Remember – the final weeks of the school year don’t need to be packed with elaborate lesson plans and endless prep work. Sometimes, the most successful activities are the simplest ones!
So, take a deep breath, count down the days if you need to, and remember, you’re nearly there!
