Fun Ideas for the Last Week of Math Class
The end of the school year is filled with lots of activities and to-do lists as you wrap up the year and look forward to summer. Students have trouble focusing, especially if the weather is warm! All of these things make the last few weeks of school tough! Here are some simple ways to make the last week of math class bearable and fun!
You can also grab my End of the Year Math Class Activities that include many of the ideas shown below.
Review
Many math classes give an end-of-the-year math test or assessment. Whether you do this or not, it is important to remind students of all the math topics they learned this year. There are many engaging ways to review a year’s worth of topics. Here are a few of my favorite ideas:
Name math topics from “A to Z”.
Break students into groups and create a poster reviewing a major topic. Make sure they include 3-5 example problems. Then have students move around the room going over one another’s posters. End with a small quiz with one problem from each group’s posters.
Play a review game. Use task cards or assign students to create problems from different chapters in your book. Play Jeopardy or another quiz game.
2. Reflect
Reflection helps students and teachers process all they’ve experienced and helps with decision-making in the future. Finally, reflection helps to put a punctuation mark on the school year.
Here are ways for you and your students to reflect on the year:
Have students list struggles and successes (this could be academically but also in terms of friendships, sports, extracurriculars, etc.). Talk about how we can learn from struggles and then help them celebrate their successes.
Have students write a letter to the incoming math students on tips for “surviving” math class. This is a fun way to have students reflect on tools, resources, and rules that helped them to have a good year or things they wish they had done differently.
On the last day of school or shortly after make a list of things that simply worked and didn’t work for you the teacher. Think about tools, self-care routines, people, or other things that made your teacher life easier. Also, think about things you tried that didn’t work or made your days tough. Reflecting on this will help you make next year even better!
3. Have Fun!
Do something FUN with your students to celebrate the end of the school year and all of their hard work. Here are some ideas:
Take your students outside for some Math Games.
Play board or card games during class. Have students bring in their favorites-you can never go wrong with Uno!
Go on a walking field trip to a park, a local ice cream shop, or even a bowling alley.
Bring in a frozen treat such as popsicles or ice cream! Celebrate all of the amazing math work your students did.
Reminder you can grab my End of the Year Math Class Activities pack below if you want a ready to use set of review and reflection activities.
Bonus: Celebrate Your Hard Work!
You did it! You made it through another school year. Take some time to do something you love outside of school to acknowledge all you did to complete a year of teaching! Remind yourself that no matter the struggles you encountered, the work you do truly matters to so many students.