The weather is getting warmer. The days are getting longer, and students know summertime is just around the corner! Educators as well as students are ready for a break! But with the excitement (and oftentimes chaos) during these last few weeks of school, it is important to keep your students engaged and excited, yet focused as much as possible. Here’s some ideas to keep everyone on track and allow you all to finish the school year strong:

• Move seats or change up the learning environment (seats, desk arrangement, etc.) A little refresh of the learning environment can spark interest and engagement immediately!
• Keep a routine as much as possible to give some predictability and calmness to the day.
• Let your students teach. Have them pick a video from ClassOrbit and create an entire mini-lesson around the topic of their choice!
• Get your students moving! Utilize the warm weather to move around outside or use online resources like GoNoodle or Cosmic Yoga.
• Find ways to celebrate the school year by writing letters, making a memory book, making a year end video, or having them come up with an idea of their own.
• Let them help you clean and organize the learning space and storage areas. Kids love contributing and it helps ease your load at the end of the year!
• Throw in a brain break each day. Whether it’s a dance party, playing “Simon Says”, practicing counting with jumping jacks, or spelling words with squats… be sure to incorporate plenty of brain breaks.
• Create some themed days and have students align lessons or activities to these themes for the last week of school - Sports day, book tasting day, career day, sidewalk chalk day, college day, charity day, and the list goes on...

---