End of the year activities for first grade can be a challenge. You still have several weeks left of school and kids just want to have fun. So how do you keep the countdown to the end of the school year exciting and still educational?
Having your students be the teacher for the day is the perfect project to keep them on task and learning as you count down the days to your farewell on the last day of school. You've been teaching all year and now it's time to reverse the roles and hand it over to the students with these end of the year activities.
End Of The Year Activities For First Grade
A great book to introduce this lesson is My New Teacher And Me by Al Yankovic. You can talk about all the things they've learned this year in school and then tell your students that you need a break. You've been teaching them all year and now it's their turn to teach you!
Explain to your students that they'll each have the opportunity to teach your class about something that they're interested in.
Getting Started With The Teacher For The Day Project
To begin your lesson, brainstorm with students some different things that they might want to teach the class. Do they have a special hobby or skill that other kids would want to learn? In my classroom, I've had students teach some of the following topics:
- How to make a PB&J sandwich
- Learning to care for a pet
- How to make a s'more
- Going fishing
- Playing basketball
The options are endless. Give each of your students a lesson plan template to complete at home or in school. Students can write what they'll be teaching, the materials they'll need, and the steps they will take to teach the lesson. This is a great end-of-the-year writing activity.
Each student will have the opportunity to teach a short 5-10 minute lesson to your class. Allow students to pick any topic and on their assigned day have them bring in all the needed materials to teach this lesson to your class. They can teach you how to make some kind of food, a special dance move, how to draw something – so many possibilities!
Time To Teach
Reflecting On What We Learned
