It’s almost time to trade pencils for pool days! Keep your classroom lively, focused, and full of fun as the final days tick by with these end of the year countdown to summer activities! From creative crafts, to reflective memory books, and classroom theme days in between, these end of the year ideas will help your students celebrate their growth while making unforgettable memories. Let the countdown begin!

Countdown to Summer Activities: Crafts

Purposeful crafts are some of the best countdown to summer activities! These end of the year crafts provide a creative and fun way for students to reflect on their year.

Graduate Craft

Commemorate the school year with this end of the year craft for preschool graduation or kindergarten graduation! Designed for little hands, this adorable memory book graduate craft adds a personal touch to their special day, making the final countdown to summer even more memorable!

Backpack Memory Book Craft

This simple-to-assemble end of the year memory book backpack craft makes a great treasured keepsake that students and families will cherish forever!

Recommended Resources:

End of Year Countdown Activities, Student Awards, Memory Book, Crafts Bundle

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End of Year Digital Activities, Awards, Memory Book, & Theme Days

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Glow Day Activities and Glow Day Games for the End of the Year Countdown

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Summer Bucket List Craft

Plan the ultimate summer vacation with this summer bucket list craft! With thirty writing pages to choose from and three different craft options, customizing this end of the year craft to best fit the needs of your students is easy!

Countdown to Summer Activities: Awards

At the end of the year, I love to acknowledge each student’s characteristics, talents, and growth with an end of the year awards ceremony!

End of the Year Award Crowns

One of my students’ favorite countdown to summer activities is being recognized with these student award crowns. The crowns can be personalized with students’ names and then each student can color their crown with crayons, markers, or colored pencils.

Printable & Digital Student Awards

Just like the crowns, these printable and digital student awards are fully editable! There are 110 awards to pick from, so you are sure to find an award that fits each student.

Student Awards Ceremony

Roll out the red carpet and throw an end of the year student awards ceremony! Invite parents/guardians or celebrate just as a class! Hand out the individual student awards and cheer each other on, as you get ready to head into summer!

Countdown to Summer Activities: Memory Books

One of my all time favorite countdown to summer activities are creating memory books! Memory books are such a fun way to reflect on the school year and see how far we have all come!

Square Memory Book

Remember and commemorate the school year with this square sized memory book. This memory book was designed to fit the square booklets found in the Target Dollar Spot. If you don’t have access to the Target booklets, simply stack and staple along the left hand edge.

Standard Memory Book

Students can also create this standard size (8.5 x 11 in.) memory book! With forty-eight template pages to choose from, you can customize your end of the year memory book however you would like.

Digital Memory Book

Take a digital approach to your memory book this year! These digital end of the year memory book activities are the perfect end of the year countdown to summer activities for your students to remember their top 10 memories from the school year!

Memory Book Crafts

Students can also make the backpack craft memory book or graduate craft memory book, as mentioned in the crafts section above!

Countdown to Summer Activities: Theme Days

When you think of countdown to summer activities, you probably instantly think of classroom theme days! Theme days are one of my favorite ways to end the school year!

Glow Day

Turn off the lights and get ready to shine, as you review math and literacy skills, with these Glow Day activities and games!

For a complete list of suggested Glow Day supplies, head to this post!

Beach Day

Grab your sunglasses and throw on your flip flops for a classroom Beach Day. With The Case of the Beach Bandit Escape Room, students will dive into six or eight different math and literacy centers.

Ice Cream Day

Who stole the sundae supplies? With The Ice Cream Shop Mystery Escape Room, students will rotate between eight different ice creamed themed math and literacy centers as they try to discover the guilty suspect.

Camping Day

Discover who has stolen the s’mores with The Case of the Camping Caper Escape Room! Students will be highly engaged as they work through eight different math and literacy centers with a Camping Day theme.

Circus/Carnival Day

Similar to the beach day, ice cream day, and camping day centers, students complete eight math and literacy activities, as they try to solve the mystery! With The Case of the Missing Peanuts Escape Room, the students are trying to discover who has stolen the peanuts!

Popcorn Day

Your students will have a poppin’ good time with these Popcorn Day activities, which integrate all subject areas!

Marshmallow Day

Use these countdown to summer activities to host an ooey, gooey, yummy Marshmallow Day! It’s easy to incorporate all of the subjects, including math, science, ELA, art and STEM with these Marshmallow Day activities!

Bubble Day

On Bubble Day, the students make a bubble solution recipe for bouncing bubbles on their hand, determine the best bubble blower, compare the anatomy of a bubble to an Oreo, and make a bubble wand.

Discover the 3 ingredient bubble recipe solution for bouncing bubbles, here! Not only does it work well for bouncing bubbles, but it also works well for testing which object blows the biggest and best bubbles!

Countdown to Summer Activities: Digital Activities

Incorporate a little technology into your countdown to summer activities with these digital end of the year activities.

Digital Beach Day Escape Room

Discover who stole the missing beach bag with The Case of the Beach Bandit Digital Escape Room, as you review important math and literacy skills!

Digital Camping Escape Room

With the camping theme centers from The Case of the Camping Caper Digital Escape Room, your students will be highly engaged as they complete 8 different challenges to eliminate the suspects and discover who has stolen the s’mores!

Digital Ice Cream Escape Room

These ice cream escape room activities review math and literacy skills, all with a mysterious twist! Your students will love completing the challenges which lead them to solve the mystery of the missing ice cream supplies and build a sundae!

Digital Countdown to Summer Activities

These digital games are no prep, making them a great time filler as you countdown to summer or they can be used as part of your end of the year party!

Countdown to Summer Activities: Gifts

End of the year gifts are a great way to close out the school year! Whether it’s student gifts, volunteer gifts, or team gifts, there’s always someone to celebrate as you say goodbye to the school year and hello to summer!

Classroom Volunteer Gifts

Classroom volunteers certainly deserve to be celebrated! These DIY gifts for classroom volunteers are low-cost and even come with FREE gift tags at the bottom of this post!

Parent Thank You Cards

At the end of the year, I love to send these FREE thank you cards to parents/guardians as a way to show my appreciation for all of their support throughout the school year!

End of Year Team Gifts

Don’t forget to celebrate your team with these end of year team gift ideas. You can even grab the FREE gift tags at the bottom of this post!

Summer Slime Kit

What better way to beat the summer boredom bug than with this super easy to assemble slime kit… perfect for end of the year student gifts?! Plus, grab the FREE slime gift tags for these end of the year gifts for students at the bottom of this post!

Self-Portrait Class T-Shirts

Commemorate the “TEE-riffic Year” you and your students had together with these self-portrait class t-shirts. Watch the video tutorial to learn how to make them!

Miss You Cards

While students are eager to begin summer vacation, they are also sad to say goodbye to their school family. To help offset those feelings, I love to mail these FREE miss you cards during the first week of summer vacation. 

More Student Gifts

These student gifts accompany the popcorn, marshmallow, and bubble theme days mentioned above. Head to each theme day to learn more!

• Marshmallow Day: S’more Gift Tag – Attach this tag to the top of a baggie containing graham crackers, marshmallow, and mini Hershey chocolate bar; and you are all set for end of the year gifts!
• Bubble Day: Bubbles Gift Tag – Attach this tag to a bottle of bubbles for your end of the year student gift.
• Popcorn Day: Popcorn Gift Tag – Attach this tag to a bag of popcorn for this student gift.

Countdown to Summer Activities: Early Finisher Activities

As the end of the school year approaches, interruptions from early finishers tend to rise. Keep those fast finishers engaged with these math and literacy early finisher file folder games!

These countdown to summer activities are also great for centers or morning work!

May Early Finisher Activities

April showers bring May flowers! These spring-themed file folder games allow students to work on CVC words, syllables, rhyming words, nonstandard measurement, 3D shapes, missing numbers up to 100 and so much more!

June Early Finisher Activities

Ready for some fun in the sun? Not so fast! If you are still in school during the month of June, you can keep your students engaged with these twenty math and literacy file folder games.

July Early Finisher Activities

Splash into summer with these July file folder games. Students get to work on CVCE words, decodable sentences, beginning digraphs, making 10, number bonds, 2D and 3D shapes, and more!

Countdown to Summer Activities: Read Alouds

These end of the year books are another fun way to count down the final days of school, help students reflect on their experiences over the past year, and ease any anxieties about moving on to a new grade!

More End of the Year Countdown to Summer Ideas

During the final 26 days of the school year, pick one activity for each letter of the alphabet with these ABC countdown to summer ideas. To help plan out each day, use the ABC countdown calendars included for FREE at the bottom of this post!

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