End of Year Activity

I do wonder, as I look at the views of my teaching activities on Instagram and Youtube whether these activities are helpful or even relevant anymore. Even though I teach in higher education now, I do hope that the activities I provide are useful and still relevant for the classroom today! 

I wanted to share with you something that I did every year with my class. It was an activity that I did in the last week of the year so it could be something you can organise for your final week. The activity would be spread over a whole week, with the children going back to it every day. 

The idea is a stained glass window of memories! 

First, take a blank piece of paper and decide how many straight lines the children should draw. This promotes the use of a ruler – time to use those fine motor skills! These lines need to cross over each other so that the page is separated into a number of smaller shapes. It is worth at this point to tell the children not to make any too smaller since we will be drawing in them. 

Next – on big pieces of paper or on the board – talk and discuss everything that has happened this year. This might range from a school play and or trip, to the snowy day when they played outside. Talk about what they remembered – the first day, that moment when they received a prize or got told off, there will be personal moments for each child. With older children, I extend the discussion slightly and ask them – so what did you learn from that experience? What changed after that? 

Once the discussion has finished the children are free to choose what they want to remember. They take these moments and in each of the shapes on the piece of paper with the lines drawn on it, they draw and colour that memory. Make sure that they use colouring pencils and not felt tips. 

When they have finished the whole stain glass window – hope you can see why is it called that now – take a felt tip pen and draw over the lines to give that stain glass window effect. Remember to turn the ruler over so that it doesn’t smudge! 

(I’m sure you know that trick but I thought I would mention it just in case!

To complete these, I would draw a line around the edge of the paper with a marker pen for them. I would do this by putting the marker pen half on and half off the edge of the paper! Finally, I would laminate them, and the children would take them home on their last day – a stained glass window full of memories! Don’t forget to add the year somewhere 🙂